What if two of history’s most infamous ideologies—Nazism and Fascism—shared more in common fundamentally with Communism than we often recognize? Recently, a chairwoman of a German political party controversially claimed that Hitler was a communist. While this assertion is incorrect, much of the criticism it drew focused only on the visible differences between Hitler and Communists, leaving their deeper ideological similarities unexamined. By revisiting the words of Hitler and Mussolini, it becomes clear that their rivalry with Communism was less about rejecting its principles and more about promoting competing visions of collectivism.

It is now the duty of classical liberals, who fundamentally diverge from both communists and fascists, to seize the opportunity and reveal the shared collectivist roots of these ideologies. As a classical liberal, I have always been skeptical of my ideology being grouped on the same “side” as the Nazis, given the stark philosophical differences. The disproportionate attention drawn to the rivalries between various forms of collectivism hinders thorough political discourse and leaves the core question of individualism versus collectivism inadequately explored.