I don’t think the Right understands what fascism is.
Last night I heard multiple conservative radio hosts point out several of Trump’s legislative policies and ask loudly and sarcastically if any of them were fascist.
But fascism is not a policy, and does not inherently lend itself to the left or right. Rather it is in the methodology of the fascist, and the combination of several different traits (some quotes below are paraphrases).
According to the Wikipedia, fascism is defined as unilateral power (“I just signed another executive order”) held by an authoritarian with dictatorial tendencies (“Let me tell you how great and smart Putin and Kim Jong Un are, how effective Saddam Hussein and Gadhafi were, and by the way here’s my favorite Mussolini quote”). They believe that democracy is obsolete (“millions of people voted illegally”) and that violence is not inherently negative (“there were many good people at that Klan rally”); in fact they glorify violence as a means to achieve national rejuvenation (“We will rain down fire and fury”/”We’re going to bring back waterboarding and a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding”/“We will make America great again”) and see innocent casualties of war as a desirable tactic (“We have to go after the terrorists’ families”). They do not believe in a free press (“Fake news”/”Let’s open up our libel laws”), and will take any means available to them to quash their opposition (“Literally every tweet I’ve ever written.”) And of course, none of this even touches on the psychological profiles of fascist dictators, which are without exception marked by malignant narcissism, lack of empathy, self-aggrandizement, and revenge.
So you tell me: do any of these traits seem to hit the mark, maybe just a little bit?
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