Abraham Lincoln once observed that we all declare for liberty, but in using the same word, we do not all mean the same thing.
asserted
we → observe → thing
The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep’s throat, he said, and the sheep thanks him as a liberator while the wolf denounces him as a destroyer of liberty.
asserted
wolf → drive → liberty
Words matter.
asserted
Words → matter → ?
When words are bent, voters are misled.
asserted
voters → bend → ?
We have been told for years, in leading newspapers and in classrooms, that Adolf Hitler was a man of the “Right,” and therefore a distant cousin of the American conservative.
asserted
Hitler → tell → conservative
The label is then hung, election after election, on whichever Republican is handy.
asserted
Republican → hang → election
Facts are stubborn things, as John Adams said.
asserted
Adams → say → ?
Hitler never called himself a fascist.
asserted
Hitler → call → himself
He called himself a National Socialist, and he led the National Socialist German Workers’ Party.
asserted
he → call → Party
Names can lie, so look at the platform.
asserted
Names → lie → platform
The party’s 25-point program of 1920 demanded the nationalization of trusts, profit-sharing in large industries, the abolition of unearned income, the confiscation of war profits, land reform, and a large expansion of old-age pensions.
asserted
program → demand → pensions
Read that list without naming its author, and ask which side of the aisle wrote it.
asserted
side → read → it
Then look at what the regime did.
asserted
regime → look → what
It abolished independent unions and herded workers into a single state labor front.
asserted
It → abolish → front
It capped corporate dividends.
asserted
It → cap → dividends
Under the Four-Year Plan of 1936, the state set prices and wages, rationed raw materials, and told industry what to build.
asserted
state → set → what
Owners kept the deeds to their factories, but only so long as they obeyed.
asserted
they → keep → factories
Hugo Junkers lost his own aircraft company in 1933, and Fritz Thyssen, who had bankrolled Hitler, saw his property seized in 1939 after he broke with him.
asserted
he → lose → him
Hitler hated the communists, and they hated him, but rivals are not opposites.
asserted
rivals → hat → him
In August 1939, Hitler and Josef Stalin signed a pact and carved up Poland between them.
asserted
Hitler → sign → them
When they fell out, they fought over who would own the collective, not over whether the collective should own the man.
asserted
collective → fall → man
One organized it by class, the other by race.
asserted
One → organize → race
Both agreed that the individual belongs to the state.
asserted
individual → agree → state
Two wolves may fight over the same sheep.
uncertain
wolves → fight → sheep
But he was a nationalist, comes the reply, and nationalism belongs to the Right.
asserted
nationalism → come → Right
Hitler’s nation was not a people joined by language, law, or creed.
asserted
nation → join → language
It was a people joined by blood, and no one could enter it who was not born to it.
uncertain
who → join → it
Lincoln said immigrants with no ancestors at the founding could still claim the Declaration of Independence “as though they were blood of the blood, and flesh of the flesh” of the men who wrote it.
uncertain
who → say → it
A nation you may join by believing in it is the opposite of a nation you must be bred into.
uncertain
you → join → nation
Its creed is limited government, a written constitution, separation of powers, free markets, private property, free speech, freedom of worship, and an armed citizenry.
asserted
creed → write → worship
Hitler tore down every such fence he found.
asserted
he → tear → fence
Measure politics the sensible way, with total state power at one end and individual liberty at the other, and Hitler, Stalin, and Mao Zedong stand together at one end.
asserted
Hitler → measure → end
The American founding stands at the other.
asserted
founding → stand → other
The cost is written in graves.
asserted
cost → write → graves
The Holocaust murdered 6 million Jews and millions of others.
asserted
Holocaust → murder → others
Stalin’s famine starved millions of Ukrainians.
asserted
famine → starve → Ukrainians
Mao’s Great Leap Forward killed at least 30 million Chinese.
asserted
Forward → kill → Chinese
The Khmer Rouge killed as much as a quarter of Cambodia in four years.
asserted
Rouge → kill → years
The flags differed.
asserted
flags → differ → ?
The method did not — all of them wolves.
asserted
all → do → them
…and 15 more, not listed.
The Aporia
