Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
This is one of the lamest rebrandings out there. I say this as a conservative.
When people use "fascism" to mean just an authoritarian government, they should use the words "authoritarian" or "totalitarian" instead. Fascism gets thrown around as a catch-all for "the evil government I don't like", when in fact fascism has a much more specific meaning.
Fascism was a right wing reaction to communism, a left wing movement. The fact that fascism was wedded to nationalism and racism marks it as a right wing movement. The second world war, on the Eastern front, was a war between two diametrically opposed ideologies.
To understand why the Nazi party was called the National Socialist party, you need to understand that the welfare state had been established in Germany since the 1880s, the first place in the world that it was established in fact. If you really want to dig, you would understand that this was in large part because of romantic nationalism, as opposed to the neoclassical rationalism that was dominant in Britain and France.
The Nazis were democratically elected, and would never have been successful at the ballot box if they had advocated for the dismantling of the German social welfare system. Not that they even wanted to. They saw social welfare as part of German identity.
In contrast, left wing movements are internationalist, and emphasize class solidarity instead of national solidarity. Left wing movements divide people horizontally by class while right wing movements divide people vertically by nation. The fact that fascism is so nationalistic, such that class differences are subsumed by national identity, makes it a right wing movement.
Now onto American conservatism. The US was birthed as a classically liberal country. So American conservatives are trying to conserve classical liberalism. Conservatism varies by country depending on your starting point. In the US the starting point was plural democracy and individual freedom. In Germany the starting point was monarchy and group allegiance.
Liberalism is the middle ground of the political spectrum, between right and left wing. It is liberal by necessity - neither wing is powerful enough to impose its ways on the other so as a society people decide to live and let live.
If either side becomes too powerful, they invariably become authoritarian and then totalitarian. Fascism is right wing totalitarianism and communism is left wing totalitarianism.
The political spectrum is like this, from left to right.
Conservatism describes a rate of change, and its antonym is radicalism.
Likewise, "liberals" should stop calling themselves as such. They are progressives or socialists, depending on how extreme their views are. Liberalism in the US was also the victim of a lame rebranding in the 60s, and currently the Republicans are the liberal party in the US while the Democrats are the progressive party.
The Constitution didn't allow fascism to happen, until the 16th Amendment.
Apparently that is why the Nazis sent all the communists, liberals and socialists to concentration camps and all the right-wingers, such as military generals, business leaders, and nationalists were promoted and made part of the regime.
Many more business leaders donated money to and supported Hillary than they did Trump.
Disagree. I think the OP's post was fairly accurate. The Nazis were clearly a right wing party.
Subjugation of the individual to the benefit of the collective society isn't a right wing ideology. That's explicitly left wing. The banning and confiscation of guns isn't a right wing ideology. That's explicitly left wing. Identity politics (Jews must wear yellow stars) isn't a right wing ideology. That's explicitly left wing.
A lot of people are showing their lack of knowledge of history. /SMH
Apparently that is why the Nazis sent all the communists, liberals and socialists to concentration camps and all the right-wingers, such as military generals, business leaders, and nationalists were promoted and made part of the regime.
Liberal Fascism by Jonah Goldberg. GREAT book that explains it clearly -- historical rise of liberalism, the economics, special interest groups, propaganda. Highly recommended. Fascism exists on the left too, of course.
Subjugation of the individual to the benefit of the collective society isn't a right wing ideology. That's explicitly left wing. The banning and confiscation of guns isn't a right wing ideology. That's explicitly left wing. Identity politics (Jews must wear yellow stars) isn't a right wing ideology. That's explicitly left wing.
A lot of people are showing their lack of knowledge of history. /SMH
Soros, Corporate America, and Wall Street have clearly been behind the DEMOCRATS for decades. Goldman Sachs, Comcast, Disney, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, MSN, GE etc. The list goes on and on. See the above post.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
