[Pontiac]

Mussolini, the originator of fascism, was lionized by the left, both in Europe and in America, during the 1920s. Even Hitler, who adopted fascist ideas in the 1920s, was seen by some, including W.E.B. Du Bois, as a man of the left.

It was in the 1930s, when ugly internal and international actions by Hitler and Mussolini repelled the world, that the left distanced themselves from fascism and its Nazi offshoot — and verbally transferred these totalitarian dictatorships to the right, saddling their opponents with these pariahs.

Maybe some of the historians among us can educate us on what exactly it was that turned the tide on Fascism.

I certainly was not the persecution of the Jews. Nearly every European nation had a history of Jew hatred.

The only thing I can think of is Germany’s retaking of territories and colonies that it had ceded after WW I.

The mistake I think the Fascist made was that they did not close their borders as the Soviets did. The control of information in the Fascist states was not as complete. Also it seems that the western journalist were more sympathetic to the international socialist. The western intellectuals also seem more attuned to the idea of a complete command economy.

[Uncle Ike]

” The western intellectuals also seem more attuned to the idea of a complete command economy. “

That’s because they all believe that it will be *they*, personally, who will be doing the ‘commanding’....

[Sergio]

I think the tide might have turned in WWII when Hitler broke the treaty with Stalin and attacked Russia. Not that Stalin would not have done the same thing if the roles were reversed, but Stalin survived, Hitler did not, and history is written by the winners.