>The term "National Socialism" arose out of attempts to create a nationalist redefinition of "socialism"
The Nazis got to define National Socialism as they liked, even if the meaning drifted slightly from what you could consider a national socialist ideology.
Really surprised the inconsistency survives, tbh
They "won" only in the sense that I'm 99.99999% certain when I see a white man drawing a swastika on the wall he's not wishing people luck and well-being.
Both humanity and nation states have made a development since then. Certainly one can draw comparisons but there are worlds in between.
"An entirely Americentric argument, spurred on by certain batty ideologues and infamous websites, claims that Adolf Hitler was not the far-right, anti-communist nationalist that everyone else remembers him to be, but rather an egalitarian socialist.[note 1] Much like the Discovery Institute and their assault on the theory of evolution, this attempts to evoke the association fallacy on anyone who practices left-wing politics and by that standard anyone who slightly leans to the left is an adherent of fascism ...
For this argument to be even close to being solvent ... good chunks of history need to be thrown out the window:
That the 96-member Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) was Hitler's main opposition in the Reichstag and the only political party that attempted to halt the laws that established him as dictator and brought down the Weimar Republic. In fact, all of the ideological predecessors of today's conservative and classically liberal parties voted unanimously for the law, while the SPD voted unanimously against despite the presence of SA guards in the building.[3][4] That the first political groups targeted during the Nazi ascendancy were pacifists, trade unionists and communists.[5][6] That Strasserism, the only strand of Nazism that could be referred to as "left-wing" (i.e. pro-working class in nature), were all killed off (with a handful of conservative dissidents) in what we all know as the Night of the Long Knives. About the only true socialists within the Nazi Party include the likes of Gregor and Otto Strasser for example[note 2]"
The fact remains that China has effectively implemented and perfected National Socialism. Call it fascism if you prefer. But it is difficult to look at a state that has entwined single-party authoritarian rule around capitalist economic principles and not see the comparison.
That they are brazenly suppressing and exterminating ethnic and religious minorities is icing on the cake.
Socialism calls for the democracy of the workplace.
What China has done is replace the authoritarian bourgeois with an authoritarian government.
Just because North Korea's name is Democratic People's Republic of Korea doesn't mean it is democratic. Naming stuff their opposite doesn't make it so, but I'll admit it has been pretty effective for convincing people who don't know the true definition.
Or just that we shouldn't use the word "socialism" in conjunction with either, despite that being the name of one of the groups in question?
> What China has done is replace the authoritarian bourgeois with an authoritarian government.
In other words, China is not Socialist. Presumably, neither was the National Socialist German Workers Party while it was in control of the country.
The question then becomes, why is this relevant. Why say "that's not true Socialism!" in response to someone comparing Nazi Germany with China, when neither was Socialist?
The only real democracy is that which is based on a government that is biased towards the center. Far left and far right is never democratic. Democracy working correctly is filled with compromise.