Too Many Things Are Being Called Fascist Today That Are Not Fascist
This is a post I contributed to a thread on a right-leaning forum where people are discussing fascism. My goal while participating in political discussions today is to de-radicalize people everywhere.
It was cute in the 2000's when punk rock bands would call zealous patriots fascists, but it's not anymore when average people can't tell the difference between national interest and fascism. Moreover, people who exist in the center-right space are being framed as fascists while the ones doing the framing consider themselves anti-fascists.
It was a tactic that was working while right leaning people were saying to themselves, "We're not fascists are we? No, we don't want to be that." Now those people are numb to being accused of this and they laugh it off like it's nothing. They don't need to find excuses anymore. They know they're not and they don't care if you accuse them of that. Furthermore, many of those people on the center-right who have been framed as far right begin to hate the people who've done this to them and they lean farther in that direction than they were ever going to otherwise.
For me, the simplest way to define an actual fascist is just the right wing equivalent of this:
- Authoritarian dictator, no democracy, suppression of media
- Entire economy mobilizes for war, active military expansion in progress
- Collectivist mentality enforced: the group is more important than the individual
- Some kind of scapegoat exists, to reinforce 3 and justify 2 and 1.
Now I know you're saying, "Hold on, Nobo. Left wing people do that too." Yes they do. But when right wing people do it, it's called fascism.
Notice on 3, I didn't specify anything about race. That's a common thread that's used to justify the collective over the individual, but it's not necessarily the only thread you could use to achieve it. Also, the most important bit here is 1.
So if you really want to get down to it, while I would consider myself a literal anti-fascist (in the Spanish Civil War that's the side I would have been on for example). But since the world is so loaded today, it's better to say that I'm against authoritarianism, for democracy, and for free speech. It doesn't matter whether it's left or right wing groups that want to suppress these things. I'm against both of them.
Back to the point of way too many things are being called fascist.
At some point it's fair to think about the interests of your nation before the rest of the world, not necessarily because the people there are objectively more important, but because you have to care about the local world more than the global world. It's the same reason you care more about your sister than the neighbor's sister. At some point it's fair to think about the destabilizing force of importing tons of migrants. It's fair to enforce the laws.
So even if you are anti-fascist in the classical sense, it's maybe time to stop throwing that word around. And also, if you're sympathetic to views that have been called fascist, maybe those views are actually not fascist and if you really think about it, neither are you.