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Originally Posted by Itse
Also, you're seriously arguing that in Europe in 1936 Nazis marching through Jewish quarters were probably not up to anything? That there was absolutely nothing to worry about? I think you should read up on your history. Antisemitism was becoming an acceptable and commonly discussed stance in UK politics by the mid 1930's. Anti-jewish rhetoric was widespread, as were small scale attacks. Antisemitism is still common in the UK today. It was not and is not in any way a marginal issue of some lunatics.
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Fascists and communists were fighting in the streets across Europe in that period. Radicalism fuels radicalism.
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Originally Posted by Itse
I mean, it's theoretically quite possible that if the BUF didn't get the wind knocked out of them in 1936, the anti-war and pro-fascist sides in UK politics would have won over the pro-war side in the debate on whether or not to commit to the war against Nazis. Even the way things went, it was an extremely close call that UK didn't make peace with the Axis in May 1940. It took Churchill a lot of maneuvering to get his way against Lord Halifax. After that point he got Mosley and BUF interned, because that's just how dangerous they were thought to be.
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France did make peace, and one of the reasons for its rapid collapse was the polarization of the country. In their zeal to bring down the Third Republic, the communists undermined the war effort.
The lesson of the inter-war turmoil in Europe isn't that the left was not bold enough in confronting fascism. It's that liberal democracy was either too new or too weak in many countries to stand up to the violent polizaration of both the left and right. People were frightened and insecure, and their fear and insecurity drove them into the arms of authoritarian zealots of various stripes, who told them their governments were illegitimate and they needed to take to the streets and achieve their goals through violence. The Western democracies avoided this fate because they successfully defended liberal values in the face of violent agitation from both the left and the right. The center held.