Remember when Sarah Palin came into the political arena in 2008 and turned the right-wing rhetoric up to 10? Well, the leading GOP candidate for president in 2016, Donald Trump, is cranking it up to 11. He is leading the Republican Party into a very dark and ugly place. Let us remember what Sinclair Lewis said in the 1930s: when fascism comes to America that it will be wrapped in the flag, sing the national anthem, carry a cross and be called, “Americanism”.
The 14 points of Fascism-
Powerful and Continuing Nationalism
Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.
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Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights
Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.
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Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause
The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial, ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.
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Supremacy of the Military
Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.
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Rampant Sexism
The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Opposition to abortion is high, as is homophobia and anti-gay legislation and national policy.
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Controlled Mass Media
Sometimes the media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.
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Obsession with National Security
Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.
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Religion and Government are Intertwined
Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government's policies or actions.
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Corporate Power is Protected
The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.
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Labor Power is Suppressed
Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed.
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Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts
Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts is openly attacked, and governments often refuse to fund the arts.
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Obsession with Crime and Punishment
Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.
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Rampant Cronyism and Corruption
Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.
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Fraudulent Elections
Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.
From the Comments, the original source of the 14 Points was Italian writer Umberto Eco
"The Cult of Tradition", combining cultural syncretism with a rejection of modernism.
- "The Cult of Action for Action's Sake", which dictates that action is of value in itself, and should be taken without intellectual reflection. This, says Eco, is connected with anti-intellectualism and irrationalism, and often manifests in attacks on modern culture and science.
- "Disagreement Is Treason" - fascism devalues intellectual discourse and critical reasoning as barriers to action.
- "Fear of Difference", which fascism seeks to exploit and exacerbate, often in the form of racism or an appeal against foreigners and immigrants.
- "Appeal to a Frustrated Middle Class", fearing economic pressure from the demands and aspirations of lower social groups.
- "Obsession with a Plot" and the hyping-up of an enemy threat; This often involves an appeal to xenophobia (such as the German elite's 'fear'of the 1930s Jewish populace's businesses and well-doings, see also anti-Semitism) with an identification of their being an internal security threat: He also cites Pat Robertson's book The New World Order as a prominent example of a plot obsession.
- "Pacifism is Trafficking with the Enemy" because "Life is Permanent Warfare" - there must always be an enemy to fight; Both fascist Germany under Hitler and Italy under Mussolini worked first to organize and clean up their respective countries and then build the war machines that they later intended to and did use, despite Germany being under restrictions of the Versailles treaty to NOT build a military force. This principle leads to a fundamental contradiction within fascism: the incompatibility of ultimate triumph with perpetual war.
- "Contempt for the Weak" - although a fascist society is elitist, everybody in the society is educated to become a hero; for example: the 1930s Germans, especially Hitler labeled Jews inferior humans thus weak as well as the physically disabled, the mentally retarded and mentally ill as weak—thus these "weak" or unwanteds were eliminated (executed) or "exterminated" (the Jews, or even Germans with disabilities).
- "Selective Populism" - the People have a common will, which is not delegated but directed by a dictator; This casts doubt upon a democratic institution, because the leader and government "no longer represent the Voice of the People".
- "Newspeak" - fascism employs and promotes an impoverished vocabulary in order to limit critical reasoning.
- "Non-truths & Lying/Spread of Propaganda" - Umberto Eco wrote from a modern-day standpoint about Fascism; He did not study the Fascism of Spain, Italy or Germany where this style of governing evolved in the 1930s prior to World War II: Those involved were Francisco Franco, Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler, and more can be learned about fascism by reading on these people.
From the comments, www.dailykos.com/…
While the list is highly cited on the internet, its author is a former Allied Chemical executive and reads history in his spare time — a history buff.
Even academic historians cannot agree on a single definition of Fascism, in part because there were different practices in different nations. Going back to the 19th century, fascist tendencies can be found to occur after progressive revolutions — the return swing of a pendulum.
For me, the list from Eco is a little hard to follow.
What most forms of fascism had in common (highlights from Encyclopedia Britannica):
- Opposed to leftists (Marxism, social democracy). This itself creates many sub-lists (anti-Union, anti-labor, etc). So fascism is definitely far right, not far left — remember that when Republicans try to link Democrats to fascism.
- Opposed to parliamentary democracy. Elections “undermined the natural selection of ruling elites.”
- Opposed to political and cultural liberalism (rights of individual should not be placed above the needs of the collective state, cultural liberalism leads to immorality)
- Favored the wealthy far more than the middle/working class, less regulations for corporations
- Favored corporatism to suppress the labor movement and political dissent while aligning private industry to the needs of the state
- Social disparities between rich and poor were not important (nothing to see here, move along)
- Favored imperialistic foreign policies
- Military: “Nothing has ever been won in history without bloodshed”
- Patriotic fervor that played on emotions, not reason
- A single leader with absolute power
- Portrayed fascism as virile man vs cerebral feminine/weak liberals
- Education: indoctrination and loyalty more important than intellectual growth and critical thinking (because the latter was a threat to fascism)
- Moral justification of intolerance, repression and violence (especially against political opponents)
- Extreme nationalism — a purity devoid of liberal corruption
- Scapegoating — the problems fascists created were blamed on someone else
- Populist anti-intellectualism
- Women should assume their ‘traditional roles’
- Racism is ok
- Fascist leaders “portrayed themselves as defenders of Christianity”
While there are many similarities to the 14-points posted, I think the discussion should be based not on the 14-points (the work of a history buff) and something that at least has an editorial/peer review process that is less easily discounted by most readers. Sure, Republicans will still complain, but the fact is that they ARE anti-liberal, and if the fascist shoe fits….
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