LogFAQs > #978978310

I am going to actually talk about this based on right and left in their European meaning. So economics. As in means of production in capitalists' hands (right) versus workers' hands (left). Social issues have nothing to do with it and it's a very American thing to make government policy or social issues analogous with unrelated economy issues (like thinking vegetarian is left wing somehow, Modi is a right wing leader in India and a vegetarian, as are much of the right in India, and many left wing parties outside the US are very socially conservative). The Nazis appealed to left wing people (working class laborers) using populist rhetoric. But importantly he primarily blamed Jews as the capitalist class responsible for their exploitation. However many people in his party were quite left wing in their economic views. To gain power Hitler planned to align with the right (the wealthy capitalist class who naturally have a lot of power). This required him to purge the left wing elements from his party in order to gain power, which he did (killing even people who he considered friends). Then of course once in power the capitalists had free reign to continue exploiting workers.

Hitler had no interest in anything other than power, and the left wing rhetoric on economics was simply a means to gain a base to gain power. But Americans want two boxes called left and right that literally every issue gets crammed in. It's not how the world is and it's not relevant to Hitler because all he cared about was having power. He had no interest in who controlled the means of production as long as he was ultimately in power.