The beginning of this very long series can be found here.
And I've started to slowly work on an Index.
TBH...not many people are reading these posts, so I'm not overly concerned or rushed about the index.
I did some informal research* last night about Conservapedia. In my last post, I questioned whether it was actually popular with MAGA people. Do MAGA's and conservatives actually take it seriously?
I looked on Twitter to see what people Tweeted about it. Mostly, I saw left-wing people making fun of it.
I looked on a couple of lists of sites for conservatives. I think one didn't even mention Conservapedia. The Alexa web-rating system puts it at #75 in terms of popular conservative websites.
I talked to Tim and Jack about it. Tim's guess was that it's probably something that's more popular among the left...for comedy. And it's probably not widely known by actual Conservatives and/or MAGA.
Tim also suggested it might be parody.
From what I gathered, I don't think it started as parody. But I think it's possible that left-wing people could be adding articles for parody.
*informal research = Research done on my phone instead of my laptop and where I'm not writing things down on my blog as I go.
The other question I had is even if Conservapedia is rarely taken seriously by MAGA, would the idea that Nazis were left-wing instead right-wing be seen as one of the less ridiculous notions on the site (by MAGA)
One thing I did find is that a book was written by Dinesh D'Souza (who I know of from Twitter) called The Big Lie: Exposing the Nazi Roots of the American Left.
The book has a ranking of 42,000 on Amazon which is not great. But it's much less obscure than my books.
It has 2870 ratings, a score of 4.8. 89% of people gave it 5 stars.
This doesn't prove that this idea of the Nazis being left-wing is widely accepted by MAGA. But it does make me think that the idea exists outside of pure parody.
Another thing I did was skim through an article on Snopes about Nazis being Socialists. I might read it more closely at a later date. But if anyone is looking for a more in-depth explanation than I provided some posts ago, you might want to check this out.
I also spent some time on The Political Compass website. I read this very interesting piece comparing modern German conservatives with Americans.
One of the many fascinating lines: Right across the board — minimum wage, trade union rights, generous sick pay, at least 5 weeks paid holiday, free childcare and so on — Germany’s Conservatives have little in common with those of the US. Indeed Angela Merkel has been generally well to the left of Elizabeth Warren and the progressive wing of the Democratic Party.
Somewhere else on the site, I read something along the lines of what Americans see as Conservative: In other countries, it would be seen as far-right fringe and what American Conservatives see as being far left: in other countries, it would be seen as Centrist.
I should look for the quote....
* * *
I looked. A little.
I can't find it.
You'll just have to trust me. Or pretend to trust me.
I'm 85% sure that I didn't dream it.
* * *
One thing very fun and interesting to look at is The Political Compass Crowd chart.
MAGA folks would probably be thrilled to know that Obama is listed as being equal to Hitler when it comes to the left-right measurement.
But they are both still in the blue (right-wing) quadrant.
Hitler is also much higher than Obama in the authoritarian vs libertarian measurement. He and Stalin are very close to the top. Obama is pretty close to the bottom of the authoritarian section. Trump and Bush are to the right of Hitler and Obama, but they are more authoritarian than Obama and less authoritarian than Hitler.
I personally feel, especially looking at the quadrants, that it's less about whether a country or person is left vs right and much more about whether someone is overly authoritarian.
But, based on conversations with my parents and seeing people push the idea that the Nazis were Socialists, I get the idea that for a lot of MAGA, being left-winged is seen as inherently bad. In other words, if there's a bad country or bad person, it must be because they are left-wing.
I wouldn't go so far to think my parents think all left wing people are evil. I'm sure they understand that some left-wing people are good. BUT...when there's violence or extremism, at times (not all the time) they have pushed the idea that the left must be to blame.
On balance, though, I have felt lately that right-winged movements have been a pox on all of world history and our planet.
Seeing the people and places on the compass, though...it's probably more the high-levels of right-wing authoritarianism that cause so much heartache and destruction. And high-level left-wing authoritarianism isn't any better (Stalin, Mugabe, Mao...).
* * *
I should get to what was on my official agenda today—The Night of the Long Knives.
I'm going to read about it on The Holocaust Explained.
An alternate name for it was Rohm Putsch.
What does that translate to?
Well, I just tried Google Translate and didn't get anything...even when I tried "Detect Language" instead of German.
Well...I tried again. One word at a time. And got Roman Coup.
Although it's other name is NIGHT of Long Knives, it lasted from June 30-July 2. And it was in 1934.
The Enabling Law was passed in March 1933.
Reading about these things...it feels like it all happened closer together. But really. There's quite a space there.
I wonder if decades from now, when people read about January 6 and the hearings...if it will feel like one thing happened after another. Like the insurrection happened in January and then five months later, they had the hearings. But in reality, there's over a year between the event and the subsequent hearings.
* * *
The Nazis had both the SS and the SA.
The purge got rid of all of? Or most of the SA.
That might be why, until recently, I had heard of the SS but not the SA.
Wait...
It wasn't the SA that was purged but its leadership.
That actually makes more sense.
I had Lord Wiki remind me of what the SA were, and he said they were a paramilitary group. I wondered why Hitler would have wanted to get rid of them.
The leader of the SA was Ernst Rohm.
Oh!!!
So the Rohm in Rohm Putsch probably referred to him and not the Romans.
And no. I did not think there were any literal Romans involved with the event. I was thinking it was more symbolic.
There were rumors that Mr. Rohm was planning a coup.
This gets complicated.
So...
Rohm wanted to get rid of the connections to the Conservative Elite. He wanted to take a more radical approach. Hitler and the other Nazis wanted to appear more moderate.
Here's an alternate history analogy:
Let's say Mike Pence went along with Trump's plan to overthrow the election.
Trump becomes the president.
Then let's say the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers wanted to use violent force to get things done, but Trump wanted to give the illusion that everything was normal...that he truly had won the election and things were all normal and Democratic.
The analogy isn't a perfect fit, though. Even though the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers are fanboys of Trump, and he seems to be a fanboy of them...there isn't an official connection.
I think it's kind of like the difference between being dedicated groupies and bouncers.
* * *
On June 30, Rohm and other SA leaders were ordered to attend a meeting at a hotel.
Hitler came to the meeting and arrested Rohm and other leaders.
I think this is the kind of thing Trump fantasizes about when he gets people to chant Lock her up at rallies.
The arrest was not an imprisonment kind of arrest...it was a death penalty one. And there was no alternative of taking a ship to Australia.
Rohm was given the choice of suicide or murder. Yikes.
That's probably just pure sadism there.
* * *
Goebbels the propaganda guy did his propaganda magic and presented The Knight of Long Knives as a needed preventative measure.
In my alternate history analogy, it would be somewhat like Trump turning around and having leaders of the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys executed. People would probably be horrified. But there might also be a feeling of protection and relief. Here we thought Trump was buddies with these violent people, but he must not like them that much if he's decided they're a big enough threat that they need to be executed.
The killing of the SA leaders probably had an element of the-enemy-of-my-enemy-is-my-friend...especially for Germans who might have been on the fence about Hitler.
* * *
Lord Wiki has a list of some of the victims of The Night of Long Knives. Not all of them were SA leaders.
The person most familiar to me is Kurt von Schleicher. He was one of Hindenburg's four advisors; the one who became a Chancellor for a short time. He and his wife were both shot in their home.
The victims range from a journalist of a Catholic Newspaper; a former co-prisoner of Hitler that helped him edit Mein Kampf, Rohm's chauffer; a Jewish doctor; the headwaiter at Rohm's favorite tavern; the director of the Catholic Youth Sport's Association....
I wonder which of the victims were actually part of the resistance and which were loyal to Hitler...just not loyal enough.
Eventually...for these posts, I want to look at people who resisted. I want to look at people who never got on the Hitler train and fought back from the beginning. I also want to look at those who were on the Hitler train but then got off at some point....I mean BEFORE they were murdered.
* * *
The other thing on my official agenda today is looking at another Holocaust website to see whether they are on the same team as The Holocaust Explained and believe that the Nazis were right-wing. OR will the website agree with Conservapedia and believe the Nazis were left-wing.
* * *
I'm looking at the Budapest Holocaust Memorial Center.
Now...I've been hearing that Hungary is going a bit right-wing. So they might side with Conservapedia.
There's also the chance that they talk about the Holocaust but not the events leading to the Holocaust.
Well...it turns out they talk about what led up to the Holocaust. But they also talk about it from their perspective as another European country.
* * *
I am SO confused about what websites need to be italicized. Because I've learned you're supposed to italicize websites. And I've been doing that. But a lot of places and businesses have websites, so do I italicize those as well?
* * *
The website says that in 1920 Hungary became the first country in post World War I Europe to have an antisemitic law.
Oh! So a minute ago, I was surprised and kind of comforted to see that the Budapest website admitted to having this antisemitic law. Countries that are willing to admit their past mistakes don't often lean too far to the right.
Then I reminded myself that A) countries are not made up of a hive mind B) It's probably Jewish people who are running this Holocaust site.
So then I looked up more about this antisemitic law and ended up on this website. It's called Autocracy Analyst: Reporting on the Rise of Authoritarian Rule in Hungary.
The website is in English, though. So it might not actually be Hungarian.
Also...who knows. Maybe it's run by right-wing people who imagine the left authoritarians are taking over.
Well...it turns out to be pretty Hungarian. They're part of the Rights Reporter Foundation which was founded by Hungarian Activists.
As for the English they say: This blog provides you English news updates, articles, and videos about rising authoritarian rule in Hungary.
I think they're using English to reach a wider audience?
Statista says 25.9% of people online use English.
Hungarian is not on their chart. But I'm guessing it's a smaller percentage than English.
Also. If your country has become very authoritarian, I think you kind of want to also reach people outside your country.
* * *
Taking a step out of the Hungarian resistance rabbit hole....
Back to the antisemitic law. It was about having Jewish quotas at universities.
Now getting back to whether the other Hungarian website, the Holocaust one, believes the Nazis were right-wing or left-wing. They did mention something right-wing...but I think it was Hungarian related not German/Nazi.
I haven't found that yet....but I'm seeing from the Budapest website that between The Enabling Law and the Night of Long Knives, there WAS a lot of anti-Jewish action that I didn't see on The Holocaust Explained website.
I don't think it's a matter of The Holocaust Explained downplaying the antisemitism. I think it's probably that they have that stuff on a separate page.
That being said, it did confuse me. In my last post, I had the idea that the Nazis waited to fully show off their antisemitism.
* * *
I left their chronological area and am now looking at their Encyclopedia. They have a section on the Nazis...or as they remind us National SOCIALISM.
Or they had a section.
It's gone.
Or the link might be broken.
It feels a bit ominous, though.
* * *
They do have a page on Hitler.
They don't say whether Hitler was left or right.
I'm going to keep looking for something about the Nazi party.
Though I will say that while looking for Hitler, I did run across some descriptions of people who were anti-Nazi and/or Zionists. They were all described as being left-wing.
* * *
Found it!
On their page about National Socialism, the Budapest Holocaust Memorial Center says they were a Far-right political ideology, way of thinking and political system.
They also say: German National Socialism served as a model for right-wing parties and dictatorships established in other countries between the two world wars.
It would be interesting to know how many right-wing Hungarians disagree with the Holocaust Center's statement.
* * *
I'm going to end here. I probably won't be editing and posting this until Friday or later. Tomorrow we have another day of apartment packing and in the evening, we have the Jan 6 hearings to watch.
In my next post, I will probably be reading the next section of The Holocaust Explained. It's about something called Gleichschaltung.
And I will be looking at another Holocaust website to see if they are on Team Nazis-are-right-wing or on Team Nazis-are-left-wing.
The score so far:
Two for the left—Dinesh D'Souza and Conservapedia.
And...
Five for the right- The Budapest Holocaust Memorial Center, The Holocaust Explained (Wiener Holocaust Library), USHMM (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum), Snopes, and The Political Compass.
What would our world be like if we
knew for sure there
was life after death, and
we could easily talk to our
dearly-departed on the Internet?
The Dead are Online a novel by Dina Roberts
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