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I hear the word Fascism tossed around a lot, but as we are a society which places little value on history, I feel that most people lack an understanding of what it truly means. The Cambridge English Dictionary defines it as:
“a political system based on a very powerful leader, state control of social and economic life, and extreme pride in country and race, with no expression of political disagreement allowed”
That seems pretty broad and I see elements of both political parties in that definition, which may be why members of both American political parties use the word to describe the extremists on either side.
One can argue that nearly every president over the past 100 years can be described as a very powerful leader, depending on who you ask. In the past decade, the current president and the past president are both described as the best and the worst, again depending on who you are talking to. So, while a powerful leader is not enough to define the word, it sets up the idea of what it means because a powerful leader is needed to sway the masses to the ideology desired. Powerful is also perceived by the person viewing that leader, depending on if that leader is strong in the ideals the viewer believes in.
Control of Social and Economic life. This is a little more detail and can easily be backed by citations one way or another. Again, depending on who you ask, your answer will be different. Social issues have become one of the most flaunted yet unresolved topics at every election period. In a nutshell, “we need Social Justice, but we aren’t brave enough to legislate it, let’s just leave it up to the courts to decide”, is sometimes discussed by people who follow politics. On the left, their party advocates social issues where the government mandates how you think, one must accept sexual orientation (despite your religious beliefs), one must accept their definition of gender, one must accept people of a certain religion but not any others, one must not advocate religion in politics. On the right, one does not have the right to end unwanted pregnancies despite it being your own body, One must be patriotic or be outcast, One must accept a certain religion but not others, one often relates religion and politics. All of these ideas are easily cited via news articles over the past several years and it would be hard to argue against.
Economics might be a little harder to pull in to the definition, for me at least, because it isn’t my strong suit. However, the basic ideologies of the two parties pretty much dictate their positions on state control of economic life. The left is often described as a tax and spend ideology which believes in wealth distribution and social welfare. The right tends to be more fiscally conservative, less government involvement in your wallet and opposes social welfare programs. So, in this case, in my opinion, one side leans towards the fascist definition more than the other, slightly, but still a lean.
Extreme pride in one’s country and race. Hands down, the right wins as they tend to promote patriotism as a valued characteristic. However, racial pride is a bit more complicated, mostly reserved for the fringe extremists on either side such as the white supremacists, Black Lives Matters and La Raza. All are seen advocating extremist racial views and try to align that with a certain political alignment.
Finally, with no expression of political disagreement allowed, is an important quality of Fascism. The suppression of free speech has been in the media and social media for the past year. Left wing extremism and Academia both being accused of being intolerant of Conservative values expressed by certain speakers or candidates. Often disrupting town hall meetings, candidate rallies/speeches, governmental meetings, left wing extremists have painted the picture of intolerance to oppositional points of view. At the same time, one can argue that the right’s “Fake News” campaign can be likened to state controlled propaganda. However the perceived left bias of most news media contradicts that assertion and in the previous administration was also viewed as state controlled propaganda.
So, in reality, neither right or left wing entities fully meet the definition of Fascism. They each meet some element of it, but as a whole, the use of the word to exemplify one of the two American political ideologies is false.
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica,
“…fascist parties and movements differed significantly from each other, they had many characteristics in common, including extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy and the rule of elites, and the desire to create a Volksgemeinschaft (German: “people’s community”), in which individual interests would be subordinated to the good of the nation.”
This seems to be a more detailed definition, which has connotations that lead to an implication that Fascism still has elements embraced by either or both political ideologies. The right for extreme nationalism, elitism and contempt for liberalism, the Left for contempt for our electoral process (electoral college), elitism and the creation of a people’s community.
So which side is fascist?
“a political system based on a very powerful leader, state control of social and economic life, and extreme pride in country and race, with no expression of political disagreement allowed”
That seems pretty broad and I see elements of both political parties in that definition, which may be why members of both American political parties use the word to describe the extremists on either side.
One can argue that nearly every president over the past 100 years can be described as a very powerful leader, depending on who you ask. In the past decade, the current president and the past president are both described as the best and the worst, again depending on who you are talking to. So, while a powerful leader is not enough to define the word, it sets up the idea of what it means because a powerful leader is needed to sway the masses to the ideology desired. Powerful is also perceived by the person viewing that leader, depending on if that leader is strong in the ideals the viewer believes in.
Control of Social and Economic life. This is a little more detail and can easily be backed by citations one way or another. Again, depending on who you ask, your answer will be different. Social issues have become one of the most flaunted yet unresolved topics at every election period. In a nutshell, “we need Social Justice, but we aren’t brave enough to legislate it, let’s just leave it up to the courts to decide”, is sometimes discussed by people who follow politics. On the left, their party advocates social issues where the government mandates how you think, one must accept sexual orientation (despite your religious beliefs), one must accept their definition of gender, one must accept people of a certain religion but not any others, one must not advocate religion in politics. On the right, one does not have the right to end unwanted pregnancies despite it being your own body, One must be patriotic or be outcast, One must accept a certain religion but not others, one often relates religion and politics. All of these ideas are easily cited via news articles over the past several years and it would be hard to argue against.
Economics might be a little harder to pull in to the definition, for me at least, because it isn’t my strong suit. However, the basic ideologies of the two parties pretty much dictate their positions on state control of economic life. The left is often described as a tax and spend ideology which believes in wealth distribution and social welfare. The right tends to be more fiscally conservative, less government involvement in your wallet and opposes social welfare programs. So, in this case, in my opinion, one side leans towards the fascist definition more than the other, slightly, but still a lean.
Extreme pride in one’s country and race. Hands down, the right wins as they tend to promote patriotism as a valued characteristic. However, racial pride is a bit more complicated, mostly reserved for the fringe extremists on either side such as the white supremacists, Black Lives Matters and La Raza. All are seen advocating extremist racial views and try to align that with a certain political alignment.
Finally, with no expression of political disagreement allowed, is an important quality of Fascism. The suppression of free speech has been in the media and social media for the past year. Left wing extremism and Academia both being accused of being intolerant of Conservative values expressed by certain speakers or candidates. Often disrupting town hall meetings, candidate rallies/speeches, governmental meetings, left wing extremists have painted the picture of intolerance to oppositional points of view. At the same time, one can argue that the right’s “Fake News” campaign can be likened to state controlled propaganda. However the perceived left bias of most news media contradicts that assertion and in the previous administration was also viewed as state controlled propaganda.
So, in reality, neither right or left wing entities fully meet the definition of Fascism. They each meet some element of it, but as a whole, the use of the word to exemplify one of the two American political ideologies is false.
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica,
“…fascist parties and movements differed significantly from each other, they had many characteristics in common, including extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy and the rule of elites, and the desire to create a Volksgemeinschaft (German: “people’s community”), in which individual interests would be subordinated to the good of the nation.”
This seems to be a more detailed definition, which has connotations that lead to an implication that Fascism still has elements embraced by either or both political ideologies. The right for extreme nationalism, elitism and contempt for liberalism, the Left for contempt for our electoral process (electoral college), elitism and the creation of a people’s community.
So which side is fascist?
