There is a tendency, built from 40 years of online debates, to call anything you disagree with "fascist."
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Likewise, anything authoritarian gets called fascist, too, as if people assume that only fascists can be dictators.
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Fascism is a political theory that jelled in the early 1900s and found particular traction in Central Europe.
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The word comes from an old latin term, where leaders carried rods, or fasces, tied together to symbolize strength.
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The core belief of fascism is strength through unity. That the state is stronger if all parties are unified.
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The politic also suggested that fragmented liberalist parties needed to be subjugated and could be ruled by a minority fascist party.
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Given the timing of the rise of fascism, technology was critical in the theory. To fascists, the purpose of tech was to strengthen the state
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Dissent by other parties was weakness, only the party could determine its own fate.
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If it was necessary to cut others off to strengthen the state, then so be it.
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Actual fascist governments played this out perfectly: the Nazis won with less than a majority vote. Then, Hitler banned other parties.
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Industrialism and technical innovation were highly valued; in a handful of years, Germany became one of the strongest industrial powers.
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So let's look at how we're using the term today. Is the modern GOP a fascist party? Is Trump? His supporters?
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Trump won with the minority popular vote. So there's that. He's controlling narratives away from negative views of his party.
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His policies involve cutting off resources for marginalized communities. His supporters call anyone not a white man a "snowflake."
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His rise to power was strongly aided by technology. He wants to march tanks through DC in a show of military might.
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He has a singular focus on restoring manufacturing jobs to the US at the expense of other services.
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And he and his team regularly harp about "unity" and patriotism.
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So yes, Trump is a fascist and his team promotes fascism. Not because I disagree with them, but because actions align with fascist policy.
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If you talk like a fascist and you act like a fascist and you govern like a fascist, you're probably a fascist.
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Authoritarianism isn't fascism, although the latter usually begets the former. Not every authoritarian is a fascist.
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So when people say, "doing X makes you the real fascist," it's because they have no idea what they're talking about.
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TLDR: fascism requires mandatory unity for strengthening the state and isn't about dismissing speech or dissent. And I'm done. tyall
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