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i often hear the notion tossed around that hitler was a right-winger, but this idea doesn't really stand up to much scrutiny. in fact, the nazi party was the national socialist party of germany, even though you will hear naziism referred to as a form of fascism, which in turn is also labeled as being of the right. but what makes fascism of the right?

i think all this is a holdover from the old european political scale, in which fascism is placed to the right of the spectrum, while communism is on the left. but i view this pretext as broken and misleading. fascism is just another form of statism. it is by its very nature authoritarian, advocating a single party state and rejecting individualism, which is not of the right.

the true way to judge whether or not something is of the right or of the left, is to use a scale based on government control. simply put, at one extreme (the right) lies anarchy - no government - while on the other extreme (the left) is totalitarianism - total government control.

now regardless of whether the state controls the means of production (socialism), or it controls production and distribution (communism), the results (an oppressive and forceful regime) are the same. so when considering if something is of the right or the left, ask yourself, does it promote individual rights and personal freedom (i.e. put the power in the people's hands), or does it support a strong government and centralized power?

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Most people just use the simple "east/west" left/right scale.  Left being "progressive" and right being "conservative."  Using that simplistic scale nazism does fall on the right.

To delve into any major political system, you use more than one scale.  What you're suggesting is very close to the Pournelle Political Axes...except the authoritarian/libertarian scale is perpendicular...a "north/south" axis.  It forms four quadrants with those fascists way down in the bottom right corner of the bottom right quadrant.  If the US political right is on that scale, it tends to be in the areas of the lower left corner of the upper right quadrant.

You can also have multi-axes models using a variety of political divisions:
Communitarianism/Individualism; Role of Religion; Urban/Rural; interventionism/non; multilateralism/isolationism; pacifism/militancy; foreign trade globalization/autarky; multiculturalism/majority culture; levels of participation; levels of sovereignty; and four left-right divisions are sometimes used...radicals(rapid change) progressives (measured change) conservatives(status quo) reactionaries (return to a previous state)

But, for most people just a simple right-left scale is all they want to deal with...

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this is true, but the economic system is merely a reflection of the strength of government. the more authoritarian the state, the more of an impact the government has on the economy, thus leading to progressively tighter controls, and more meddling. since the term socialism has fallen out of style, it's now being called "state capitalism." as with all forms of socialism, it incorporates elements of the free markets, but the government remains the central economic figure, picking winners and losers, rather than ensuring a level playing field.

and really, socialist economic policies are like tinkering with the dark side. power is an addictive force, and politicians aren't apt to abandon the power they've allotted themselves. they even come to believe that the government is the only answer for all the problems we face. even under communist doctrine, socialism is a necessary step, leading toward pure communism (a classless, stateless, utopian society). so in my estimate, it's like playing with fire.

i suppose my main point is this: whether or not someone lived under hitler's rule, mussolini's rule, or stalin's rule, oppression is oppression, and that's what lies at the crux of the matter. the different ways in which the government controls the economy is really secondary.