âÂÂWho Goes Nazi?â is an essay by American journalist Dorothy Thompson originally published in the August 1941 issue of Harper's Magazine. The essay examines a series of fictional characters who possess varying personalities, social statuses, and upbringings, and attempts to determine whether they would âÂÂgo Naziâ â that is, whether they would support a mainstream Nazi political movement despite not subscribing to a Nazi or otherwise fascistic ideology.
Thompson frames the essay as a âÂÂsomewhat macabre parlor gameâÂÂ, wherein one privately speculates which attendees at a social gathering could conceivably âÂÂgo Naziâ under the proper political or social circumstances. She posits that support for Nazism is not formed on the basis of class, nationality, or race, but that the ideology âÂÂappeals to a certain type of mindâÂÂ.
She demonstrates the game by describing the well-heeled attendees of an imagined party, the majority of whom are denoted by letters. Characters such as âÂÂMr. CâÂÂ, a socially alienated Wall Street advisor who in school âÂÂtook all the scholastic honors but was never invited to join a fraternityâÂÂ, would go Nazi so that he could âÂÂrise to such an eminence that no one can ever again humiliate himâÂÂ, while subservient antifeminist âÂÂMrs. Eâ would go Nazi for a politician âÂÂwho proclaims the basic subordination of womenâÂÂ.
Thompson concludes that individuals most likely to go Nazi are those who are ruthless and cerebral, are embittered by their circumstances, are easily deceived, and/or would opportunistically seek to be close to power if Nazism was ascendant, summarizing that "the frustrated and humiliated intellectual, the rich and scared speculator, the spoiled son, the labor tyrant, the fellow who has achieved success by smelling out the wind of successâÂÂthey would all go Nazi in a crisis".
âÂÂWho Goes Nazi?â is regarded as one of Thompson's most influential essays, with Nick Martin of The New Republic writing that âÂÂeight decades later, ThompsonâÂÂs inquiry still has the media industry in knotsâÂÂ. The essay has been praised for its continued political relevance, with Harper's re-publishing âÂÂWho Goes Nazi?â in 2017 and noting that it is âÂÂunfortunately [...] starting to feel new againâÂÂ. The essay has received a mixed reception among right-wing commentators; conservative journalist James Kirchick praised the essay in Tablet as a âÂÂtimeless analysis of the authoritarian mentalityâ and âÂÂdisturbingly relevant reading todayâÂÂ, while Scott Beauchamp of The American Conservative criticized it as the âÂÂur-text of fascist paranoiaâ and an example of the conflation of all conservative ideology with Nazism.
The essay has been referenced by contemporary media outlets in coverage of the 2016 United States presidential election and the Unite the Right rally, as well in commentary on the alt-right and other far-right movements more broadly. Tributes and parodies of the essay have been published in Current Affairs, Tablet, and The Outline.