Helping my kids understand fascism (vanity)

Google

[small farm girl]

My kids asked for a succinct definition of fascism...here's what Google posts:

fas·cism ˈfaSHˌizəm/Submit noun an authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. synonyms: authoritarianism, totalitarianism, dictatorship, despotism, autocracy; More (in general use) extreme right-wing, authoritarian, or intolerant views or practice.

Uhgg! I gave plenty of "feedback" and hope everyone takes a moment to do the same!

[metmom]

Try this.

It’s only 10 minutes and excellent.

Different forms of Government.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDS1OHk7Lf8

[fella]

To be succinct a system where government runs businesses without owning them by threat of governmental force. For example today’s American progressive-uni-party.

[goat granny]

right, and communism is where the state owns all the business and property....both on the left...anyone that goes to google and not a good dictionary for a definition shouldn’t be asked and question

[Little Ray]

The definition is BS. Leftist Propaganda.

Fascism is “National Socialism” vs. Communist “International Socialism.” Both are totalitarian. Both tightly control the economies.

[cld51860]

If I remember this correctly, the root word for fascism is Italian, “fascisti,” which is the word or a variation of a word fir a bundle of sticks. It represents collectivism, and the image was on fascist Italy’s tanks and aircraft during WW2. Collectivism is certainly not an ideal of today’s right wing.

[SaraJohnson]

Fascism is a socialist, centralized power like Marxism but it hates and mass murders different people. Hitler’s Germany was fascist in competition with Germany’s Marxist forces. Marxists kill people who don’t think and believe (religious people) like they want them to; fascists kill targeted ethnic groups. Marxists have murdered more innocent people than Hitler and other fascists ever dreamed of killing.

[CodeToad]

You can identify a fascist by the looks they give when they lose.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

First explain that fascism (national socialism) is just another form of socialism. Internationalist socialists bitterly reject this idea, but it is the truth.

Internationalist socialism and communism are distinguishable because they want to force all people to be “equal” in all ways; with things like individuality, gender, intelligence, experience, talent, personality, ethics and morality reduced “to the lowest common denominator.” They crave “generic” people living in primitive poverty, because wealth discriminates, and they want people to have nothing unique about them, and all living solely to serve government.

Since trying to force people into this mold is very frustrating, and doesn’t work, internationalist socialists decide to destroy, even kill, those who do not conform to what they crave to be the “ideal”.

They hate religion, unique cultures, history, ethnicity, nationalism, marriage and the nuclear family, excellence in anything, and utter abject failure, which they still prefer to excellence.

They are repugnant people, who are very gifted at subverting organizations to work for their cause, and they quickly revert to violence and hatred against those who disagree with them.

Fascism (national socialism) disagrees with internationalist socialism in several important ways. To begin with, they *honor* individuality and uniqueness and families, they see nations and peoples as having an inherent purpose and reason to exist apart from other nations, and while they do not embrace cultural and historical truths, they tend to idealize them to the point of fantasy to encourage national pride, even arrogance.

They see ethnicity at its best when it is not cross-bred with other varieties of ethnicity. They do not admire peoples or nations that are racially blended, but do admire nations that have maintained their uniqueness.

They are just as militarily aggressive as are the internationalist socialists, and while they are willing to strongly abuse individuals who disagree with them, they are hesitant to abuse groups of people that rise up against them in their nation.

Comparing the two major varieties of socialism, several conclusions can be reached. First and foremost, they both suffer from fantastic idealism, for which they are willing to destroy and kill to achieve. Neither group respects republican-democracy, equality before the law, opinions that disagree with them, and they both crave radical solutions to problems simple and complex.

They are both convinced of the inevitability of their philosophy, and demand that all institutions be geared to advance it, not permitting dissent or argument against them.

They also watched each other to pick up ideas they could use to further their goals. Nationalization and collectivization by the internationalist socialists proved to be utter failures early on, though they insisted on forcing them to try and work, which they never did, even 70 years later. They still insist they are the only way to do things.

The fascists (national socialists) picked up on this idea of failure, so modified their economic policies against nationalization and collectivization to instead just have government direct the outcomes they wanted from business, and let the businessmen figure out how to accomplish it, sometimes called the “public-private partnership”. Which worked somewhat better, but still is far less efficient than market forces alone.

The bottom line to all this is that both philosophies, while similar, are both failures, despite endless efforts to make them work. They both cause destruction and violence, and hurt and kill people. And while their supporters will endlessly lie about them to make them sound good, they are both abhorrent and should be discarded to make the world a better place.

[FreedomPoster]

Here, I’ll put in on the thread, too.

I strongly recommend Jonah Goldberg’s book Liberal Fascism (just as I am strongly annoyed with the #nevertrump attitudes he displayed during this last election cycle, which I hope he has reconsidered).

Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Change
https://www.amazon.com/Liberal-Fascism-American-Mussolini-Politics/dp/0767917189

For the topic of why the Nazis were/are Leftists, here are some links:

http://reason.com/archives/2007/08/15/hitlers-handouts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1143131/posts