KINSHIP:

Nationalists Of The World, Unite! (Nicholas Stix, March 4, 2003, Too Good Reports)

The unbridgeable gap between "socialism" and "fascism," so often remarked since World War II, was invented by the communists, who earlier had a more, shall we say, "flexible" attitude towards Nazism. ("Fascism" and "Nazism" were two different political movements. For instance, racialist pseudo-science and genocide were integral to Nazism, but played no roles in fascism. Socialists find it convenient to ignore such distinctions.) Beginning in 1935, American communists began softening their image, via the Moscow-orchestrated "Popular Front." The American Communist Party was nominally led by Earl Browder, who got his orders direct from Moscow. Based on Stalin's flipflops and shifting alliances, American communists sometimes changed their dogmatic positions over night, a practice which George Orwell would creatively work into his landmark novel, 1984.

Such continuous equivocation and changing of alliances is the thread of continuity between 1930s communism, the 1960s New Left, and contemporary multiculturalism (or as I call it, racial socialism). [...]

During a March 10, 1939 radio address, Stalin spoke of the "kinship" between communism and Nazism. Initially, American communists wanted America to stay out of the "imperialist" war in Europe. That Moscow-dictated position was due entirely to the non-aggression pact that Stalin had entered into with Hitler on August 23,1939, when the dictators forged their secret plan to divvy up Poland. At that point, the communists (like American Nazis and many America Firsters) thought Hitler and his murdering band were fine fellows. Not that communists ever had any problem with murder, in the first place.

But on June 22, 1941, in Operation Barbarossa, Hitler betrayed his good friend Stalin, and invaded Russia. Overnight, American communists became the country's biggest hawks. They wanted to put America at the service of Soviet "socialism in one country." It was the "democratic" thing to do. The Soviets then formulated the insuperable dichotomy between bellicose "fascism" and peace-loving "socialism" that leftists have parroted ever since. (Never mind, that national socialism wasn't fascist; one showed one's loyalty to the cause by one's willingness to swallow lies, not truths.)

In reality, there are few rallying cries with less power to motivate men to fight to the death, than the call to serve the workers of the world. Religion, race, nationality, ethnicity, regionalism are all more effective motivators. Effective communist agitators and leaders have almost always used more concrete loyalties to rally the troops. It was the invocation of Mother Russia, not the Comintern, that Stalin used to inspire the Russian people and the Red Army to overcome what was initially one of the worst beatings in military history, and ultimately savage the Wehrmacht's Eastern Command.

I actually disagree about the efficacy of containment, but Mr. Stix is so insanely generous to us later on in his essay let's highlight this point, where we agree. In fact, in thinking about American Communists, it's always seemed helpful to differentiate them into two groups. It's easy enough for us, here now, to say they were all deluded or evil or whatever. But when you look at the range of people who later went on even to become important conservatives (Whittaker Chambers, Frank S. Meyers, maybe Nancy Reagan) it seems hard to entirely dismiss the good intentions that might have initially led people to what proved to be a bad cause. And because there came a distinct point in time when many people left the Party, when the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was announced, it seems fair to say that rather few decent people remained loyal to Stalin when he climbed in bed with Hitler. Those who did--the Dalton Trumbos, Dashiell Hammetts and Lillian Hellmans of the world--who stayed communist even after they realized it was no different than being a Nazi, deserved all the opprobrium, and worse, they got.

MORE:
The Containment Theory Is Dead!: Long Live The Containment Theory! (Nicholas Stix, February 27, 2003,Toogood Reports)
The U.S. "Containment" Theory And The Anonymous "X" Man Article (Nicholas Stix, February 25, 2003,Toogood Reports)
The Berlin Wall And The Price Of Freedom (Nicholas Stix, February 23, 2003, Toogood Reports)

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 3, 2003 11:03 PM