Nietzsche, Nazis, and Nihilism Most people have atleast heard of Nietzsche. Many have read a small portion of his writings or have read some of his quotes. People with a rebellious bent hear of Nietsche in the context of either radical philosophy or radical politics. The more conservative faction hear about Nietzsche through some church leader's condemnation of his book The Antichrist. Now they haven't actually read the book mind you, they are just aware of his famous quote, "God is dead." The similarity between these two groups lies in the fact the one likes Nietsche and the other doesn't, for reasons that have nothing to do with their feelings regarding an understanding of his philosophy. Really, they don't like or dislike his ideas, they like or dislike him. The reason I'm thinking about this particular subject is that I'm trying to make sense of peoples' proclamations that Nietzsche is either a nazi or a nihilist. It seems to me that someone will form a dislike Nietzsche for whatever reason and then call him a nazi or a nihilist because the abuser has a similar dislike for the latter. They may be aware of some very vague similarity between the ideologies, but it has mostly to do with emotional sentiment.  Thus, with the following I am going to go through the actual ideological links between Nietzsche, Naziism, and nihilism.   Nietzsche wrote aphoristically, and it's usually defended by saying "he just didn't want his writing to become a philosophical system." Could be, but I also think he suffers somewhat from the "muddying the water so that it may appear deep" that he uses to criticize others. He is a great writer. The point is that this ambiguity directly led to his association with Naziism. The idea of ethnic cleansing is direct action based upon a strictly physicalist interpretation of Nietzsche's Ubermensch (The idea that some sort of "superman" could emerge from the typical man. Nietzsche sought this goal through a strict philosophical mentality, while Nazis sought it through genocide.).  Not that he is a cause, he is more of a justification, but either way the connection between Naziism and Nietzscheanism is very strong on that point. But is Nietzscheanism nihilism? I've heard Nietzsche's writing described as both an active nihilism and a moral nihilism. Regardless of that debate, Naziism is assuredly a form of moral nihilism - only a form because it doesn't extend to the nazis themselves. Basically, anything that is thought to bring about the superman is comsidered "good," so anything that harmed the Nazis themselves would be "bad." Everything is not permitted as in moral nihilism. Yet, though the two conceptions of supermen differed, they both are held as the highest human goal. Thus, Nietzsche would be considered morally nihilistic only to the degree that Nazis are.  Through similiar reason, I find that I would never describe Naziism as an the more typical existential nihilism in which every thing is seen indifferently as meaningless. Fascism is like a religion; it's the polar opposite of nihilism. The state becomes god and meaning is found in anything that benefits and strengthens the state. It's dogma and is incommensurable to nihilism, in this sense. The same could be said for Nietzsche's Ubermensh. He obviously feels that the Ubermensh is better than the non-Ubermensh and therefore Nietzsche couldn't be considered an existential nihilist because he values atleast one thing over another. Perhaps there could be degrees of existential nihilism though, I'll have to ponder that for another time. What about active nihilism? Assuredly Nietsche has an action based philosophy, but for the above reasons it is a stretch to call it nihilism. If anything, his philosophy could be described as a non-absolutist existential nihilism because although he rejects most values, he still strives for atleast one. One more thing about Nietzsche. He was anti-christian, anti-christ to some, anti-buddhist, and anti-semite. But, he was also anti-anti-semite. The "antis" in each of these terms refers not to an opposition to the tenets of the systems per se; it is more of a broader view they represent. Like in the 'Antichrist,' Nietzsche doesn't disparage Christianity by arguing so much that "god is dead," but that the lifestyle and morality represented by god is detrimental to everything of worth in man. If god were alive, we should kill him. Nietzsche is anti-semite in that he disagrees with the Jewish worldview, it's not a racial thing. He's anti-anti-semite in that their (Jews) worldview is still based on a slave morality, resentiment regarding the Jew, and not based upon a will to power, to overcomeing man. Nietzsche was also anti-German, anti-English; basically anti-the-all-to-human-human. He was a misanthrope not because he hated Man, but because he hated their lives, or lack thereof. He was no Nazi.