What is national socialism?

Ideology

National socialism is a nationalist form of socialism, based on the view that the nation has primacy, with political and economic policy directed toward the national interest. National socialists share a disdain for liberal democracy and the parliamentary system, with certain strains like the Nazis supporting scientific racism and eugenics. While it is generally associated with fascism, national socialism is its own distinct ideology.

In national socialism, the Marxist notion of class conflict is replaced with conflict against an enemy of the state, which could include racial, national, religious, or economic enemies. The term itself arose out of attempts to create a nationalist redefinition of socialism, as an alternative to both international socialism and free–market capitalism. National socialism opposes cosmopolitan internationalism and seeks to force all parts of society to subordinate their personal interests to the common good, accepting political interests as the main priority of economic organisation.

To enforce national socialism, the state must engage in censorship of the press, control of education and culture, and widespread use of secret police to intimidate opponents and eliminate dissent. It will also use mass media to indoctrinate people, replacing critical thought with state-crafted narratives.

Since national socialism distorts the economy with central planning, the economy will eventually collapse. Like other collectivist ideologies, it is not immune to the economic calculation problem.

Followers

National socialists support maximum restrictions on cultural freedom and heavy restrictions on economic freedom. National socialists oppose most private property rights. National socialists do not tolerate criticism of their ideology.

Allies

National socialists will ally themselves with other socialists, known as useful idiots, for as long as they derive utility from the association. Once their usefulness ends, national socialists will betray their allies, often with deadly force.

As they lean toward the authoritarian side of the political spectrum, national socialists will view socialists on the libertarian side of the spectrum with suspicion and mistrust. As such, they are less likely to ally with these socialists.

Enemies

National socialists consider liberals and capitalists to be their enemies and seek to destroy them utterly for daring to end the tradition of collectivism that was practiced for most of human history. National socialists will employ entryist strategies to infiltrate and subvert liberal and capitalist organisations so as to destroy them from within.

Location on the political spectrum

National socialism is located at the far-top centre-left of the political spectrum. It is bordered by state communism, international socialism, authoritarian socialism, progressivism, and fascism. As it is a fringe ideology, national socialism does not occupy as much space on the spectrum as more mainstream ideologies.