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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.
Just to add, Germany was new to democracy at the time. The Nazi Party wasn't a majority party in the Reichstag, and used opposition parties as their scapegoat by blaming them for the fire that caused the Reichstag to be destroyed. The opposition were members of the Communist party and other parties that planned to vote against what Hitler was proposing. The Nazi party jailed members of their party, and rewrote the laws by stating if members of the Reichstag were absent (because they were in jail), their votes were useless. The term Socialism that the Nazis were branding are irrelevant to what we know as Socialism today. Through the lens of the 21st century, that term meant otherwise back then. It was to exclude communism, and prevent private property from being owned by the state.
Just to add, Germany was new to democracy at the time. The Nazi Party wasn't a majority party in the Reichstag, and used opposition parties as their scapegoat by blaming them for the fire that caused the Reichstag to be destroyed. The opposition were members of the Communist party and other parties that planned to vote against what Hitler was proposing. The Nazi party jailed members of their party, and rewrote the laws by stating if members of the Reichstag were absent (because they were in jail), their votes were useless. The term Socialism that the Nazis were branding are irrelevant to what we know as Socialism today. Through the lens of the 21st century, that term meant otherwise back then. It was to exclude communism, and prevent private property from being owned by the state.
Don't get hung up on private property rights - those are a side effect of political pluralism and liberalism.
In medieval times, the king owned all the land. Was that communism? I don't think many would consider feudalism to be left wing.
Given enough political power, the sovereign accumulates all property, regardless of ideology.
The problem is grouping people into so many categories when the definition seems to change over time. How big a federal government do you want? How big a state government do you want?
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.
American liberalism (fascism) leads to authoritarian and totalitarianism and tyrants
the liberals are the party of hitler and Mussolini... FDR brought fascism to this country in the 1930's
Fascism (socialism lite) is left wing...just because it is slightly right of full blown socialism or communism doesn't make it right wing
do you call democrats right wing????... yet they are to the right of the far left liberals (fascists whom want to be socialists)
is a republican left wing...they are not as right as conservatives...oh by your post, you must think republicans are left wing.....
I am not even sure how you can post that with a straight face
american liberalism(which is NOT classic liberalism), Marxism(communism), Nazi-ism, socialism, fascism(socialism lite) all come from the progressive movement
fascism has its ties DIRECTLY to marx
Mussolini was the Che Guevara of his day, a living saint of leftism. Handsome, courageous, charismatic, an erudite Marxist, a riveting speaker and writer, a dedicated class warrior to the core, he was the peerless duce of the Italian Left. He looked like the head of any future Italian socialist government, elected or revolutionary.
Mussolini's Fascist program was a mixture of radical left, moderate left, democratic, and liberal measures.
Fascism (socialism lite) is left wing...just because it is slightly right of full blown socialism doent make it right wing
As an ardent admirer of Marx, Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) called his version of Marxist socialism "Fascism". Instead of nationalization--government ownership--of private business, Mussolini advocated government control of business via complete bureaucratic regulation.
Quote:
""Fascism is a system in which the government leaves nominal ownership of the means of production in the hands of private individuals but exercises control by means of regulatory legislation and reaps most of the profit by means of heavy taxation. In effect, fascism is simply a more subtle form of government ownership than is socialism." Mussolini
hmm control by heavy regulations and taxation....sound like American liberals
Quote:
"A Marxist/progressive/Fascist/Liberal begins with his prime truth that all evils are caused by the capitalists. From this he logically proceeds to the revolution to end capitalism, then into the third stage of reorganization into a new social order of socialism, and finally the last stage -- the political paradise of communism." Saul Alinsky
simple things like 'nationalizing' corporations, nationalization of all trusts(banks),social security, emanate domain(agrarian reform) , removing the guns from the people, demand the end of capitalism, state(country) provided education, blame the jews (or the modern version 'the zionists'),.. 'fairness doctrine"( censorship of talk radio),, singlepayer health, redistribution of wealth).....COMMON GOOD BEFORE INDIVIDUAL GOOD
DO THESE SOUND FAMILIAR, YES THE ARE THE TALKING POINTS OF THE LIBERALS, THE DNC AND MOVEON.ORG...............................THEY ARE ALSO A LARGE PART OF HITLERS 25 POINTS
fascism came to America under progressive Wilson, and the fascist liberal FDR..
fascism is leftwing...always has been... just because something is slightly right of something doesn't mean is crossed the line in the middle and became right wing...... otherwise the democrats would be called rightwing compared to the far left fascist liberals
do these sound familiar, yes the are the talking points of the liberals, the dnc and moveon.org...............................they are also a large part of hitlers 25 points
i love it when you scream to get your points across. Only then will people try to pay attention to your nonsense.
sorry to disappoint you OP, but in the 1932 presidential election in germany, hitler was the liberal candidate, paul von hindenburg was the conservative, and the only reason it has been historically called a right wing movement was because stalin said it was. nice try, but the nazi party was a ;eft wing party, not a conservative one.
The so-called "Left-Wing" in America is no where near the claims from the "Right-Wing" that it is "Communist" or" Fascist".
Having family fled from a Communist nation I can say that the Liberals in America are seeking amends to social injustices that have permeated the US for decades...they aren't trying to overthrow the economic system of this country either which they also benefit from.
If that were the case why are the wealthiest states & cities all dominated by Liberals?
Trump is a authoritarian much like Hitler was.
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