Conventions

I have always taken issue with fascism and National Socialism being used interchangeably. The biggest problem comes in speech, when one says Fascism but they mean fascism, Yellow Socialism, or National Socialism It is similar to the confusion between an asymmetrical airfoil and a symmetrical airfoil. Using symmetrical and non-symmetrical clears that up nicely. So does using National Socialism for what it is, Socialism with a nationalistic marketing plan, no matter if it is Germans, Israelis, Italians, Spaniards, or Americans doing it and leave the Fascism to Mussolini era Italians.

One thing this convention does is it removes a bad rhetorical 'weapon' from the Socialists who want to confuse the issue. For example, when they call people fascists when they mean Nazi. Now, no member of the National Socialist Worker's Party ever called himself a fascist and no Italian Partito Nazionale Fascista (PNF) member would ever call himself a Nazi, and neither would sit still to be called one either. However, every member of each group is in fact a Socialist and a National Socialist. Similarly, the International Socialists are Communists, be they Leninist, Stalinist, Marxist, or any of the others. Trotskyites do seem to fall in the National Socialist camp of the Marxists, for now.

The Socialists get a bit irate when one lumps them together. Similar to when various members of religious factions are misidentified. The Communist takes offense at the label Nazi, even though they were allied and voted with each other in the German parliament (Bundestag). Also quite similar to an American baseball Cincinnati Reds fan who takes offense at being called a Boston Red Sox fan. In fiction, the Monty Python players captured this in their film, The Life of Brian, through the use of political satire.

In my upcoming book, Would You Like Borders With That Socialism? I try to stick with the convention of a fascist being a Fascist of Italy, and a Nazi being a member of the National Socialist German Worker's Party. All are National Socialists and all Socialists. The differences appear to be with their marketing strategy and body count.