Defining fascism is challenging for three reasons.
The first is that unlike, for example, communists, fascists have been very reluctant to use the term to describe themselves.
Gosh. The Italian fascist party actually called itself the Italian Fascist Party, the intriguingly misleading little bastards that they were.
Second, those groups which have been described as fascist are not all consistent in their attitudes or behaviour.
Oh. So if they’re so different from each other then perhaps they’re not all fascists then?
The third reason is that the term is usually actively resisted by those to whom it is applied. Rather as one of the surest signs that a place is a tax haven is its vehement denial that it is a tax haven, so is it the case that a group that appears fascist in inclination is absolutely vehement in its denial of the fact.
Don’t you just love the logic there? If ‘Tater denies being a fascist then by definition he is one?
As to the actual attributes there see if you can fill out the bingo card y noting examples of ‘Tater doing each and every one of those.
2 for example, rejecting neoclassical economics is rejecting that enlightenment. 7 and 8 are, of course “neoliberals!” and so on.
The caffeine must be pumping in the potato veins as he’s also written a manifesto for freedom this weekend like some pound shop Thomas Jefferson.
None of which he actually believes. You’re free to do whatever you like as long as it’s approved by Professor Potato
The BUF weren’t too bothered about being called fascists either. It being in the name and all that.
As has been said before … For all practical purposes, the only difference between true believing Socialists and true believing fascists is the colour of the epaulettes.
Spud would’ve drowned those witches without flinching.
If you ever see him in person, please call him a fascist and get a video of him denying it.
But teacher, Teacher, I want to answer!!!!
Candidly, Timmy is wrong because The National Socialist Party called themselves socialists but they weren’t True Socialists!!!!
So the Fascists who called themselves Fascists were Fascists. As are the Fascists who do call themselves Fascists.
Therefore, everyone except meeeeeeeeeeeeee is a Fascist.
Candidly.
Someone posted the Wikipedia definition of Classic Liberalism on Longrider’s blog a few days ago:
“Classical liberalism is a political tradition and a branch of liberalism that advocates free market and laissez-faire economics; civil liberties under the rule of law with especial emphasis on individual autonomy, limited government, economic freedom, political freedom and freedom of speech.”
This is pretty close to my position but to Murphy and others like him that makes me a fascist. So of course I deny being a fascist because I’m quite obviously not one.
Some people reckon that the original Falange party was fascist. WKPD: “… Falangist ideology holds that the state should have the supreme authority over the nation. Falangism emphasizes the need for total authority, hierarchy, and order in society. Like fascism, Falangism is anti-communist, anti-democratic, and anti-liberal”
On the other hand: “Falangism has attacked both the political left and the right as its “enemies”, declaring itself to be neither left nor right, but a syncretic third position.” So more like Clinton/Blair ‘triangulation’, then?
Falange, rather like Salazar over the border, was really Catholic conservatism dressed up in the robes of the then fashionable fascism. Sorta and pretty much and about.
WKPD makes an interesting distinction between the original Falange and the form it took after “its transformation into an authoritarian conservative political movement in Francoist Spain”.
In other words an originally fascist programme was replaced by old fashioned Roman Catholic reactionary politics. Although, remarkably, they don’t seem to have burned heretics. Maybe there were no heretics available.
On the subject of Modern Fascism I see that the Linekerites are going to provide me with another opportunity for my improvised football commentaries tonight.
P.S a typo gave me “footbanal”. Pretty accurate.
P.P.S. I promise not to mention yesterday’s rugby. Not a word. Not even a subtle allusion.
22-7
I had a French woman coming around to look at my flat to see if she’d like to buy it yesterday. She and the agent wandered around etc, she was leaving just as France scored its second try. She had a look over my shoulder, declared herself “desolee” and broke into a vast shit eating grin.
Humph.
It is, in fact, commonplace for those accused of being fascist to use DARVO (deny, attack, and reverse victim and offender) gaslighting techniques on those accusing them of being so.
Murphy is a fascist purely economic terms – I’d happily accuse him of it on his blog or Twitter feed had he not blocked me.
I’m also hearing rumours that there could be substantial systemic contagion from Silicon Valley Bank which could bring the entire hypothesis of MMT crashing down. I notice the cretin hasn’t yet posted on the topic. Perhaps the obsession with ‘fascism’ is covering for the fact that his entire worldview is about to be exposed as a complete fraud.
Straight out of Monty Python’s Life of Brian, “only the true Messiah denies his divinity”.
In this time of Neo-fascism I can’t help but notice that the Eternal White Man is responsible for all evils. How long before we get accused of drinking the blood babies in secret ceremonies?
At least they’ve given up on the bookburning. (Carbon footprint?) Now they just change the words.
Tutto nello Stato, niente al di fuori dello Stato, nulla contro lo Stato always seemed a pretty succinct definition to me.
I don’t know enough about Falange but Salazar always seemed more of a Catholic corporatist than a fascist
Another Life of Brian reference is the mutual hatred of the various forms of socialism: the Leninists hated the Trotskyites (“splitters!”); the Nazis and the Bolsheviks hated each other; Stalinists murdered all non-Stalinist comrades. All whilst propounding largely overlapping and interchangeable forms of the same ideology: coercive collectivism.
Ritchie, as he becomes increasingly overt in his fascist prescriptions, might like to consider all this for a moment. Such people never imagine it’s their door the NKVD will be knocking on in the middle of the night. In their fantasies they are always Beria, rather than one of his victims.
I notice Lord Spudcup mentions his son pointed out that Spud’s definition of fascism is too long and over-complicated!
I also see that Lord S is advocating Freedom of Movement as a core fundamental human right. I take it he will be leading by removing all the doors from his house.
“so is it the case that a group that appears fascist in inclination is absolutely vehement in its denial of the fact.”
Jonah Goldberg could tell you some stories about that, Spuddo.
As to the definition, I don’t think Mussolini was exactly unforthcoming: “Everything in the state, nothing outside the state”. Seems pretty clear to me. He originally called it “corporatism”: people and state organised as a single – i.e., corporate – entity, directed from the “top” by a “leader”.
By that measure, most mainstream political punditry is vaguely fascistic in nature these days: “Why aren’t Our Leaders doing something about this?” And don’t get me started on the damnpanic. Even ignoring the actual “measures” themselves, the entire political mindset surrounding it, all government action all the time, was straight out of Musso’s playbook.