[citation][nom]ltgrunt[/nom]Does G.W. even know about this? As in, is this something his publicist dreamed up, or is it just something that a completely unrelated fan did? If it's an official thing then I guess that's neat in some small way, but if it's just a fan page made by some random nobody, then who cares?On the politics side, pretty much everyone who's griping about "Socialism" this and "Marxist" that has absolutely no idea what those terms mean or what those things really are. For instance, Regulas is mistakenly assuming that just because the Nazis used the word Socialist in their title (National Socialist Party) that they actually were Socialist; they were not Socialist, and they were in fact a flavor of Fascist, which is on the far-Right side of the political spectrum. Assuming that the title is in any way accurate and not just an attempt to garner attention when Socialism was popular among growing dissent movements in Europe is a frequently made mistake.Also, I am invoking Godwin's Law - you lose "teh Internets" for having such a poorly formed argument that you had to rely on Nazis to try to make a point, Regulas.[/citation]
You know less than he does. Socialism is an economic system. Don't confuse it with a political one. They aren't the same thing.
Germany was not a purely capitalistic state, as the government had a lot of influence and control. It was far more efficient than any economic system the "democratic" countries had, but, obviously, prone to abuse. Under a great leader, like Bismarck (and, nominally, Wilhelm), totalitarianism is the best and most efficient form of government. Under an aggressive leader, it's potentially a disaster, especially with a country that was wrong, and had a strong militaristic tradition.