What is Fascism?

It is a word thrown around so much lately it has lost all meaning.
The dictionary definition is "a political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition. "
We can start with a bit of History. Fascism was originated by Giovanni Gentile, a student of Hegel, much like Marx. So in a similar vein to Marxism, it is totalitarian control. Now there are things we could point to, for instance an economy that is controlled by cronyism, backed by government favoritism, could be the economic aspect of Fascism. So in that way, we do have some fascist aspects to the American economy. The purpose of the Fascist economy was supposed to be somewhere between capitalism and socialism, with aspects of both. So economically,l it is radically centrist, if we are going by a strictly left right scale of economics. Fascism tends to utilize political violence to accomplish its ends (although not all political violence is fascist)
What Fascism is not, it is not tied to any specific religion, and actually often views religion as a threat to its goals (see Hitler's attitudes toward religion when he wasn't pandering to the German people). Gale - Product Login
Now Mussolini himself was religious and is even largely responsible for the Vatican in its current form.
Fascism can be but is not necessarily inherently racist Hitler was racist, Mussolini was indifferent.
This is really just a basic overview, but again, the term is wildly misused as rhetoric.

 

Considering that one of the two political parties in this country didn't even advance a platform in the last two elections, essentially endorsing whatever their Dear Leader wanted, refer to their failed coup d'etat attempt of January 6th 2021 as "legitimate political discourse"; endorse single-party minority rule characterized by hyper-nationalism, militarism, authoritarianism, overt hostility to democracy, a free press, and an independent judiciary, the overt scapegoating of minorities, blatant corporatism & corruption, White supremacy, misogyny, xenophobia, and religious bigotry, and explicit promotion of political violence, with 25% of the population; more than 60 million Americans, now stating that violence is justified “to preserve an American way of life based on western European (White) traditions” and 47% of the electorate voting for a charismatic kleptocratic autocrat who has voiced admiration of Nazis and has cultivated a personality cult which would make Kim Jong Il blush, I find your assertion truly astounding.

If anything, the word 'Fascism' isn't used nearly enough.

 

Don’t be fooled. The flag draped, racist, misogyny laden, violence based thugs calling themselves “revolutionaries” have nothing in common with the American revolution or the hippies of the 60s. They don’t want freedom or democracy…..they want domination, control and the triumph of hate. The brown shirts in Germany and oligarchs in Russia portrayed themselves as a populist based movement for the average person but they were just ordinary neofascists.

So too are the proud boys, oath keepers, white supremists, and the rest of the extreme right and religious zealots. We need to support love, tolerance, and inclusiveness and send the purveyors of hate to the scrap heap of history…by the triumph of ideals not violence.

 

Many have tried to define fascism. Human history is full of oppressive regimes but not all tyrannies are fascism.
Fascism was strictly a reactionary movement: the organized answer of ruling classes against the mounting threat of Communists, Socialists, Anarchists that right after WWI were gaining momentum and causing the old order to dwindle. The russian revolution had scared shitless the wealthy classes now fearing not just to lose wealth but life too. Meet Benito Mussolini, a renegade socialist leader who literally sold himself first to the British intelligence and then to the italian tycoons, ultimately creating a front of capital and church against the working classes on the brink of a violent revolution.
Fascism is the law of the jungle elevated to a creed; violence is glorified, nationalism is a staple, but the most important feature is the cult of the State. Fascism was the first "totalitarian" ideology theorizing that "nothing must exist outside of the state", which in layman's terms means that you cannot even found a chess club without authorisation, and the chess club MUST be a FASCIST chess club directly controlled by members of the party. A democratic organization is forbidden: everything and everyone in the fascist state MUST BE FASCIST, period. I think that right wing americans aren't really fascists in the historical meaning of the word. They may borrow some cosmetic features from the nazis but they are just a bunch of racists and nationalist thugs, and the fascist were this, but also much more than this. The fascistoid are legion, true fascists are less common birds.
Ito make an example in Putin's russia they don't impose you to put on a shirt of some colour every sunday and parade in the streets right after the mass like we had it in Italy during proper historical fascism: putin is a Tzar, not the leader of an ideological, totalitarian regime: he is just a tyrant.

 

Kevin McCarthy's lesson: There's a real downside to fascist trolling"

Ultimately, it's not about Kevin McCarthy at all. It's about the Republican Party's self-conception in its exciting new fascist iteration (which was forged under Donald Trump but doesn't really have much to do with him either). Fascism needs to be understood less as an ideological movement and more as a movement devoted to the worship of power for its own sake, and also a dramatic aesthetic of constant warfare and performative purification of an ever-narrower conception of the body politic.
Those are big words, and I apologize, but here's a simpler way to put it: Fascists are a bunch of trolls who are never satisfied. They must always prove their power by ganging up on someone who's been cast as an "outsider." As the Atlantic's Adam Serwer famously observed, "The cruelty is the point." Most of the time, the targets are racial and sexual minorities, liberals or immigrants. But sometimes, that restless need to constantly bully someone manifests in purification rituals, where a once-trusted or even beloved insider is deemed an outsider who must be ritually purged. It's just Kevin McCarthy's turn in the proverbial barrel, though he almost certainly hasn't helped his cause by constantly debasing himself before the hardliners. He's marked himself as a weenie, and that just makes his tormentors enjoy watching him suffer even more.

Watching Republicans tear each other apart is both entertaining and useful. Fascists are always itching for a fight, and given the chance they'll turn on each other like a bunch of weasels in a sack.

 

The modern Republican party is hurtling towards fascism | Robert Reich

 

What’s Behind the GOP’s War Against Democracy?

 

The MAGA / Q Anon / GOP are losing their War Against The Truth .
Casualties :
Alex Jones
Tucker Carlson
Fox News

Mike Lindell is in the middle of a Litigation Mine field .... the truth will blow him up, like a " Bouncing Betty " landmine.

I hope Karma gets Alex Jones and Mike Lindell .
I hope that Alex Jones and Mike Lindell cuttle in a cardboard box on a cold night under an overpass, in Round Rock , Texas .... and the Radical Right Wing Jesus runs them over as they snuggle in their cardboard box together . !!!!

 

Our Very Own Home-Grown Fascists

"Why should it matter whether Donald Trump’s MAGA movement and the Republican Party he’s largely taken over represent a kind of fascism? The answer: because the logic of fascism leads so inexorably to the politics of extermination. Describing his MAGA movement as fascism makes it easier to recognize the existential threat it truly represents — not only to a democratic society but to specific groups of human beings within it."

 

The Most Predictable Movement In History

 

Could you enlighten me about Mike Lindel? As far as I can tell, he expressed an opinion, free speech, and historically, Fascists were the ones to oppose free speech.

 

Trump’s Plan To Go Full-On Fascist If He Wins In 2024

 

Which incident do you have in mind? There was the one about the FBI seizing his cell phone, and then the defamation lawsuits brought by Dominion and Smartmatic. The first involved the Fourth Amendment and unreasonable search and seizure; the second involved the First Amendment, more relevant to your concerns about speech.

Re the cellphone, my understanding is that it was seized pursuant to a subpoena and search warrant issued by a federal judge. Search warrants are to be issued only if there is probable cause to believe that the thing being searched and seized contains evidence of a crime. In this case, the alleged crime was by Ms.Tina Peters, the county clerk for Mesa County, CO, who was suspected of a scheme allowing unauthorized access to voting machines to download information from them. Lindell campaigned for Peters and was thought to have information about her that would be pertinent to the investigation.
Federal Investigation Into Colorado Clerk Reaches MyPillow’s Mike Lindell
My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell has phone seized by FBI at fast-food outlet
Mike Lindell's phone search reveals new details about scope of federal probe into efforts to subvert 2020 election results | CNN Politics
Mike Lindell's phone search reveals new details about scope of federal probe into efforts to subvert 2020 election results | CNN Politics
It had nothing to do with Lindell's opinions or freedom of speech. Lindell wasn't charged with anything. If there was probable cause to believe the phone contained such evidence, that would be enough--whether or not Lindell himself were involved or did anything wrong. I have no information about whether or not there was probable cause to issue such a warrant, or what the incriminating evidence might be.

He was also involved in a civil defamation lawsuits filed by Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic which Lindell had accused of rigging the 2020 election. The Supreme Court has long held that defamation is not protected speech under the First Amendment. So far, no evidence of Fascism.

 

Thanks for the basically accurate overview. The term "fascism" has been abused in political discourse by folks who use it as kind of a cuss word for any politician or political development they don't like. Properly speaking, it refers, as you point out, to particular kinds of totalitarian movements similar to those introduced by Mussolini and Hitler. As insightfully explained by one of our brilliant former contributors, Okiefreak (me in a previous incarnation) on the thread entitled Fascism, Fascism is distinguished by six elements: Populism+Nativism+Nationalism+Scapegoating+Statism + personalism (the leadership principle). I won't repeat my discussion here. You can check it out. But I think Trump presently heads a movement that can accurately be described as Fascist. In particular, the last element, personalism, was chillingly illustrated by a recent poll indicating that Trump supporters trust that pathological liar over family, friends and other information sources. Trump voters trust ex-president more than their family and friends: Poll We clearly have a cult of personality here that we haven't seen before in U.S. politics, but should be familiar to students of fascist movements.

 

Mouths Full of Blood: Trump and His Backers Spread Lies, Violence and Fascism

"Under both previous fascist regimes and the Trump presidency, truth was reduced to what was supported by power, myth replaced history, and reason was relegated to a sneering contempt and degeneracy. In addition, reality collapsed into a form of willful ideological ignorance, and racist lies took direct aim at equality, social justice and dissent. The merging of lying, racism, and violence in U.S. politics cannot be understood outside of a legacy of fascist lies, domination and the destruction of democracy itself. Trump and the modern Republican Party couple their belief in absolute truth and the primacy of violence as crucial to their claim on power. At work is a radical renewal of the legacy of fascism and racial purity with its destruction of human values, critical education, and a collective collapse into the death-driven belief that equality and democracy are synonymous with decadence and must be eliminated. Trump and his allies represent a form of brutalizing education that legitimates lying and violence as part of a broader politics designed to subvert freedom, agency and the formative culture that sustains a meaningful democracy."
"Trump and most of the Republican Party embodies a fascist politics that poses both a danger to the future of democracy and the rest of the globe."

 

The Constitution protects Free Speech, but not Defamation ....look it up !!!!

 

What s the example of Mike Lindel's defamation then?

 

None of that seems to justify seizing his phone.
As for Dominion, looks like they have in fact discovered vulnerabilities
Expert Hacks Georgia Voting Machine in Court, Revealing Potential Election Vulnerabilities (msn.com)
And for years, long before Trump claimed it and made it all about him, people who designed voting machines have admitted they can be manipulated.
FLASHBACK: Computer Programmer Testifies that He Rigged Voting Machines - The Washington Standard

 

Mike Lindell is being sued by Dominion ($1.3 million) and Smartmatic for his false claims their machines were involved in election fraud. He also has to pay $ 5 million to Robert Zeidman, who responded to Lindell's offer to pay that to anyone who could disprove his claims. Apparently, the court was convinced he lied.
Federal judge affirms decision that MyPillow’s Mike Lindell must pay $5m to software engineer who disproved his 2020 election tampering claims
MyPillow's Mike Lindell must pay contest winner $5 million for debunking voter fraud claims
Fox settlement part of flurry of lawsuits over election lies
Ouch! Sidney Powell's and Rudy Giuianni's similar false claims have likewise been exposed and sanctioned.
Supreme Court leaves sanctions in place against Sidney Powell and others over 2020 election suit in Michigan
Supreme Court leaves sanctions in place against Sidney Powell and others over 2020 election suit in Michigan
Fact Check: Rudy Giuliani’s Bogus Election Fraud Claims – NBC New York

Retrumplican claims that the 2020 election was stolen have been sufficiently debunked after a flood of lawsuits that only diehard troglodytes and conspiracy theorists continue to raise the issue.
PolitiFact - Courts did review Trump campaign ‘evidence’ of election fraud. Claims that say otherwise are wrong
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trumps-false-claims-debunked-2020-election-jan-6-riot-2022-01-06/
https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN2AF1FQ/
Trump’s Fraud Claims Died in Court, but the Myth of Stolen Elections Lives On (Published 2020)
No Evidence For Voter Fraud: A Guide To Statistical Claims About The 2020 Election | Hoover Institution No Evidence For Voter Fraud: A Guide To Statistical Claims About The 2020 Election
https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...e-new-claims-voter-fraud-have-been-disproven/

 

And as I responded above, at least in regard to Dominion, he would seem to g=have been vindicated.
Expert Hacks Georgia Voting Machine in Court, Revealing Potential Election Vulnerabilities (msn.com)