C J Campbell wrote:

James Robinson wrote:

C J Campbell wrote:

If the dictionary says that Nazism, which promotes political change
and which believes it promotes greater freedom and the well being
of the common man is a right wing philosophy, then it contradicts
itself.

That's your definition of Nazism, not what it acutally was.

http://encyclopedia.fablis.com/index...-wing_politics

"Nazis opposed individualism and laissez faire capitalism, vigorous
opposition to international socialism was a founding and continuing
tenet of Nazi fascism."

Try these sources for why others label Fascism as right wing:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-wing

"... fascism is almost universally considered to be a part of "the
right"."
"Like other forms, it arose in antithesis to the agenda of leftists,
Communists, and Socialists."

http://www.publiceye.org/eyes/whatfasc.html

"Fascism is a form of extreme right-wing ideology that celebrates the
nation or the race as an organic community transcending all other
loyalties."

"Fascism is hostile to Marxism, liberalism, and conservatism, yet it
borrows concepts and practices from all three."

http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=Right-wing

"... fascism and communism share much in common, and this is to be
expected since they are the most extreme forms of conservatism, fascism
being of the right, and communism being of the left."

Now you are contradicting yourself. Now you are saying that communism is
left wing conservatism, where before you defined the left as being liberal.

I don't give a hoot about your definitions. They are self contradictory and
arbitrary, as many have pointed out before me.

They aren't "my" definitions. They are ones that are generally accepted
in political discussions, and can be found all over internet. I provided
links to them to show that Nazism is considered by most to be a right
wing political philosophy. Some suggest it is slightly right of center,
because of their economic policies and opposition to socialism, and
others suggest far more to the right, considering their strong
authoritarianism and political conservatism. Few suggest it is left of
center.

Your discomfort with the definitions is perhaps based on the fact that
the single dimensional characteristic of "left" and "right" as a
political description is simply inadequate to describe all the
complexities of politics. You are free to make up your own, but until
the mainstream accepts a diverging definition, then it is useless.

The original definition of left-right was intended to separate those who
wanted change, i.e. abolition of the French monarchy, from those who
wanted to keep things as they were. The overtones of that definition
still remain today with "liberal" and "conservative."

Over time, the definitions evolved to include an economic description,
where left described socialism, and right a more laisez faire economy.
Others suggest the economic distinction is more an emphasis of person vs
property. Today, this is probably the most important definition of left
and right.

Superimposed on this is how authoritarian the government is. Harking
back to the original definition of left-right, many people connect
authoritarianism with the right, since this was a tendency of
monarchies. Further, pretty well every government that has had right
leaning economic policies has been authoritarian to some extent or
other.

That said, there is no question that there have been very authoritarian
left wing governments, Stalinism comes to mind as an example. Thus, the
concept of how authoritarian or liberal a government tends to be is an
entirely separate concept from the traditional definitions of left and
right.