Emails with my Mother

[HauteCoug]

Well you are the expert on the high ground (road)

every time I see your icon/avatar I think, "when did Chris Pine play a rugby player?"

[doctorcoug]

From this day forward I will refer to her as TerreHauteCoug.

Is this in reference to the NCAA Cross Country championship Course?

[Viking]

Mom: "Leave me alone. No more. I'm too busy for this nonsense. I still love you."

Phew!

[HauteCoug]

The funniest thing she's ever said:

You must read more of all sides of the issues before making such dogmatic statements.

[doctorcoug]

The funniest thing she's ever said:

That's nucking futz

[Donuthole]

I see you all come by your great senses of humor very honestly.

[HauteCoug]

That's nucking futz

The context? She told me we need to be cautious of allowing too many Muslims into the country.

This is also a good one:

Hitler was the ultimate socialist.

[wuapinmon]

The context? She told me we need to be cautious of allowing too many Muslims into the country.

This is also a good one:

Ask yourself what your mom means by her comment, because, she's not entirely wrong. Not right, but also not entirely wrong.

[HauteCoug]

Ask yourself what your mom means by her comment, because, she's not entirely wrong. Not right, but also not entirely wrong.

About which comment? Because I'd love to see a legitimate argument for Hitler being the ultimate socialist.

[Jacob]

About which comment? Because I'd love to see a legitimate argument for Hitler being the ultimate socialist.

He was the head of the National Socialist Party in Germany. I'm not sure if that qualifies him as "the ultimate socialist" but it probably qualifies him as a socialist.

[dabrockster]

I pray your mother never comes across CUF and connects the dots.. Seems very distasteful to mock your own mother in such a public setting..


jmo...

[HauteCoug]

He was the head of the National Socialist Party in Germany. I'm not sure if that qualifies him as "the ultimate socialist" but it probably qualifies him as a socialist.

But would we really call it modern socialism, which is the comparison she is drawing. She loves to throw out the "isms" to try and scare us into submission, and "socialist" has become synonymous with "person who disagrees with me politically".

[HauteCoug]

I pray your mother never comes across CUF and connects the dots.. Seems very distasteful to mock your own mother in such a public setting..


jmo...

she'll be fine. she's entirely oblivious.

[wuapinmon]

About which comment? Because I'd love to see a legitimate argument for Hitler being the ultimate socialist.

Hitler called himself a socialist because he understood the difference between patriotism and nationalism. He hated patriots, but reveled in nationalism. He also understood that the opposite of nationalism is socialism, and that conservatism and liberalism no longer really exist. In modern America, the Republicans are not conservatives--they are nationalists. The Democrats are not liberals--they are socialists. Hitler combined the two terms because he didn't seek to nationalize industry like a socialist; he nationalized the German people like a socialist. I'd venture that Stalin and Mao studied Hitler and employed many of his ideas into their Soviet and Sino FascCommunism. The Il Family has done the same thing in North Korea. They are no communists; they are nationalist hiding behind nationalism disguised as socialism/communism.

Hitler was a socialist in the nationalist sense.

[Jacob]

Hitler called himself a socialist because he understood the difference between patriotism and nationalism. He hated patriots, but reveled in nationalism. He also understood that the opposite of nationalism is socialism, and that conservatism and liberalism no longer really exist. In modern America, the Republicans are not conservatives--they are nationalists. The Democrats are not liberals--they are socialists. Hitler combined the two terms because he didn't seek to nationalize industry like a socialist; he nationalized the German people like a socialist. I'd venture that Stalin and Mao studied Hitler and employed many of his ideas into their Soviet and Sino FascCommunism. The Il Family has done the same thing in North Korea. They are no communists; they are nationalist hiding behind nationalism disguised as socialism/communism.

Hitler was a socialist in the nationalist sense.

I think it's quite a bit more complicated than that. I'm no expert on Hitler's economic ideology, but it is largely overshadowed by his other, more evil, ideological beliefs--war, nationalism, and antisemitism. But for the purposes of discussing whether he was a socialist, I think we need to focus largely on his economic ideology and actions. Contrary to your post, he did nationalize industry, though not as much as the communists. He hated both the communists and the capitalists, it seems. It also seems that he may have moved away from socialism in the later years, but who cares about all that? He was much too busy at war with the world and slaughtering innocents.

Clearly, he's not the "ultimate socialist" but the way he ran things, i.e. increased centralization and nationalization of industry, tended to be more socialist than capitalist, although he apparently also had some respect for the incentives of markets and private property. He was a tyrant and tyranny leads to more government control, not more open markets. Certainly he doesn't fit into any neat economics box. He probably ran the economy like he ran everything else--as a psychopath.