Thursday, November 29, 2007

Poll Results: Is Nazism an expression of the political Right or Left

198 people took part in the poll, answering the question "Is Nazism an expression of the political Right or Left?"

The results:
left - 88 (44%)
right - 60 (30%)
both - 33 (16%)
neither - 17 (8%)

I had not expected so many people to answer the poll, and I thank everybody who did.

The results show that quite a large percentage of my readers believe that Nazism is an expression of the Left Wing.

My opinion? I have been reading a bit more into it in the past couple of weeks and I admit that Nazism has left-wing ideology in it, but it is in essence a right-wing extremist nationalist party. Some of you say that any nationalism is left-wing, and that I find very hard to accept.

I agree, there are many differences between "mainstream" right and the "extreme" right. But that can be seen in the Left wing as well. For those who insist, I think maybe there should be a new political spectrum, with 'totalitarian' on one side, and the 'anti-totalitarian' on the other.

More importantly for me, and the reason for this entire debate: is the danger of neo-Nazism coming from the Right or Left? Let's take a party which has been in the middle of the debate recently: the Swedish Democrats (Sverigedemokraterna). Looking at their site I find a party which places itself as a non-racist nationalist movement. They therefore make sure both on their site and on their newsletter site to stress that they're anti-racist, anti-totalitarian, anti-Nazi (see icon). They had kicked out members who had voiced overly racist ideas. These former members went on to create the National Democrats: a virulent racist party. In other words, the move was from "right-wing nationalist" to "overboard racist".

Does the Right have a monopoly on Racism? Definitely not. However, the Left usually expresses it in a much more sly manner.

Can Europe have nationalist parties which are not racist? Yes, but it is not that simple, if only because Europe, unlike the US, is composed of ethnic nation-states. Many people have brought me an analysis of the past, but I prefer looking at the present and the future. Nationalist parties which take a firm stand against racism should be encouraged and supported. There is a line that can be crossed, and for me it's not always clear where that line is. The right should not be afraid of debate on this issue, to define for itself what is acceptable and what isn't.

Now, the big question - is the Right more dangerous than the Left? I have reconsidered my opinion in the past few weeks. My assumption that the Left is not as dangerous as the Right is based on the assumption that people have a brain and will not stand by forever while their national culture is trampled in the name of "multiculturalism". I still think so. However, I did not take into account the extreme left, the anarchists and related violence. So, I'll leave it for now as an open question. I do think, though, that the minorities will suffer, in any case.

Are both more dangerous than Islam? I think so, but I'm sure this will be an issue for debate far into the future.