And more importantly, isn't this exactly what we are seeing from the left in this country right now?
Yes it’s exactly what we’re seeing. They were also BOTH against property rights, so...
Didn’t someone liken these two to murder and forced suicide?
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?”
Yep. The distinction is each of the different socialist brands hate each other.
It’s an academic discussion of these isms. When you are the victim, the blows feel quite similar.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
Really, the name of Hitler’s party says it all: “NATIONAL Socialists”, as opposed to the Soviet-led bloc, who were “INTERNATIONAL Socialists”.
The International Socialists dreamed of socialism without borders, or rather with borders that were no more than formalities to define administrative districts, while the Communist International ruled them all. The National Socialists wanted to implement socialism within their own countries (and those they conquered), free from interference by such an international body.
There are some other differences between them but I believe many of those were simply because the National Socialists did not survive long enough to evolve into their final form, while the International Socialists did.
Excerpt:
‘Taking Communism Seriously’
http://www.balintvazsonyi.org/washtimes/wt012098.html
Mussolini was a socialist who, thrown out by fellow-socialists, formed his own socialist party named “fascist” after a symbol from ancient Rome. Reality is that Hitler’s outfit was called the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, with a manifesto copied from Marx. Reality is that Lenin’s Bolshevik Party was based on German books. Differences merely reflected local conditions. Jiang Zemin, China’s current president speaks of “Socialism with Chinese characteristics.”
Might some people be working on socialism with American characteristics?
Calling fascism right-wing is a Big Lie used to confuse and divide.
Leftism is leftism; totalitarianism is totalitarianism.
Extreme rightism produces libertarianism, then anarchism.
Communists and fascists are not opposites or opponents; they are erstwhile kissin’ cousin competitors.
Worthy of some contemplation.
Fascism is the softer sell of totalitarian systems because it gives the pretense of private ownership. Yes you can own your own business but we(the sate) will control the producion process. Yes you can own your own home but we are going to tell you how you’re going to live in it. Socailsim and communism make no pretense about any of that.