THOSE NAZI AMERICAN CHRISTIANS AGAIN

My brief derisive comment of a couple of days ago about a post on Daily Kos comparing American Christians to Nazis was taken up by Salon's Daou Report so got a few Leftist readers. It evidently hit a nerve as I got quite a few emails from Leftists about it. So although I would not normally dignify such febrile accusations with a serious attempt at reply, I feel I should mention the points raised in the emails and say why they are wrong.

The most common claim was that just because Hitler called himself a socialist does not mean that he really was one. I have no knowledge of any party calling itself socialist that is/was not in fact socialist but the essential point is that Hitler was a socialist as judged by his deeds too. He put all German industry under tight government and party control. There was a Nazi party commissar in every factory to make sure that the State's will was done. If that is not socialism what would be? For fuller details of just how socialist the Nazis were see here.

The second point raised was that Hitler did in his speeches from time to time claim to be a Christian. So therefore all Christians are Nazis? To say so is of course a gross logical fallacy -- rather like saying that all Chihuahuas are dogs therefore all dogs are Chihuahuas. But again the essential point is that Hitler should be judged by his deeds. He did nothing pro-Christian that I am aware of and sent to the camps heaps of people who WERE faithful Christians. He also promoted Nazism as an alternative to Christianity with ceremonies and beliefs that went back to pre-Christian paganism. He was as much a fake Christian as he was a real socialist. Like Leftists today, he had no time for real Christianity, only Christianity that parroted the Party line.

A third point made by one writer was that the Serbs are 20th century Christians who carried out mass murder. Again we have the Chihuahua fallacy of course but aside from that the point is that the Serbs themselves referred to what they were doing as ETHNIC cleansing. It was an ethnic war, not a religious war. To outsiders all Yugoslavs look much the same but that means nothing. To outsiders Canadians and Americans look and sound the same too but try telling almost any Canadian that he is just the same as an American and see what reply you get! So ethnic or other differences do not have to be great to be deeply felt. And comparing American Christians to the Serb butchers is as inaccurate and as grossly offensive as comparing them to the Nazis of course. What the Serbs WERE is socialists. Their leader, Milosevic, was in fact one of their previous bosses under Communism.

A point I have not mentioned so far is that the Daily Kos post I initially commented on is part of a constant round of claims on Leftist sites about how Fascist America in general has become under Republican rule (e.g. here). The old Laurence Britt 14-point definition of Fascism -- which conspicuously omits Fascism's socialist characteristics -- seems to be enjoying a new round of popularity, and a sermon incorporating it by Davidson Loehr has been reproduced on Leftist blogs ad nauseam. I have had a couple of shots at that sort of nonsense already recently (see here and here) so will not go over old ground again but I do want to draw attention to a pretty good deflation of the idea from a Leftist source: See Frameshop. There is also an impassioned reply to the original Britt article here. And for a comprehensive account of what historical Fascism actually was see here. And for an account of the time when America DID go close to Fascist rule see here.

(An earlier version of this post appeared on Blogger News)

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