The American Left’s most favorite lie is that Nazis and Fascists were conservatives. They were not; instead, they were cut from the same socialist cloth that America’s Left idolizes and increasingly personifies. The reason for the Left’s false equation of Nazis and Fascists with conservatism is that America’s Left needs it to advance their ends — and, as in the case of Democrats’ Maine Senate nominee Graham Platner’s Nazi tattoo, they want America to ignore the obvious. It is difficult to single out one lie from the American Left’s myriad. The one proclaiming that this time they can make socialism work — despite it failing in every other attempt and in every time in every other place — is certainly useful. The one promising that giving all power to the state will somehow make people freer comes in handy, too. However, the lie America’s Left tells with the most relish and gusto is that Nazis and Fascists come from the Right of the political spectrum rather than from within the Left’s own ranks. They say this because, in addition to needing it to be true, America’s Left so want it to be true. Of course, as with the rest of the American Left’s myriad of lies, it is not only not true but demonstrably false. It is a historical fact that Nazis and Fascists were socialists. In the case of “Nazi,” simply look at its etymological root. It is short for “Nationalsozialist,” itself short for the Nationalsozialistische deutsche Arbeitpartei (NSDAP), which translates to National Socialist German Workers’ Party. However, the connection is much stronger than the name alone. The Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises writes in his 20th-century monograph, Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis: “Marxism and National-Socialism agree in … rejecting the capitalist social order. Both desire a socialist order of society. The only difference in their programme (sic) lies in slight variations in their respective pictures of the future socialist State.” Continuing: “It is important to realize that Fascism and Nazism were socialist dictatorships.” Specifically addressing the Fascists, von Mises writes: “Fascism… was a variety of Italian socialism … Nobody could surpass Mussolini in Marxian zeal. He was the intransigent champion of the pure creed.”  And on the Nazis: “The philosophy of the Nazis, the German Nationalist Socialist Labour Party, is the purest and most consistent manifestation of the anti-capitalistic and socialist spirit of our age.” Socialism is the historical origin of both the Nazis and the Fascists, and socialism is the economic aim of both: state control of the means of production. This origin and end entail not just more power to the state, but ultimately all power to the state. If you control production and distribution of resources, what other meaningful power exists, and what meaningful counterweight exists to the power of the state? Of course, the American Left’s parry to definitive history and fact will be: “But Nazis and Fascists were only self-proclaimed socialists, not real ones.” Yet this is a strange argument against self-profession from a Left that believes that gender itself is self-professed and can be unilaterally reassigned and redefined. The contrast of the origin and goal of Nazis and Fascists with those of conservatives and conservatism is stark. After all, conservatism is primarily “conservative” when it comes to the power of the state: Conservatives want the state to have less. Today’s liberals, in contrast to the classical definition of “liberalism” (freedom of the individual), are “liberal” primarily regarding the power of the state: Liberals want the state to have more. Then why do America’s Left make the false equation of Nazism and Fascism with conservatism? Because they need an enemy that appears more evil than they are. They need a threat so great that it justifies their most extreme actions. The evidence that the American Left’s actions are becoming more extreme is demonstrated almost daily.  Antifa (a shortened version of “anti-fascist”) has long existed and espoused violent confrontation. The administration finally designated it a domestic terrorist organization last year. The American Left is also becoming more visible in embracing confrontation. The Democratic Socialists of America are openly organizing “Red Rabbit” squads for militant action. As the City Journal’s Stu Smith recently reported: “In practice, that means training cadres in tactics like armed and unarmed self-defense, blocking intersections, and fighting ‘fascists’ with umbrellas.” Such efforts are well past the American Left’s suppression of opponents through a “cancel culture.”  And they are not new. In 2020, a UAW chapter posted a 14-page “Red Rabbits National Training” agenda outlining that effort’s basic points. The American Left needs non-democratic actions and outright coercion to implement a system that is not supported by the majority of Americans. Freedom, markets, capitalism: All are organic; they are what will arise if people are left to themselves. Without a conjured enemy, socialism — the taking from individuals to give to the state under the pretext of giving to society — clearly stands as the enemy to human freedom it is. If socialism is allowed to stand in isolation and appear in its true form, it will be opposed. Socialists know this. Just as they know that they want to wield that power. They do not want to take power from any form of state, but to aggrandize it and then wield it themselves. What von Mises observed globally in the 20th century — “Dictatorship and violent oppression of all dissenters are today exclusively socialist institutions” — is no less true in today’s America. Organized, premeditated, recurring violence comes overwhelmingly from America’s Left. The American Left’s favorite lie is also at the core of their favorite ploy. They love to accuse others of being what they themselves are. Again, Graham Platner is a case in point. The Left’s Antifa run around violently proclaiming themselves against fascists; the Democrats’ Maine Senate nominee sports a Nazi tattoo, about which the Left is silent except to make excuses (months ago, Politico said it “appears similar to a Nazi symbol”) for Platner’s obvious physical display. The American Left does so because charging others with their own crimes leads to moral relativism, which serves to absolve them of their wrongs. By charging everyone with the Left’s own crimes, then all are guilty. Under such an assumption of shared guilt, we become enmeshed and lost in arguments of degrees of supposed guilt rather than focusing on the actual guilt. And the biggest beneficiaries of such semantics are those who are most guilty: America’s Left. READ MORE from J.T. Young: AI: Technology the Left Love to Hate Meet the Post-Biden Democrats: Biden’s Democrats The Left Don’t Love Leo (They Simply Hate Trump) J.T. Young is the author of the recent book, Unprecedented Assault: How Big Government Unleashed America’s Socialist Left, from RealClear Publishing. Follow him on Substack.