General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: "Welcome to Socialism..." (This guy nails it!) [View all]Progressive Jones
(6,011 posts)the word "socialist" (or whatever it is in German) got thrown in to attract members.
Socialism was enjoying some popularity at the time. I'm no history major, just putting this out there.
In the 1970s, here in Chicago, we had a band of neo-nazis. They called themselves The National Socialist People's Party. They were a ragtag bunch who held rallies basically to get attention. Only a dozen, or so, would get into some stupid costumes, and march around. They never seemed to commit any crimes, until the leader was busted for being some kind of child molester. BTW, these are the neo-nazis who inspired the "Illinois Nazis" in the movie "The Blues Brothers", silly uniforms and all. There was a real life incident where they were chased out of a park by an angry mob. Getting driven off a bridge into a lagoon was pure Hollywood.
They had a bit of support, mostly from lower working class whites on the South Side who liked to play the "reverse discrimination" card. Here comes the irony... Exactly the same kind of people who would follow the extreme right today, the same kind of people who screech "socialism is coming to America!!!", joined a "Socialist People's Party". LMAO!!!