Were Nazi's Socialists?

[plimsoll]

11. I think there's a deliberate conflation of Political organization and Economic Organization here.

The Nazi's were not capitalists exactly, though they did approve of private ownership of the means of production. They were authoritarian and decidedly not democratic. However since the 1950's the right has been conflating authoritarian and communist, largely because the nations calling themselves communist were authoritarian. We also tend to view the Nazi's as somehow distinct from other fascist movements of the 1920's and 1930's, probably because anti-Semitism was always a core element for the Nazi's.

There are tons of descriptions and "rules" for deciding if some group is fascist, they tend to be tighter or looser depending on whether you want to make some group into fascists or not. I choose to look at Umberto Eco's Ur Fascism for guidance, organizations that pass muster on the Ur Fascist guidelines may not be fascist yet, but they have all the social building blocks in place and are ready to proceed.