I think my problem with the word "Nazis" is that the Nationalsosialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NDAP) operated in WWII Germany and don't exist anymore. Used outside of that context, it takes on a figurative meaning for me, like the soup Nazi from Seinfeld, or Internet grammar Nazis. I was under the impression that it's now being used as a label for all Trump voters, but what you mean to say is "neo-Nazis". That's the established term, at least here in Europe.
@thor The Nazis were socialists. So, we'll need to make sure we don't apply the term to free-market, capitalists, like most of the left likes to do. One must be on the left to be a true Nazi/neo-Nazi.
@Combaticus They weren't any more socialist than much of Europe is today, with its welfare systems and big government. In Europe, the "socialist" part of the name isn't taken seriously, and it's even argued that they were never true socialists; merely populists who wanted to exploit the worker's movement.
@Combaticus Free market capitalism? If anything, the Nazis didn't have terribly strong opinions on it. They took over the industry for the war effort, but so did the United States. Neo-Nazis aren't typically defined by their fiscal stance, but rather by their racism and violence, or that's how the term is used here in Europe. There are Neo-Nazis who vote for right wing populist parties, but those parties don't tend to have very capitalistic policies.
@Combaticus More specifically: Populist parties in Europe are generally more about cutting taxes for the working class, removing prohibitions and maintaining existing benefits than anything else. If your interests are in business, you're better off voting on one of the traditional Bourgeois parties.
@thor Actually, you're not quite correct on this point. The Nazis ran a corporatist economy which was not free market and leveraged the economy to enforce their ideology and cement their totalitarian control over the country. You see the same thing in the US and Europe where the government uses companies to roll out legislation that adheres to the left's agenda, rewarding large corps for complying and making it next to impossible for anyone to resist. 1/2
@thor And, I, along with a great many others, would argue that the idea of "the right of the strong" is not true right-wing/conservative politics, but rather simply the opposite side of the same godless coin. It's what you get when you remove the transcendent. Ah well. It's a mess for sure. My main concern is the habit of those on the left to ignore their historical ties to Nazi-ism and to label anyone they don't like as Nazis. Words matter.
@Combaticus I'd argue that we have a few orthogonal axes here...
Reactionary - Progressive
Authoritarian - Libertarian
Xenophobe - Globalist
Your typical US left winger is a fiscally authoritarian and socially progressive globalist. Your typical US right winger is a fiscally libertarian and socially conservative xenophobe. I stereotype, but you get the idea.
@Combaticus Further, neo-Nazis are often labeled "extreme right" here. This is either because the left has defined them as such to distance themselves from Nazis, or because the Nazis were very much into "the right of the strong" kind of stuff, while socialists are typically into "the right of the weak and oppressed" kind of stuff.