Fascism = Socialism = Totalitarianism

Socialism, once it gets bigger than face-to-face , gets taken over by those who follow the Golden Rule -- as in "he who has the gold makes the rules." SEE "Capture Theory," for example. Today, the catch-phrase is "public-private enterprise." Normally that morphs into full frontal Fascism (partnership between business & government), as confessed by, among others, the Nazis.

But "NAZI," the acronym for Hitler's so-called fascists, stands for "Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei" or "National Socialist German Workers' Party," defining fascism and national socialism to be one and the same.

These supposedly "fascist" Nazis originated the Volkswagen, translated literally as "People'sWagon," a name one would expect to be more at home with avowed socialists. With an apparent flash of insight, head Nazi Joseph Goebbels, in a letter to a Communist leader, assured him that "Nazism and Communism are really the same thing. You and I are fighting one another, but we are not really enemies," he wrote according to William L. Shirer in his The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, (Greenwich: Fawcett Crest, 1959)

The "same thing" in the case of "Nazism and Communism" is a centralized totalitarian state which, as history proves again and again, results in death, destruction, misery, and disaster for it's citizens no matter which way it starts out.

The common denominator of "socialism" and "fascism" is that once you create a "government" it is eventually taken over by the moneyed interests and those with political influence and hierarchical tendencies -- which guarantees application of The Iron Law of Oligarchy.

These folks don't care what you call them, in fact it often serves them well to pretend "socialism." Being the power whores they are (don't mean to insult sex-workers), they'll take the power and money any which way they can.

As the quip goes, "When you go to bed with government, you get more than a good night's sleep." It doesn't matter too much whether they claim they're socialists or fascists -- invite a government into your bed and you'll likely end up with a seriously painful and persistent case of herpes in undesirable places. And, eventually, totalitarianism.  --L. Reichard White, Wednesday, October 05, 2011 3:52 PM