Have we gone back to the 1930s? Could we see the return of fascism? After all, hatred and prejudice, which many people thought had been marginalised in western democracies by the defeat of fascism in 1945, decolonisation and the American civil rights movement now seem to be part of the mainstream.
Furthermore, democratic institutions appear threatened. The rightwing UK press depicts judges as enemies of the people, while Nigel Farage warns of riots if Brexit is not implemented.
Asking, insisting, that the result of a referendum be enacted is fascism these days?
Jews are emigrating from France in record numbers so I guess we are going back to the 30s in some ways. However it is not because of Le Pen.
More twaddle from the folks that don’t understand what fascism is, probably because their beliefs track too closely to the actual thing they pretend to object to.
The “hatred and prejudice” really came from National Socialists. The racial element got into fascism in order to keep the neighbouring socialists happy.
“…in 1934, Mussolini and Italian fascists denounced and ridiculed Nazism’s racial theories…”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism#Ideological_dishonesty
Mind you, lefties are people that think fascists are national socialists, and national socialists aren’t socialists.
Some of my ex-friends were absolutely horrified at how much power Farage had even though he was unelected: they were absolutely convinced he was making some sort of Hitlerian move towards power. “Isn’t it frightening?” they would ask. “Aren’t you worried?” And then he blew them all out of the water by resigning because he (overoptimistically) regarded the job as done and has better things to do with his life than bloody politics.
And the whole argument was always weird anyway, because the same people who love the EU kept going on about him being unelected because he wasn’t an MP. But he was an MEP; i.e., he was elected to the body that they wanted to have power.
I’m sick to death of being accused of being one step away from fascism by the people who are one step away from fascism.
If Trump becomes president and keeps his promise to deport millions, parallels with Nazi Germany will inevitably be made.
Remember how Hitler lawfully deported all those illegal immigrants who where squatting in Germany in open defiance of their criminal laws?
Whaddayamean, “no” ??!?!
fascism is notoriously hard to define. Decades of research have not enabled academics to agree on a definition
Sure they have. It’s anybody to the right of Leon Trotsky.
The ‘return’ of fascism? Did this idiot think it ever went away, everywhere?
I see Kevin’s most recent published work includes
yeah … right oh… I’m sure Guderian and Rommel fretted mightily about the curtains….
Hmmm… did fascism ever go away?
Wikipedia: “Fascism rejects assertions that violence is automatically negative in nature, and views political violence, war, and imperialism as means that can achieve national rejuvenation.”
Let’s see… Momentum, UAF, New Labour’s invasion of Iraq, Tory HQ attacked over student fees.
Nope, no evidence of fascism over there on the left. All clear.
Furthermore, democratic institutions appear threatened.
Think on that, though.
Merkel is turning Germany into Saudi A-rapeya. Obama and his predecessors unleashed the largest migration in human history into the US, then crowed about how whites will soon be a minority. We voted to leave the EU, yet TPDB are using every dirty trick in the book to squelch it.
So… what democratic institutions? The ones the proles are using to try to get their country back?
I don’t remember being asked to vote to turn my country into a globalist ant colony.
TPTB even. Steve needs lots more coffee.
Can you still risk the road to serfdom if the seemingly popular candidate actually has a distant, unaccountable and corrupt elite to campaign against? Especially when their opposition candidate appears to be the very embodiment of that corruption.
“Mind you, lefties are people that think fascists are national socialists, and national socialists aren’t socialists.”
They like to think of themselves as international socialists based on the Soviet model because the Russia could do no wrong. What they don’t get is that the Soviets were just as bigoted, if not more so, than the national socialists. The Zipra fighters I taught after independence and the ANC-MK fighters I worked with in SA all said that when they were in Russia they used to get spat at and have monkey chants following them whenever they went out.
“I’m sick to death of being accused of being one step away from fascism by the people who are one step away from fascism.”
Indeed. Worse still a lot of them are just sheeple who voted they way they were told because it made them feel virtuous, they did no reading around and thinking so they could make an informed decision about the trade-offs that were involved. I swear next time one of my wife’s arty sheeple friends makes a “bigot” comment I’m going to empty my pint over their heads.
Fascism is notoriously hard to define. Decades of research have not enabled academics to agree on a definition
I can imagine the contortions the left must go through when trying to define fascism:
“Let’s see… huge government power?”
“Nope, that’s what we support”
“A socialist economy?”
“Nope, that’s what we support”
“Violence to achieve political ends?”
“Nope, that’s what we support”
“A focus on class war and an ideology to break down class barriers?”
“Nope, that’s what we support”
“Government controlled speech?”
“Nope that’s what we support”
“Government controlled press?”
“Nope that’s what we support”
“An end to freedom of association?”
“Nope that’s what we support”
“Damn, it sure is hard trying to define fascism”
Likening Trump to Hitler is a bit of a stretch. Likening him to Stalin is easier.
@:Martin
Trump to Hitler to Stalin?
erm… ask a Pole who lived through 1939/1940
Try this
Martin – “Likening Trump to Hitler is a bit of a stretch. Likening him to Stalin is easier.”
F*ck off. That must be the most asinine comment of this election.
Fascism: strong, autocratic central control of a private economy.
Jeeeze, that wasn’t hard at all.
Fascism, and it’s sister communism, are unnatural impositions on the people. Fascism and communism join in STATISM and TOTALITARIANISM, as the people resist.
The ignorant view statism and totalitarianism as fascist. Conspicuously avoiding using communism for statist and totalitarianist.
The BiND
‘I swear next time one of my wife’s arty sheeple friends makes a “bigot” comment I’m going to empty my pint over their heads.’
That did make me laugh sufficiently to spill my coffee- brilliant!
To be fair, fascism really is quite difficult to define properly, and entirely serious people have failed so far to come up with a generally accepted definition. Yes, some of that is because the Left are in denial about how left-wing fascism is, but not entirely. Jonah Goldberg gave a very good working definition in Liberal Fascism, I thought, though he did it while acknowledging it was probably imperfect and that some obvious fascists don’t tick every box.
> Fascism: strong, autocratic central control of a private economy.
Yes, but not just by government; by a strong man. Fascism always involves a belief that the right strong man at the top of the pile can direct everything rightly. It also involves a quasi-mystical relationship between that man and the land, or maybe him and the people, or both. That would make the USSR fascist under Stalin but not under Brezhnev, and China under Mao but not Hu, which sounds about right to me.
The land’s a tricky one in America, where everyone knows it’s not the ancient historical home of their ancestors, so fascism there tends to concentrate more on people than geology. Was Wilson fascist? Goldberg thinks so. Tough call.
Mussolini’s dictum, “Everything inside the state, nothing outside the state,” is a very good starting point, too, I find. But it’s not all of it.
What I dislike most about Trump is that the usual objection when someone calls a politician a fascist is to say that they have no idea what fascism means, whereas with Trump it’s more, “No, of these ten fascism boxes, Trump only ticks eight.” He’s not technically a fascist. I don’t like the “technically” bit.
And yet he’s still not as bad as Clinton. Jesus wept.
fascism is notoriously hard to define. Decades of research have not enabled academics to agree on a definition
It is especially hard to define when you and your mates have been yelling “FASCIST!” for thirty years at anyone who wasn’t a left-wing loony.
Anyway, how far back do we have to go before we find the Left attacking the judiciary about a judgement they made? My guess: not far at all. As for ‘threatening riots’, that is a peculiarly Leftist speciality.
It’s as if they cannot see who they really are. Their brains must be weird – to be able to conveniently forget and recall things which are inconvenient to you at a particular moment.
Mussolini’s dictum, “Everything inside the state, nothing outside the state,” is a very good starting point, too, I find. But it’s not all of it.
You won’t find Murphy disagreeing with that.
Anyway, how far back do we have to go before we find the Left attacking the judiciary about a judgement they made?
Ched Evans.
“It is especially hard to define when you and your mates have been yelling “FASCIST!” for thirty years at anyone
who wasn’t a left-wing loony.”TFIFY. You’re welcome.
@TIS
Bingo!
@Rob
“It’s as if they cannot see who they really are. Their brains must be weird – to be able to conveniently forget and recall things which are inconvenient to you at a particular moment.”
Throw in lefty self-loathing too, and you’ve got evidence of a mental illness of some kind. They should be pitied, even though they make it very difficult to do so.
SMFS – so who would you equate Trump to?
Martin – “so who would you equate Trump to?”
Berlusconi on a bad day. FDR otherwise.
@ SMFS
How about Phineas T Barnum?
Watch the video to see how incredibly short lefty memories are:
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/blogs/tim-blair/polls-are-good-unless-theyre-bad/news-story/6ee46d042c779754d870c206e500ff2b
DocBud
A classic!
As a working definition I’d go with “anyone the Guardian is actively trying to appease”.
Democratic institutions are threatened?
What, by those who would seek to overturn a democratic decison?
Is that what they mean?
“…the return of fascism?”
The assumption there is it went away.
EU; political correctness; Hate Crime Laws; corporate government; Environmentalism – what is not Fascist about those?
FDR? Ok that’s a new one.
Out of right field there.
The lad’s unhinged. It’s a mid-life thing, like buying a sports car or reverting to the things you did as a teenager – in Mason’s case dancing to Showaddywaddy and Brotherhood of Man, while fantasising over a re-enactment of the Battle of Lewisham.
Watch the video to see how incredibly short lefty memories are
Well, that was embarrassing. To think she specifically went out there to plug an opinion poll that she then got completely wrong, then claimed she didn’t put much weight on opinion polls.
I nice contrast of flashy modern political presentation and good old-fashioned fuck-uppery.
@Bernie G
“in Mason’s case dancing to Showaddywaddy and Brotherhood of Man”.
In Mr Mason’s case, the dance music of choice was northern soul.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggwtND1WzKY
‘Yes, but not just by government; by a strong man. Fascism always involves a belief that the right strong man at the top of the pile can direct everything rightly.’
No, S2, you are making that up. I gave you the definition. It’s in the dictionary. Defining fascism is difficult when you try to make up all sorts of meanings that don’t exist.
Note that the United States of America is fascist, with the Federal government exercising massive control of the country. No strong man involved.
Oh, FFS. Judges ruling on Brexit isn’t being “the enemy of the people”. There is an actual question here – is the entity empowered to invoke article 50 the Queen-in-Council or the Queen-in-Parliament?
The judges said parliament, the government thinks council, and is appealing. Fine.
None of this changes the fact that the people voted in a referendum, and expect (but have no legal standing to insist) that the will of the people expressed in the referendum is carried out by whichever entity actually has the power to do so.
(Yes, the hope behind the case is that parliament will refuse to implement the will of the people, in which case we can start talking about the enemies of the people. But it wom’t be the judges.)