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The 14 Characteristics of Fascism (2003)

60 pointsby glenscott1over 8 years ago

16 comments

softbuilderover 8 years ago
Before you get too pleased with how well this aligns with the president-elect, think about how well this lines up with the current president, or any administration in the past few decades.<p>My point isn&#x27;t that all of those administrations were fascist, it&#x27;s that each item in this list allows too much range for critical analysis.
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mturmonover 8 years ago
Probably superior to this piece is historian Robert Paxton&#x27;s article &quot;The Five Stages of Fascism&quot; (<a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;theleder.com&#x2F;docs&#x2F;Misc&#x2F;Paxton_Five%20Stages%20of%20Fascism.pdf" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;theleder.com&#x2F;docs&#x2F;Misc&#x2F;Paxton_Five%20Stages%20of%20Fa...</a>).<p>It was later extended into a book length treatment (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;libcom.org&#x2F;files&#x2F;Robert%20O.%20Paxton-The%20Anatomy%20of%20Fascism%20%20-Knopf%20(2004).pdf" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;libcom.org&#x2F;files&#x2F;Robert%20O.%20Paxton-The%20Anatomy%...</a>) which is very worthwhile, and readable, if you are interested in what he calls (paraphrasing) the most significant political development of the 20th century.
endisukajover 8 years ago
A more interesting look at fascism is in my opinion Ur-Facism[0] by Umberto Eco. It was posted on HN a couple of months ago as well[1].<p>[0](<a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nybooks.com&#x2F;articles&#x2F;1995&#x2F;06&#x2F;22&#x2F;ur-fascism&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nybooks.com&#x2F;articles&#x2F;1995&#x2F;06&#x2F;22&#x2F;ur-fascism&#x2F;</a>)<p>[1](<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=12173823" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=12173823</a>)
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tpeoover 8 years ago
Heaping the likes Pinochet and Franco with that of Mussolini is conflating authoritarianism with fascism, and that can only debase the meaning of &quot;fascist&quot;. No wonder the word is thrown around so often.
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FullMtlAlcoholcover 8 years ago
This list excludes the essential characteristic of facism and without it reads more like an ultra right-wing, ultra-nationalist state. I&#x27;ll let Il Duce wax authoritarian about it:<p>&quot;We have created the united state of Italy remember that since the Empire Italy had not been a united state. Here I wish to reaffirm solemnly our doctrine of the State. Here I wish to reaffirm with no weaker energy, the formula I expounded at the scala in Milan everything in the state, nothing against the State, nothing outside the state.&quot; [0]<p>&quot;We are, in other words, a state which controls all forces acting in nature. We control political forces, we control moral forces, we control economic forces, therefore we are a full-blown Corporative state. We stand for a new principle in the world, we stand for sheer, categorical, definitive antithesis to the world of democracy, plutocracy, free-masonry, to the world which still abides by the fundamental principles laid down in 1789. &quot;[1]<p>Does this kind of united state, with everyone marching in lockstep towards a common goal, sound even remotely close to America? A country hurtling towards facism would not allow people protesting and crying in public areas days after an election. Healthy protests that aren&#x27;t broken up by jack-booted thugs are a sign of a healthy democracy. :)<p>[0] speech before the Chamber of Deputies, May 26, 1927<p>[1]Speech before the new National Directory of the Party, April 7, 1926, in Discorsi del 1926, Milano, Alpes, 1927
oelmekkiover 8 years ago
I find it a bit disturbing how this focuses on people in power&#x27;s attitude, and not on the mass of people&#x27;s behavior, like if fascism was something a handful of people put in place and the rest of us had nothing to do with&#x2F;about it.<p>Well, I&#x27;m certainly not an historian, so this is just my two cents, but it seems to me that the very core of fascism is anger and defiance. And believing just a few people can make history (thus, the exaggeration of the leader role).
facepalmover 8 years ago
I would say the main characteristic is the murdering of people who oppose the fascist government. All the rest is just wishywashy blah blah. Oh, and watchdogs on every corner, prepared to punish you if you step out of line.<p>Honestly, I wish all the people comparing Trump to Hitler would spend some money and read a book on how the Nazis came to power and what went down in Germany when they had grabbed power.
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h4nkosloover 8 years ago
This is remarkably stupid, at best descriptive of convergent evolution in generically authoritarian regimes. It&#x27;s not too far from describing the current Chinese government, which to put it mildly has no connection to the thought of Benito Mussolini.<p>&quot;Fascism&quot; is a word that actually means something, it&#x27;s not a signifier of generic BadGov. It was a specific historical movement driven by WWI veterans with socialist backgrounds, whose core idea was using militarism &amp; nationalism as a way to suppress class conflict. It&#x27;s related to but distinct from Nazism; Franco, Mussolini, Gömbös, etc. didn&#x27;t have any elaborate racial theories.<p>It&#x27;s really not always 1934. Pick a different historical analogy, it&#x27;s as ridiculous as seeing everything in light of the Russo-Japanese war or continually worrying that we&#x27;re seeing the rise of Orléanist governments.
bradleyankromover 8 years ago
Can anyone provide a solid background on Britt? Everything I&#x27;ve found is simply referencing his article, not much about his credentials.
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rurbanover 8 years ago
More actual: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;jimmarrs.com&#x2F;news_events&#x2F;news&#x2F;america%E2%80%99s-unique-fascism&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;jimmarrs.com&#x2F;news_events&#x2F;news&#x2F;america%E2%80%99s-uniqu...</a> and esp. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;web.archive.org&#x2F;web&#x2F;20150316053541&#x2F;http:&#x2F;&#x2F;rationalrevolution.net&#x2F;articles&#x2F;rise_of_american_fascism.htm" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;web.archive.org&#x2F;web&#x2F;20150316053541&#x2F;http:&#x2F;&#x2F;rationalre...</a>
jgalt212over 8 years ago
Trump cares mostly about staying in the headlines. If saying fascist things accomplishes that goal, he&#x27;ll ape a fascist. If the public starts to resonate with Bernie Sanders post-election narrative, Trump will start sound like a union organizer.<p>As a result, I don&#x27;t fear Trump because of his politics (which I actually think in many ways are center-left), but his inability to execute effectively. Until Macau cratered, I think he was basically the only man to lose money in the casino business.
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enimodasover 8 years ago
On the other hand, the original objectives written in the fascist manifesto were very progressive and you&#x27;ll likely agree with most points.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Fascist_Manifesto" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Fascist_Manifesto</a>
PrimeDirectiveover 8 years ago
This is very far fetched for current US administration and making assumptions about the upcoming one is a bit too early. BUT like 95% of this applies to Russia
bobbybobbybobover 8 years ago
America has been descending into fascism for decades, Trump is just the next rung on the ladder.
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pastPrologover 8 years ago
One thing missing from the list: a real worker&#x27;s movement that is threatening to the wealthy.<p>People remember the Russian Revolution toward the end of World War I, what they tend to forget is that Hungary had a revolution and became a Soviet republic in 1919. Many things happened happened in different European countries at that time.<p>Germany had an attempt communist revolution starting in October of 1918 which went on for months, you could even say years.<p>In the German elections, vote results were:<p><pre><code> Nazis Socialists Communists 05&#x2F;28 2.6 29.8 10.6 09&#x2F;30 18.3 24.5 13.1 07&#x2F;32 37.2 21.5 14.3 11&#x2F;32 33.09 20.43 16.86 </code></pre> So in four years you see an increasingly powerful communist party going from getting one in ten German votes to one in six German votes. You also have communists and socialists outnumbering Nazis. Unfortunately for the left, the Catholic Center party got 11% of the vote, and after the Reichstag fire, the Nazi seizure of power occurred, and the the Center party voted for the enabling act and the de facto Nazi seizure of power became de jure.<p>But it was prompted by 37% of voters being reds, and 16% of voters being communists. Red voters outnumbered brown voters.<p>In Italy, the 1922 march on Rome followed the Biennio Rosso. The working class tried to take over and failed, and the fascists took over.<p>Returning to red power in Germany at the turn of 1932&#x2F;1933 - on February 20, 1933, Hitler met with representatives of German industry - Gustav Krupp, Fritz Springorum from Hoesch, an IG Farben board member, Fritz von Opel, a board member of Siemens etc. In the midst of stormtroopers taking over the streets he asked them to bankroll the Nazis in the upcoming elections so they could pass the enabling act. German industry bankrolled the Nazis, because they feared the 37% red workers (the majority of the working class) and the rising power of the KPD.<p>The situation is nothing like that in the US. If anything, the little existing of the worker&#x27;s movement is disintegrating - Michigan and Wisconsin just became right to work states. Board members of the Fortune 100 are not going to bankroll a party like the Nazis. There&#x27;s no left to fight. The wealthy and upper middle class are becoming increasingly liberal, as there&#x27;s no socialist movement to worry about, in comparison to 20th century Europe.
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legodtover 8 years ago
6 and 14 are the only ones missing on the list, but some could easily argue that 6 is already here in a minor way and 14 was attempted through voter purges in potential swing states and the repeated attempts at suppressing votes and&#x2F;or upholding needlessly cumbersome voter registration rules by both parties (one more aggressively than the other).
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