Posted on 06/07/2016 9:21:24 AM PDT by walford
The Left is fond of smearing those who do not share their value system as "fascist." The latest target is the current 'presumptive' GOP Presidential nominee.
To the Left, "fascist" is a buzzword for an implied, undefined "evil." In fact, fascism is a definable political ideology that has an extensively documented history, in theory and practice.
Fascism is a left-wing ideology; a bundling of trade-union syndicalism, futurism and statist collectivism.
Fascists hold that private property can only be tolerated so long as it serves the public via its agent, the State. That most certainly is not a conservative principle, is it?
Fascists fancy themselves Gifted with Sight of what is real, true and good -- and their assessments and conclusions are not amenable to reason, because their mode of thinking is above reason. [Hence, they become batshit hysterical when confronted with dispassionate, logical evidence-based explanations that what they advocate is harmful. They have no reasonable answer.]
True Believers and dogmatists that they are, fascists believe that the mere existence of differing ideas are a threat -- hence they must be righteously smothered with indoctrination, propaganda, disinformation, ridicule -- and sometimes violence. It is the Left who does such things, no?
Today in America, the fascist Left smells blood as Obamanation has metastasized into full virulence.
They see America approaching the tipping point toward their medieval Utopia in which the vast majority are kept silent, ignorant, impoverished, disenfranchised -- and lorded over by an elite they see as smarter, benevolent and of better character. In actual practice, this elite is more often arrogant, narcissistic and cruel.
This process has been underway for several generations. In the dissolution and division on class, racial, economic, political levels, we are seeing the effects of Leftist policies bearing fruit nationwide -- especially in the cities.
The Left has never quietly suffered dissent, but lately are becoming increasingly shrill -- and vicious. All of this is the inevitable result -- and the logical conclusion -- of Leftist ideology put into practice.
Expect to see more of it.
Bump.
A capitalist is anyone I like.
A fascist is anyone you don’t like.
A communist is anyone we both don’t like.
The NAZIs were a centrist left wing ideology in their time:
Hitler was a Socialist:
http://ray-dox.blogspot.com/2006/08/this-article-is-published-on-internet.html
Limbaugh said recently a liberal thinks a fascist is anyone who disagrees with a liberal.
IMO that fits.
I see a fascist as those who are totalitarian in their thinking, especially inregards to issues of free speech. And so of course I view liberals as a much more fascist than conservatives are.
Climate change is all about fascism. They do not even care about the opposing point of view. As Joe Biden stated, what is the downside ? Duh.
“We are socialists, we are enemies of todays capitalistic economic system for the exploitation of the economically weak, with its unfair salaries, with its unseemly evaluation of a human being according to wealth and property instead of responsibility and performance, and we are determined to destroy this system under all conditions.” - Adolf Hitler
Fascism, socialism, communism....all different sides of the same coin. All require centralized command and control authoritarian government. All quasi-religious cults doomed to fail.
Fascism is not an ideology, it’s a style of governance — a measure of governmental despotism.
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 unfreedom 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.What is promised to us as the Road to Freedom is in fact the Highroad to Servitude. For it is not difficult to see what must be the consequences when democracy embarks upon a course of planning. The goal of the planning will be described by some such vague term as 'the general welfare'. There will be no real agreement as to the ends to be attained, and the effect of the people's agreeing that there must be central planning, without agreeing on the ends, will be rather as if a group of people were to commit themselves to take a journey together without agreeing where they want to go: with the result that they may all have to make a journey which most of them do not want at all. - F A Hayek,
The Road to Serfdom (Reader's Digest Condensed Version - April, 1945)
It is neither. Stripping aside all the hyperbole and talking the actual definition is useful.
Fascism is one party government control of the political machinery combined with a (theoretically)’free market’ or capitalist economy. Obviously the ‘free market’ part gets very corrupt very quickly.
It is a definition that has nothing to do with ‘right/left’. It is a formulation that is quite effective, actually. The Nazi party and modern China are examples of the fact it actually functions pretty well in terms of economic advancement.
- 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.
- 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, [fascists and communists] both know that there can be no compromise between them and those who really believe in individual freedom.
Mussolini was much loved by American Progressives before the war.
Fascism is de facto socialism. Private property, prices, and profits exist in name only and are controlled by the state.
“Fascism is not an ideology, its a style of governance a measure of governmental despotism.”
Socialism - a form of statist collectivism in which government owns everything and everybody.
Fascism - a form of statist collectivism in which private property is tolerated so long as it serves the state.
Both are prone to despotism, because when that much power is concentrated in the hands of a few, the peculiar weaknesses in character in the Ruling Class will become institutionalized and foisted upon the general population.
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.