Fascism is an authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology characterized by cult of personality, dictatorship, violent suppression of opposition and extreme control over society and its economy.
It is, by definition, far right, as authoritarianism and nationalism are right values.
That does not mean terrible things don't happen under the left, but these aren't by definition fascism.
Recognising fascism is important to avoid letting it rise to power and repeating history. Thankfully, there are signs.
Note: these alone do not make fascism, they are tactics we can recognise to be used by fascism and signs that can warn us. Only when multiple of these coagulate, we are, if not in fascism, at least bordering on it or going towards it.
1 - A Mythical Past
All nationalism is rooted in a mythical past. A regular nationalist mythic past is based on how good things are/were when we are united as a nation.
Fascist mythic pasts however, presents itself as a greatness brought by military strenght, when the superior people ruled over everything. It presents this past to have been taken from the people by the opposing group, aka the left.
2 - Propaganda
Propaganda is the deliberate, systematic spread of information—often biased, misleading, or emotional—to influence opinions, attitudes, and behaviors toward a specific cause, ideology, or agenda
Every party uses propaganda. Even advertisement is a kind of propaganda. But there are some defining qualities belonging to fascist propaganda specifically.
Fascist propaganda bases itself on a friend vs ennemy dichotomy where the ennemy is a dangerous threat to your very existence, where the ennemy is fundamentaly opposed to the nation and therefore to you.
3 - Anti-Intellectualism
"Science is only useful so far as it strenghtens the nation" - Adolph Hitler, Mein Kampf
Fascism is a cult of the leader. In such systems, the one setting the rules, the one deciding what is truth and what is lie, is the leader; not science.
Any institution teaching multiple perspectives or nuance is a threat to the leader's truth, and therefore to his nation.
4 - Unreality
You are not free if you've been lied to, as then you cannot make your own, independant decision based on your critical thinking skills, as the information you're basing your decisions off of is false or has been tempered with.
Who would say the citizens of North korea are free? DO they really vote freely for their leader if all they have to go off of to make decision is his narrative?
A fascist regime will not, for example, throw a president out of office for lying to their citizens; meanwhile a democracy would.
5 - Hierarchy & Victimhood
No group of people is inherently better than another.
The big lie at the center of fascism is that there is, in fact, a group of superior people.
Racism, for example, is one of such lies. It is the lie that one group of people is better than another. So is the patriarchal belief that men are the stronger gender.
If you convince people they are justifiably higher than others in this hierarchy, you can then make them come to the reasonable conclusion that they are oppressed by equality, and therefore victims of those trying to fight for it.
6 - Law and Order
The members of the 'lesser" group that accept this place are considered law-abiding while the members of the dominant group are considered law-abiding by nature.
The leader is the one controlling law and order, and is therefore above it.
Law and order doesn't mean equality or even justice. It serves as a structure to separate who's legitimate and who's not.
7 - Queer Fear-Mongering
The rethoric that women and children are under threat and need strong men to protect them serves as the launching pad to make people afraid of queer people. This is where the "transgender women are just men going into bathroom to rape women" and "the gays are pedophiles" rhetorics stem from. The aim is to make people adhere to the belief that these aren't people just trying to live their lives, but instead people trying to destroy your life.
8 - Rural-Urban Divide
Fascist systems usually rest on an urban-rural divide. In the cities there is decadence, criminality. The pure, hardworking people are in the country-side, working real and useful jobs.
9 - "Work Shall Make You Free"
This phrase was written on the gates of Auswitch. The idea behind it is that the minority group is lazy by nature and need to be made to work. Work should not be easy; hard work is a virtue. Unions are all run by communists trying to make the work easier and bastardize this virtue.
Disabled people who can't work, or would have to work differently, in a manner then considered "lesser", are deemed lazy and of little to no value.
While there are the main amd most widely used tactics across fascist regimes, others can tack on and vary. These 9 are already a good starting point into recoignising fascism when it arises in order to stop it.
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