Some words seem to mean almost the same thing: Nazi, fascist, totalitarian, nationalist. How can we sort these out?
Naziism is nationalism plus socialism; therefore, it is a mixture of a moral valuation and an economic system. Nationalism is a moral value system, in which the existence, growth, and power of the nation-state is seen as the supreme and ultimate goal; nothing is more important - not family, not religion. Socialism is an economic system, and there are many varieties of socialism, but most of them include ideas like redistribution of income, state ownership of the means of production, regulated markets (i.e., no free market or "laissez-faire" economy), increased taxes, and so forth. To be sure, some versions of socialism do not include all those features, but most do.
Totalitarianism means simply total control by the government of all aspects of civil and private life.
Fascism is a combination of nationalism and totalitarianism.
This is, at least, a starting point for trying to understand the subtle differences between these various terms. Much more can be said.
