Originally Posted by Botnst

The majority of the intelligentsia and political elite in the United States believed an awful lot of what brought Nazism to Germany. Not least of which was a belief in racial superiority, what we now view as an unwholesome belief. As a nation, we believed in eugenics -- essentially selective breeding to improve society. You discourage or prevent inferior people from reproducing and reward superior people for reproducing. Many, if not most states had eugenics laws to allow forced sterilization of the mentally incompetent, for example. This is exactly in keeping with Nazi philosophy.

Nazis also believed that the State was more important than the individual. Individual rights were a subversive, delusional state of primitive man. We are here to advance the interest of the state.

On these two points, the state can justify any sort of selective oppression of a people or belief or competing political party.

By submitting to the state one is guaranteed employment and a secure place in society. Thus, the state justifies projects that employ the unemployed -- the nation owes it to the loyal people.

Socialism is a worthy goal of people who believe that man will rule rationally. For people who believe that man is fundamentally irrational, socialism is a threat.