Posted on 01/16/2008 10:19:41 AM PST by bs9021
Liberal Fascism Explained
by: Amanda Busse, January 16, 2008
Conservative commentator Jonah Goldberg is tired of being called a fascist. In his latest book, Liberal Fascism, he fights back against the term that those on the right are often saddled with, reminding readers that the original fascists leaned more toward the left.
Goldberg, the editor-at-large for National Review Online, argues in his book that fascism under Benito Mussolini and Nazism under Adolf Hitler came from the same intellectual source as Progressivism, the birth-mother of American liberalism. The term “liberal fascism” comes from a speech made by author H. G. Wells when he told a group of Young Liberals at Oxford that Progressives must become “liberal fascists” and “enlightened Nazis.”
“I’m not saying today’s liberals are Hitler’s cousins,” Goldberg said at his first discussion of the book held at the Heritage Foundation. “They’re more like his grand-niece once removed.”
The author claims the point of the book is to give an accurate definition and history of fascism, a word which he asserts is commonly misused.
“Many modern liberals and leftists act as if they know exactly what fascism is. What’s more, they see it everywhere—except when they look in the mirror,” Goldberg’s book reads. “Indeed, the left wields the term like a cudgel to beat opponents from the square like seditious pamphleteers.”
The side of fascism he attributes to American liberalism is not that associated with the works of George Orwell or the racism and genocide of the Holocaust. It is much less brutal, “smiley-face fascism,” as he puts it. He asserts that liberals hold political principles which are similar to those found in many fascist regimes.....
(Excerpt) Read more at campusreportonline.net ...
When liberals start calling a fascist or neocon, you can be reasonably assured that they have no clue what the definition is of either.
A conundrum. I despise the RINO Romney, give away 20 billion in tax dollars this week to the auto industry, pander, flip-flop, etc. etc.
National Review endorsed him.
But I have a lifelong academic interest in fascism and considered writing a similar book. Now . . .
Do I buy the book?
Fascism is undeniably collectivist. It is a leftwing phenomenon. I’m planning on picking up this book.
Communists, Fascists, Socialists.
“smiley-face fascism,”....not so much in Seattle. They are hard core in your face whack jobs.
I’m about 3 chapters into it. I strongly recommend it. Probably one of the most important conservative books in the past decade.
Absolutely. You will need to cite it in your book.
True.......it’s the inescapable future, the inevitable end for humanity, before the “end”; actually, it’ll make the ultimate “end” more palatable.
I concur - I am about 4 chapters in. On page 410 is the platform of the National Socialist party of Germany in 1930's. Reads like the Democratic Platform of today!
-—agreed—just finished it last night—
Read tonight
I plan to order one this week.
This is the one dozenth thread on this, something we already knew about before the book was published.
And I’m tired of being called short.
From now on I’m going to call NBA players short.
Like Midget Michael Jordan.
There...now Jonah and I both feel better.
In a related story.....
Heard a historian say the other day that the term “Islamofascism” is not so good because Islamist Jihad is so much worse than fascism.
“one dozenth” LOL!
Thread size: 0.08333
Ping for later...
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.