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val70 I honestly think, that a number of people identify as being "socialist". And because they identify as being "socialist", all other forms of socialism become some form of "faux-socialism". However, "socialism" is an incredibly big group that contains all kinds of diffrent ideologies that all have the same goal: "to put the means of production in the hands of the poppulation instead of of the hands of the individual". The prescpritions can go from left anarchism, to marxism, to marxist-lennism, to stalinism, to syndicalism, ... all the way to the far right prescriptions. That's why writers during the interbellum in Germanny used labels that were more specific then just "socialism", because "socialism" as a category doesn't tell you a lot about what is being talked about. The only moments people recognise what it is, is if they belong to a clique that adopted a socialist narrative as a group. And then the word "socialist" means something really specific for them. And thus they austrosize every other form as being "not-socialist", and thus they can claim the label for themselves and revel in this idea that they are the pure and real socialists. Which... well, in political thought, is kinda ridiculous and creates all kinds of issues when you start developing a train of thought. Because what do you do with all the other socialist variants?
I agree that politics inside Germanny went sour. But it didn't happen at the collapse of the Weimarr Republic. The big catalyst for what was to come were issues before the 1st world war that plagued Germannies identity building AND the loss of the 1st world war and how Germanny was treated by the victors. That's the real issue in Germanny. But then, you also forget another story, the story about a left wing in crisis. And this crisis has been going on since the late 19th century.
The leftwing that largely attached itself to a marxist narrative that in it's most simplistic versions goes a bit like this:
-> Capitalism holds the seeds of his own destruction because of internal contradictions
-> These will lead to economic crisis in economically developed nations
-> This will lead to an awakening in the masses that get pressured by the crisis
-> This will lead to revolution
-> This will lead to socialism
(at least some version)-> After a long period, will lead to the disolvement of the state and thus we reach "communism"
... and this will happen because "humanity" as a whole will pull together. We will all be one and love our neighbours.
But at the end of the 19th century, we already had a bunch of crisis, and yet the prophecy didn't come true. Which lead left-wing theorists to search for a new narrative, a new idea. Too name 2 of them:
1. The idea of George Sorrel, who believed that this idea of a "global strike" as in "humanity pulling together" will just not happen. It's a myth according to Sorrel who was an anarcho-syndicalist. So he offered the idea that left wingers should ditch the idea of this global romantic idea and look at the strength of a national myth. A smaller kind of revolution on national levels, because these myths seem to have some kind of power. Of course, sorrel got ditched and ostrezised by the left wing community, because the idea is reactionairy. And the left wing community was right. But he would become an inspiration for fascism.
2. The idea of Lennin, who believed that a economy doesn't need to be developed to have a revolution. He also didn't believe in the rebellion of "the people", so he advanced an idea of a vanguard. A small clique of intelectuals that would advance the revolution all by themselves. And this vanguard idea, well, it was also adopted by fascism.
And if you go look at the first world war itself, it pushed the left wing in an ever deeper crisis. Because social-democrats and marxist-socialist all believed that the proletariat as a global-class, would not fight eachother at all. That this national interest of the aristocracy that was important in the conflict of 1914-1918 was not in the favor of the proletarian class. But when the drums started pounding, people from all classes raced to the fronts to fight for their nation. They murdered their own class members, for a flag and national sentiments. Which well... kinda pushed left-wing variants of socialism in a deeper crisis. And that's a big part of why a right-wing variant appeared and was midly too moderate sucessfull not only under conservatives in that country but also under segments of left-wing socialists and social-democrats that lost faith in their ideals.