Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Socialism to Fascism
Encyclopedia of World Biography ^ | 2017 | World Biography

Posted on 02/04/2017 1:44:49 PM PST by calenel

Mussolini had become a member of the Socialist Party in 1900 and had begun to attract wide admiration. In speeches and articles he was extreme and violent, urging revolution at any cost, but he was also well spoken. Mussolini held several posts as editor and labor leader until he emerged in the 1912 Socialist Party Congress. He became editor of the party's daily paper, Avanti, at the age of twenty-nine. His powerful writing injected excitement into the Socialist ranks. In a party that had accomplished little in recent years, his youth and his intense nature was an advantage. He called for revolution at a time when revolutionary feelings were sweeping the country.

(Excerpt) Read more at notablebiographies.com ...


TOPICS: Education; History
KEYWORDS: fascism; mussolini; socialism
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-40 next last
Leftists often point to Mussolini and Hitler as examples of fascists, which they depict as right-wing, however, it has often been demonstrated that Hitler called himself a Socialist (never mind the word being prominently featured in the name of his party, the National SOCIALIST German Workers Party) and it is my opinion that the distinction between Fascist and Socialist is merely in the preference of methods. After all, Stalin did exactly the same to the already-socialist USSR that Mussolini did to Italy, so what is the distinction?

And more importantly, isn't this exactly what we are seeing from the left in this country right now?

1 posted on 02/04/2017 1:44:49 PM PST by calenel
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: calenel

Yes it’s exactly what we’re seeing. They were also BOTH against property rights, so...


2 posted on 02/04/2017 1:47:31 PM PST by Voluntaryist
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: calenel

3 posted on 02/04/2017 1:53:06 PM PST by Bon mots (Laughing at liberal tears!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: calenel

Didn’t someone liken these two to murder and forced suicide?


4 posted on 02/04/2017 1:53:10 PM PST by SWAMP-C1PHER (HOMO, OECONOMIA, ET CIVITAS.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: calenel

5 posted on 02/04/2017 1:53:56 PM PST by Bon mots (Laughing at liberal tears!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: calenel

Could anyone that has studied that era of history explain where “fascism” came from, how Hitler came to be called one, and how the term ‘fascist’ came to be considered “right-wing?”


6 posted on 02/04/2017 1:57:50 PM PST by wastedyears (President of the United States Donald J. Trump)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: wastedyears
and how the term ‘fascist’ came to be considered “right-wing?”

That part is easy. Hitler = bad. Hitler = fascist. Therefore fascist = bad.

Right wing = bad. Therefore fascist = right wing. Didn't you ever take logic courses?

7 posted on 02/04/2017 2:05:56 PM PST by lafroste (Look at my profile page. Thanks.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: calenel

Yep. The distinction is each of the different socialist brands hate each other.


8 posted on 02/04/2017 2:08:52 PM PST by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now it is your turn ...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: calenel

It’s an academic discussion of these isms. When you are the victim, the blows feel quite similar.


9 posted on 02/04/2017 2:09:32 PM PST by lurk (TEat)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: wastedyears

Hitler and Mussolini were nationalists, which was considered to right of international communists.


10 posted on 02/04/2017 2:13:13 PM PST by kosciusko51
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: calenel

RE Mussolini:

Would-be fascists and socialists in this Country would do well to remember how “Il Duce” wound up.

Strung up, upside down with his main squeeze next to him, full of bullet holes.

They should ask Nikolai Ceacescu about that too.

Ordinary decent people get to the point where they’ve had enough of leftist bullsh*t and react accordingly.

It won’t be pretty.


11 posted on 02/04/2017 2:13:17 PM PST by NFHale (The Second Amendment - By Any Means Necessary.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: calenel

This quote was a big light bulb for me on the whole issue you are questioning:

Although our modern socialists’ promise of greater freedom is genuine and sincere, in recent years observer after observer has been impressed by the unforeseen consequences of socialism, the extraordinary similarity in many respects of the conditions under “communism” and “fascism.” As the writer Peter Drucker expressed it in 1939, “the complete collapse of the belief in the attainability of freedom and equality through Marxism has forced Russia to travel the same road toward a totalitarian society of un-freedom and inequality which Germany has been following. Not that communism and fascism are essentially the same. Fascism is the stage reached after communism has proved an illusion, and it has proved as much an illusion in Russia as in pre-Hitler Germany.”

No less significant is the intellectual outlook of the rank and file in the communist and fascist movements in Germany before 1933. The relative ease with which a young communist could be converted into a Nazi or vice versa was well known, best of all to the propagandists of the two parties. The communists and Nazis clashed more frequently with each other than with other parties simply because they competed for the same type of mind and reserved for each other the hatred of the heretic. Their practice showed how closely they are related. To both, the real enemy, the man with whom they had nothing in common, was the liberal of the old type. While to the Nazi the communist and to the communist the Nazi, and to both the socialist, are potential recruits made of the right timber, they both know that there can be no compromise between them and those who really believe in individual freedom.

— F.A. Hayek, The Road to Serfdom

This was written in the mid- to late-1940s by a trained contemporaneous economic observer of the European scene, Freidrich Hayek. If you have not read The Road to Serfdom, you should. It isn’t that long.


12 posted on 02/04/2017 2:13:21 PM PST by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: PIF

It’s like two different street gangs fighting for turf. The International Socialists (Communists) and the National Socialists (NAZIs) were all thugs.


13 posted on 02/04/2017 2:16:14 PM PST by reg45 (Barack 0bama: Gone but not forgiven.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: calenel; ChicagahAl
ChicagahAl posted this on a thread about George Orwell. I thought it was petty good

Communism: From each according to his ability; to each according to his need.

Fascism: From each according to his social classification; to each according to his social classification.

Capitalism: From each according to his ambition; to each according to the value of his productivity.

14 posted on 02/04/2017 2:16:59 PM PST by lizma2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Bon mots

The only thing worse than a Fascist is an Anti-Fascist.

Notice that Communists never used the term “Nazi” to describe the Germans, they used the term “Fascist”, because “Nazi” was short for “National Socialist”, which would be an admission that they were fellow socialists.


15 posted on 02/04/2017 2:18:18 PM PST by dfwgator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: calenel

Communists and fascists are two sides of a single coin. A communist dictator is commonly also a fascist, since “communist” refers to goals or theories and “fascist” refers more to methods of governance.

Hugo Chavez, for example, was a communist, and he governed as a (corrupt) fascist.


16 posted on 02/04/2017 2:20:15 PM PST by marron
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: calenel

Not much difference between Socialism and Fascism. The goal is the same, tyranny.

Fascism was more of a marketing ploy. Sell to the masses as the new and improved Socialism.


17 posted on 02/04/2017 2:21:51 PM PST by joshua c (Cut the cord! Don't pay for the rope they hang you with.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SWAMP-C1PHER
Ayn Rand nailed the "difference" between socialism & communism.


18 posted on 02/04/2017 2:24:08 PM PST by newfreep ("If Lyin' Ted was an American citizen, he would be a traitor.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: reg45

The only difference is the people who get put into the camps.


19 posted on 02/04/2017 2:26:55 PM PST by dfwgator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: calenel

Fascists are a political party set up by Mussolini.

Socialism is a way of governing.

Saying “I’m a Socialist.” is like saying “My religion is Christianity.”

Saying “I’m a Fascist” is like saying “My religion is marriage.”


20 posted on 02/04/2017 2:30:05 PM PST by Tzimisce
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-40 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson