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Reminding Leftists What 'Fascist' Means
Townhall.com ^ | January 14, 2021 | Rob Jankins

Posted on 01/14/2021 9:00:10 AM PST by Kaslin

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To: Kaslin

In the US they were both called “progressives”. The Nationalist progressives were led by Teddy Roosevelt. The Internationalist progressives, by Woodrow Wilson.

Importantly, the majority of Republicans back there were conservatives, who didn’t want either ‘flavor’ of progressivism. TR was so obstinate, however, his faction broke off and formed their own third party, which gave the leftists the presidency.

In Europe, the schism between nationalists and internationalists was happening before WWI, but after the war, the nationalists went with the fascists and the internationalists went with the communists. The conservatives were again caught in the middle, not caring for either ‘flavor’.

It should also be noted that the two ‘flavors’ watched and copied each other. Hitler created the Jugend, a youth training organization, to raise a next generation of ideologically pure fascist leaders. Just five years later, the socialists and communists in Norway joined their youth groups to found the Workers’ Youth League (AUF), with the same idea, to create a next generation of socialist-communist leaders.


21 posted on 01/14/2021 9:35:27 AM PST by yefragetuwrabrumuy ("All men and women were created by the, you know, you know, the thing." -- Joe Biden 3/3/20)
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To: cdcdawg
That was long ago. I can't remember all the names. But I do remember Neil. I briefly had a roommate in college that looked like Neil.


22 posted on 01/14/2021 9:39:35 AM PST by ConservativeInPA (See Profile: I'm giving up.)
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To: ConservativeInPA

There is a hidden 5th roommate that is in at least all of the first season. It is weird and a little bit creepy. The guy is clearly there, but difficult to notice.


23 posted on 01/14/2021 9:41:35 AM PST by cdcdawg (Turn off Fox News! You can do it!)
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To: ConservativeInPA

The four were Mike, Neil, Rik and Vyvyan.


24 posted on 01/14/2021 9:50:38 AM PST by Olog-hai ("No Republican, no matter how liberal, is going to woo a Democratic vote." -- Ronald Reagan, 1960)
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To: gundog

The Young Ones was hilariously funny to me in the 80s. I wasn’t really aware of the jans at Thatcher and Reagan. Went to watch it about seven years ago or so, and it didn’t age well with me. The music was good on it, though. Introduced me to Madness and Motörhead.


25 posted on 01/14/2021 9:53:08 AM PST by IYAS9YAS (There are two kinds of people: Those who can extrapolate from incomplete data.)
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To: Olog-hai

I think I was getting Vyvyan and Rik mixed up. I haven’t accessed those brain cells for four decades.


26 posted on 01/14/2021 9:55:31 AM PST by ConservativeInPA (See Profile: I'm giving up.)
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To: brownsfan

YUP


27 posted on 01/14/2021 10:00:22 AM PST by Recovering Ex-hippie (The 2020 election Trump victory determines the fate f America and Freedom.)
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To: ConservativeInPA
Vyvyan was the punk rocker, played by Adrian Edmondson. Apparently his character was a chemistry prodigy, in the show.


28 posted on 01/14/2021 10:03:27 AM PST by Olog-hai ("No Republican, no matter how liberal, is going to woo a Democratic vote." -- Ronald Reagan, 1960)
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To: Kaslin
Not exactly the first time that has been pointed out here on FR, but it's a nice, clear formulation of the point. Mussolini was, after all, not only a socialist to begin with but the editor of the largest socialist newspaper in Italy. He was also the guy who imprisoned Antonio Gramsci, so there were limits even to that.

In the turbid little world of academic Marxian theory one can only be a true communist, i.e. an internationalist, by not only eschewing love of one's country, but by actively hating it: that demonstrates the transcendent quality of an enlightened thinker. In practice that has never been successful for Communist leaders of actual existing nations, an instance of practice trumping theory in a less than ideal world. One would think they'd have gotten the message by now.

By selecting individual already-successful corporate structures and incorporating them into government fascism makes the claim that it is more efficient than free-market capitalism, but in fact the reverse is true. Bernie Sanders' petulant grumbling that one does not need 23 varieties of deodorant is a case in point - one does if the best of them is determined by the customer's choice. Forcing anything else is inherently inefficient. And that is precisely what we are seeing presently when Parler decided to compete and the "official" PTB in the IT industry conspired - there is no better word - to prevent it. "Let the free market decide" has no place in this shackled little world and efficiency has nothing to do with it. The price of corporate cooperation with the government is the enforcement of monopoly.

What is lost in all of that is individual freedom, ironic because "self-actualization" is supposedly the object of communism according to Marx and in practice the resulting authoritarian society must ruthlessly repress it. It is there that communism and fascism are most similar.

I'll take freedom, thanks.

29 posted on 01/14/2021 10:07:41 AM PST by Billthedrill
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To: Olog-hai

Now I get it ... really jumbled brain cells. I confused Vyvyan for Rik and called Rik, Adrian, which is Vyvyan’s real name.


30 posted on 01/14/2021 10:09:51 AM PST by ConservativeInPA (See Profile: I'm giving up.)
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To: IYAS9YAS

Rick was such a ludicrous parody of an anarchist poseur that I couldn’t take any of his jabs seriously.


31 posted on 01/14/2021 11:52:22 AM PST by gundog ( Hail to the Chief, bitches!)
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To: Kaslin

Simple... we should now just refer to the Left as Global Facists. Now they meet all three parts of the definition.


32 posted on 01/14/2021 12:56:53 PM PST by rivercat
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To: brownsfan

They do not view themselves as nationalist because they hate American and want flush most of our history..tradions..Christian beliefs..as well as the USC in the toilet.


33 posted on 01/14/2021 1:06:07 PM PST by Leep (Save America. Lock down Joe Biden!)
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To: Leep

In a Federal (nationalistic) kind of way.


34 posted on 01/14/2021 1:16:44 PM PST by Leep (Save America. Lock down Joe Biden!)
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To: gundog

“The LIMIT Vivian. I live on the limit.” Rick

Still breaks me up...


35 posted on 01/14/2021 1:22:28 PM PST by PfromHoGro (Orwell was optimistic.)
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To: cdcdawg

“Of course, the Current Year Left isn’t really even Marxist anymore in the traditional sense. Marx would have deplored all of the sexual perversion they push these days as bourgeoisie decadence, though he would have lacked any moral basis from which to do so.”

Don’t be so sure about that. One of Marx’s goals was the breakdown of the family, and sexual perversion is a dang good way to accomplish that bit. Besides, Lenin himself legalized homosexuality among other things (ironically, it was Stalin who recriminalized it within the USSR, though he DID still support it outside the USSR, purely so it could ensure a communist takeover far more easily).

As far as Fascism and whether it was reactionary, not really. If anything, Mussolini, the guy who founded Fascism, is pretty much all FOR Socialism, and is as much against it as Gramsci was.

“Are there any examples of libertarianism defeating a communist takeover of a country from within? I mean outside of fictional novels.”

Does Pope John Paul II and/or Ronald Reagan count?


36 posted on 01/14/2021 7:02:12 PM PST by otness_e
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To: otness_e

“Does Pope John Paul II and/or Ronald Reagan count?”

No. Reagan’s nationalistic military buildup and JP2’s advocacy on behalf of the Church do not count as libertarian. They did achieve some temporary success in their time against the external threat of the USSR, but now the Left uses private companies to spread their poison, and the Catholic Church has a new kind of leadership. Unfortunately, their efforts only held things at bay for a bit.


37 posted on 01/15/2021 4:59:41 AM PST by cdcdawg (Turn off Fox News! You can do it!)
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