"14 Common Features of Fascism"

Political ideologies and political systems influence each other, but they are separate things. Communism and Facism are ideologies that tend to lead to very similar practical systems.

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Fascism really isn’t an ideology. That’s where a lot of the confusion comes from. Fascism has goals and does what’s necessary to reach them.

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I think you discount how much fascists relied on socialist concepts to build their paradise for the chosen people - and they even said as much. I’m not suggesting they were Marxist purists in the sense that they believed in textbook socialism that is a precursor to communism, they weren’t - but nor were millions of other people who called themselves socialists.

Fascists wanted to use socialist tools to a right wing end. That doesn’t mean that Socialism Always Equals Fascism.

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Who are the chosen people?

This. It ends up being the same point on the circle either way you go. Along with each, you get murder and mayhem. I would say the fascists would have better pastry.

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It’s a lovely history lesson, I assume you have a point for posting all this stuff, what is it?

I’ve never read a definition of “fascism” that was truly satisfyingly accurate. Hence perhaps why I don’t see any difference between communism and fascism, except in how they couch things and how they played the game.

Japan was fascist, but its government and economy was a sort of pseudo-religious monarchy, almost feudal. I’ve never quite grasped who had the power. The Emperor? Almost a figure head. But more than that, too.

Italy was fascist, but it had some mix of private and socialist, probably more capitalist (and less controlled) than the rest.

The Nazis were socialists, but capitalists for the chosen few.

The three of them really don’t have a lot of commonality, except top-down government control, us vs. them mentality.

I’ve come to the conclusion there is no rationale, except whatever system or rationale was necessary at a given time for the government to (try to) achieve whatever goal it had.

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That’s true at least in practice if not in theory. The very same rules applied to communist USSR as in NAZI Germany. The only difference is they hated each other, for some reason. Looking at the list: 1, 2, 3, 4,6 (if you replace middle class with poor),7,8,9,10,11 (the working man is a hero, the poor and suffering hero, but “called” the hero),12,13, and 14 all applied to the Soviets as much as it did Fascists. The only real difference is that communists were not default racists, though they could be. The communists immiserated everybody relatively equally, save for members of the communist party, who got some perks depending on how high on the totem pole they were.

That’s basically what I meant by an ideology: goals. As in, an ideology is an idea as to what goals society and/or government should be striving for. The system is how to go about achieving those goals.

What do you think an ideology is?

Figured I should go ahead and post some ignorance that comes to mind

Fascism is an English word (I’m probably wrong on that, but bleh) applied to various non English governments/societies. It’s not going to be all that accurate.

It’s usage is usually emotional, imprecise, propagandist. Like the word ‘socialism’.
I’m not saying these words don’t mean anything, but they definitely mean different things to different people, in a big way. There’s no changing that.

A system of ideas. A system based on ideas. Fascism has ideas but no system.

This is just a bunch of wrong. “If you change this to that” could apply to anything.

I lold

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Well one example is that the Conservative party in Germany allowed the Nazis to join their government.

From dictionary.com

Ideology noun, plural i·de·ol·o·gies.

  1. the body of doctrine, myth, belief, etc., that guides an individual, social movement, institution, class, or large group.

  2. such a body of doctrine, myth, etc., with reference to some political and social plan, as that of fascism, along with the devices for putting it into operation.

  3. Philosophy.

  4. the study of the nature and origin of ideas.

  5. a system that derives ideas exclusively from sensation.

  6. theorizing of a visionary or impractical nature.

The first definition of ideology does not require a system of implementation. The second definition requires a plan (or system) and lists facism as an example. We can argue about what words mean, but you are contradicting their dictionary definition, so I’ll pass.

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There’s a great movie on Netflix called “he’s back” or “look who’s back” or something similar.

In it, a certain evil corporal reappears in modern day, Terminator style, reasons unexplained.

They play some of it for laughs, but it rapidly takes a dark, very serious, turn as he starts to re-acquire power. And no it’s not through the NDSAP (or whatever that party is).

There is a moment where he gives this speech on TV — starting with a solid minute of silence. It was shockingly persuasive and in his style — the writer clearly having given great thought and study to the speeches.

I highly recommend it.

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It’s a great movie. It starts as a slapstick satire and slowly morphs into something deeply disturbing and sinister yet strangely visually captivating, despite an absurd premise.

It does a great job of showcasing the inherent dark allure of totalitarianism and how even the most evil ideas can be attractively repackaged with enough effort and passage of time.

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Even though your posts indicate a heavy preference for the EU. Do you ponder it moving to a totalitarian position in the future? It certainly has come a long way from the beginning economic treaties (say prior to EEC) to dictating much regulation through unelected bodies.

I’ll explain the options available using the abusive boyfriend analogy:

Russia - a psychotic violent drunk who loudly yells that you’re soulmates meant for each other while he’s slamming your head against the kitchen sink. When you wake up from a coma he’s next to your hospital bed bawling his eyes out professing his undying love and asking “why do you always force me to do this”

Turkey/Middle East - Saturday is a day for beating for last week’s slights and transgressions. Upon hearing from a relative that you exchanged a pleasant greeting with a male neighbor he invites his brother over and they strangle you in the bathroom for dishonoring him.

China - he checks your mobile location tracker and confronts you about your unscheduled 5 minute stop while coming home from work. He slaps you in the face and locks you in a dark room for 48 hours to teach you “the concept of transparency”

EU - after getting a promotion and starting to earn more than your significant other, he starts dropping passive-aggressive remarks daily - “no, I’ll do the dishes, you’re the breadwinner you should rest” and “ha ha, we know who’s wearing the pants in THIS family”

So even if we assume a feverish nightmare scenario where the EU is run by a cabal of evil Soros funded bureaucrats with their evil regulations (or whomever is the Euro villain du jour at Fox) it’s still the least worst option by far.

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Star Wars borrowed heavily from the NAZI’s, too.