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In the famous anecdote usually attributed to Bertrand Russell, a scientist lecturing on the earth’s position in the solar system is corrected by an old lady who says the earth is actually supported by a giant turtle. When the scientist asked what supports the turtle, she triumphally answered, “It’s turtles all the way down!”
Since the Twenties and the rise of Italian Fascism and German Nazism––which eventually become the main referent of the word––the term has become an all-purpose question-begging epithet so promiscuously abused in the Thirties that, as George Orwell said in 1944, “The word Fascism has now no meaning except in so far as it signifies something not desirable.”
As the word’s use by progressives and leftists––at this point synonyms for “Democrats”––have shown for decades, their understanding of conservatism’s principles and tenets is limited to the infinite regression of “fascists all the way down.” In this election season, they are binging 24/7 on “fascists” with plenty of “Hitlers” thrown in to ratchet up the evil quotient with evocations of genocide and the horrors of the death camps.
The problem is not just the blatant abuse of history, truth, and language, which since ancient Athens has been a habit typical of representative governments that give widely diverse citizens freedom of speech. The more pertinent and dangerous point about this misuse of “fascist” as a political smear is that it obscures how much American progressivism has in common with historical fascism––an oversight made worse by the left’s assumption that conservativism and capitalism are ideologically and organically fascist, and thus profoundly more unjust and dangerous than socialism and other forms of statism.
In reality, as Jonah Goldberg explained in his 2008 book Liberal Fascism, fascism is a phenomenon of the left, not the right––an “inconvenient truth,” Goldberg writes, “if ever there was one.” This confusion about fascism’s origins is furthered by the misleading Manichean contrast the left makes between fascism and communism, a consequence of Hitler’s 1941 invasion of Soviet Russia, his erstwhile ally, that ended the Molotov-Ribbentrop agreement of 1939.
In fact, as Goldberg shows, “they are closely related, historical competitors for the same constituents, seeking to control and dominate the same social space,” a space opened up by secularism and the decline of Christianity, which both ideologies denigrated and dismissed; and by Enlightenment scientism that promoted the technocratic management of society, the economy, and government, and promised to create a material earthly paradise. Moreover, both shared, along with American progressivism, the belief that “the era of liberal democracy was drawing to a close,” that it was time to abandon “the anachronisms of natural law, traditional religion, constitutional liberty, capitalism and the like: God was long dead, and it was long overdue for men to take His place.”
As Goldberg goes on to document, historical fascism indeed had much in common with American progressivism, and their shared notions that political, social, and economic “experiments” conducted by rational technocrats––“experts” liberated from traditional religions superstitions, dogmas, and customs––could correct the injustices and inefficiencies created by laissez-faire capitalism and rampant individualism. Then the utopia of “equity” and “social justice,” as our “woke” progressives put it, would blossom.
Let me emphasize that Goldberg’s point is not that progressives are fascists, but that the shared assumptions behind much of progressive politics and historical fascism need to be identified and their implications for individual freedom acknowledged and confronted.
A particularly significant affinity between progressivism and fascism can be seen in Franklin D. Roosevelt’s aggressive expansion of the federal state by means of New Deal policies that reestablished the intellectual continuity of liberal ideals with those of fascism in the Twenties and Thirties, which accounts for the mutual admiration among Mussolini, Hitler, and Roosevelt evident everywhere before Hitler’s military aggression began to manifest itself in 1939.
The New Deal in particular––that revered icon of modern progressives––“was conceived at the climax of a worldwide fascist moment,” Goldberg writes, a time when nationalism and socialism coalesced and the yearning for lost community became the rationale for increasing state power. “As a consequence of Roosevelt’s policies, today we live with the fruits of fascism, and we call them liberal. From economic policy, to populist politics, to a faith in the abiding power of brain trusts to chart our collective future––be they at Harvard or on the Supreme Court––fascistic assumptions about the role of the state have been encoded upon the American mind, often as a matter of bipartisan consensus.”
The Sixties was another “fascist” moment in our history: “Politically, the glamorized cult of violence evident in groups like the Black Panthers and the Weathermen likewise derived from fascistic idealizations of ‘men of action’ like Mussolini, who called his brand of socialism ‘the greatest act of negation and destruction.’”
Indeed, much of the baleful legacy of the Sixties, from the smarmy “politics of meaning” to the worship of callow youthful “idealism” and spurious “authenticity” found in anarchic violence finds its antecedents in the fascism of the Twenties. More recently, the 2020 “summer of love” riots, arson, and assaults produced and directed by Black Lives Matter and Antifa are examples of this malign dynamic.
The Sixties also marked the increased growth in the technocratic Leviathan state and its vast expansion of federal agencies staffed by “experts” who usurp the lawmaking powers of Congress in order to aggrandize and politicize power for one party at the expense of the citizens’ rights and freedom.
As Goldberg writes, “Lyndon Johnson called it the ‘Great Society,’ which in Johnson’s own telling, ‘rests on abundance and liberty for all. It demands an end to poverty and racial injustice,’ and is a place ‘where leisure is a welcome chance to build and reflect,’ where ‘the city of man serves not only the needs of the body and the demands of commerce but the desire for beauty and the hunger for community.’”
As a consequence of such progressive policies, fascistic statist assumptions today most obviously impact our lives in economic policy. Despite the liberal lie that big business is inherently fascist, Goldberg writes that “if you define ‘right-wing’ or conservative in the American sense of supporting the rule of law and the free market, then the more right-wing business is, the less fascist it becomes.” The “Third Way” economic policies that want the heavy hand of the state involved in the free-market economy is closer to traditional fascism, which was a populist movement frequently railing against big business and blood-sucking corporations.
Today, the devil’s bargain accepted by big business basically allows corporations to make their huge profits as long as they go along with the government’s political program––with the added bonus that the metastasizing government regulations furthering that social agenda are affordable for big businesses, but often ruinous for smaller ones.
Thus, today we see big corporations and social media firms eagerly embracing the “woke” Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity nostrums, making themselves into what Goldberg calls “government by proxy.” We saw this during the Biden administration when social media colluding with the Executive branch and security agencies in order to abrogate the First Amendment rights of anyone challenging or criticizing government policies.
These, of course, are carried out in the name of the same utopian promises made by the bloodiest tyrannies of the 20th century, yet continue to comprise the policies of progressive Democrats down to the Biden administration–– and Kamala Harris’ proposed policies to tax, print, borrow, and redistribute trillions of dollars to political clients, as well as expanding the intrusive regulatory state and its scores of entitlement programs, many of which, like Social Security and Medicare, are dangerously close to bankruptcy.
Finally, the choice in this election is not between cartoon “fascists,” but historical fascism’s true heirs, who for a century have been assaulting the Constitution to dismantle its guardrails that protect our unalienable rights and freedom to manage our lives according to our own lights, rather than submitting to tyranny.
Well……..who wants the government to control business, banks, agriculture, education, the media, religion, art, our words, our acts and our thoughts….and “cancel” us if we object?
Yeah. That’s who I thought. The same minority of scumbags who’ve tried to assassinate Trump twice, worship the Alphabet People and think Saturday Night Live is relevant. The real fascists. The Dirtbagocrats and their Minitru Media.
The next time you encounter a Dirtbagocrat, punch him/her/they/them/we/it or whatever ridiculous pronoun it demands to be used in its face. Just consider it a blow for freedom.
Hitler and Mussolini were both Socialists. I think a lot about that. The main Arab/Muslim movements are also Socialists. Maybe not Internationalist Socialists that most people have come to think of when hearing the word “Socialist”.
Hitler and Mussolini were not ‘socialits’. For that matter, neither was Stalin or the current Chinese dictatos.
These people served their party and the rich only. 20% of the CCP are billionaires who rely on chinese slave labor. That ain’t ‘socualism’.
Nor is the Democrat Party ruling class ‘marxist’, as it’s bandied about. They serve the billionaire class with George Soros and Larry Fink of Blackrock their paymaster godfathers. It’s called neo-fascism.
You truly think Bill gates, who recently handed over $40-$50 million to Kamala Harris is a Marxist???
Yes, and Dirtbagocrats are so brainwashed they honestly think Hitler was a Right-winger. Even my Aussie buddy thinks so, and he’s educated and a former reporter, so you’d think he would be more skeptical and maybe, I dunno, notice the name of the National SOCIALIST German Worker’s Party. Indoctrinated or dumb, take your pick but the D-Bags have it bad.
At least Il Duce had some good character traits, although he came to a very bad end. Those hot blooded Italians were descended from pitiless Romans, so no surprise there. Adolph was a vegetarian non-smoker who loved the arts, animals and classical music but he didn’t seem to have any good character traits besides those.
It just goes to show you that a guy can seem good on the outside but on the inside…,..his brain could be squirming like a toad. I’ve met guys like that. Chicks, too. We all have.
Yeah, thanks Jeff !!!!! That’s the oddest thing.
The Socialist thing is to redistribute wealth to their constituents. That;s how the Batthist Muslim movements works, as well as the Muslim terrorist movements. Gives the leaders a hold over their followers.
Yes, I’ve lived with the muzzies in their countries and seen them in action. They really believe that shit and are easily manipulated. That cult is a full on method for mind control.
This piece answers the question , if Democrats aren’t nationalists , what are they ? , perfectly .lol
Kamala in dozens of black churches.. HUH??? EUGENICS believers are SO HAPPY…MORE BLACK ABORTIONS For Democrats…THE DREAM OF PLANNED PARENTHOOD.. REDUCE THE BLACK POPULATION.. way to go Kamala…and shame on black preachers…wanting to promote baby killers…what a disgrace.
That’s been the goal of white liberal democrats for decades. To exterminate blacks with their cooperation. What astounds me is the fact that most blacks buy into that eugenics bullsh*t without ever questioning it.
It is said that ignorance is bliss. What is not said is that ignorance is also dangerous and in many instances, fatal. Fate is not kind to the ignorant.
Wasn’t the cooperation of big business and the Nazi government referred to as “coporatism”?
And remember when Jonah Goldberg was actually funny, and had worthwhile things to say? Life is change, I guess.
The Molotov-Ribbentrop agreement of 1939 was not an alliance as such. Stalin’s strategy was to help create the conditions for Hitler to initiate a war over Poland that would draw Great Britain into conflict with Germany. Curiously the British guarantee of military support to Poland following any invasion of Poland only applied to an invasion from the west and not an invasion from the east.
Stalin’s hope was that such a war would likely end in attrition whereby both Germany and Great Britain were so weakened that the Red Army could march westwards across Europe with little military opposition.
At the time, Chamberlain wrote that he was aware of covert Soviet agitation in Great Britain trying to goad Britain into war with Germany which he wanted to avoid. Churchill, who advocated for war against Germany, would not have been made PM without the support of the socialist Labour leadership. In fact the Tories wanted Halifax to replace Chamberlain, however, the Labour leadership refused to endorse or work with Halifax because he was from the so-called Tory appeasement side.
This was a good point to bring up. We are late in recognizing it but who knows it has a minuscule chance of slowing down the oncoming train.
The works of Antony Sutton, starting with “Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution, Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler and Wall Street and FDR show the collusion between the ruling class and the political class. Sutton has short quite succinct volumes on the subject. Each country has its’ own path using definitional differences to disguise the end product within their dreams of power. Wall Street always gets its’ commission.
It used to be Rockefeller, JP Morgan, Warburg and Rothschild betting both sides of the street. Today we have Blackrock etcetera.
Nothing changes except seeing fat boy Jonah the whale , whining after being caught lying by the wrong side. He is a good representation of the lack of moral fiber and incompetence of our expert academic class.
Another example of leftist fascism . . .
The Department of Environmental Conservation in New York state felt the all consuming need to send 12 goons to arrest Peanuts – a squirrel domesticated/rescued by Mark Longo.
The goons contained Mark & his wife for FIVE HOURS while they searched every inch of his house (giving Mark something in common with Donald Trump).
When the indifferent pricks finally finished, they took the squirrel away and euthanized him. Thanks, Big Govt!
I don’t know if Mark is a liberal Democrat or not, but this taste of big brother will have definitely engendered an epiphany.
Count this chickenshit Dept. of Environmental Conservation another burocracy to toss on the dung heap.
An understanding of what assails us as a free people is necessary and
welcome. So thank you for the insight into the inter-relatedness between
fascism and communism and American progressivism.
Which brings us to Kamala Harris. No matter what label may be given
her, she is dangerous for America.
Kamala (and Biden) have caused Americans to worry about having enough
money to live on. And feel scared about rising crime. To be disgusted at
great cities crumbling from homelessness and Fentanyl – even to watch
lives destroyed by that drug and others. To feel outrage at illegal migrants
welcomed by Kamala by the millions – who get freebies galore while
depleting major resources like schools and hospitals and also committing
crimes. And to recoil at men in women’s sports and sexualizing of little
children. There is also a toleration of violent anti-Semitism for the first
time in American history by Kamala who props up Muslims by condemning
Islamophobia. And while Kamala stokes up racial division of Blacks against
Whites by advocating Critical Race Theory – Americans can only wonder
which violence against whom will she tolerate next.
I imagine Kamala would love to be one of the unelected technocrat-experts
who want to manage others as referenced in this article. But she must face
an election to further her self-glorification – as opposed to glorifying America.
And helping it to be great again.
TRUMP OR TYRANNY! 2024
Nicely said… you pegged Harris straight on…
The only comment that is relevant to us today right now – if President Trump isn’t re-elected for the 2nd time, the 1st reelection was as we know, stolen by a rigged system in a coup d’etat that we are in now, we can kiss USA and our Constitution good bye!
Get your family and friends and people on the street or the coffee shop to vote their wallets and security at the unprecedented in human history, open borders! And many more items of course! Lawlessness being unpunished and LawFare – which is of course the way of communist dictator nations which wake up, we are in now as coup d’etat goes when the coup turns a nation into a banana republic – this is why Russia invaded Ukraine, Iran’s proxy militias invaded and genocides Israel and these two wars ensue – China is afraid to actually invade Taiwan because Taiwan is well equipped with weapons and nuclear missiles,
“China is afraid to actually invade Taiwan because Taiwan is well equipped with weapons and nuclear missiles,”
That same logic is apropos in the case of why the other Arabs countries surrounding Israel are pretty much steering clear of Israel’s “problem” with Iran. They know that Israel is a nuclear power and if backed into a corner and left with no other choice and nothing to lose, it would be the last days and times for Iran and the rest of the middle east.
By the way, if you follow news source from the other side of the world, China isn’t all what we here in America are led to believe.
Moreover, here’s a cogent question that no one ever asks let alone try to answer: what major conflict have the Chinese ever fought and won? Killing millions of innocent victims (i.e., their own citizens) doesn’t count.
The Chinese military is a joke.
“…this is why Russia invaded Ukraine,”
Russia invaded Ukraine because at that time Ukraine was within an inch of cementing a deal with the US and the European energy companies to develop one of THE largest untapped offshore energy resources left. This just happened to be in Eastern Ukrainian waters. Development of which would mean Europe being able to end Russian energy dependency – and Russian economic catastrophe – and that is why Putin had to act when he did.
Eastern Ukraine also has huge untapped Lithium deposits – so vital in today’s battery powered world- which Russia would control if it had total control of the Donbass etc.
The general acceptance in such elitist government encroachment had to be the capture of our educational system back when public education became the norm run by “progressives” like John Dewey who believed in the manipulation of man toward “perfection”. Indoctrination by any other name. This has led to the lockstep Democrat party and its dogma in the media, the culture, education and politics. To the point of the inversion of the Democrat party history of slavery and fascism becoming the current accusations leveled at Republicans. Harry Houdini couldn’t have done a better job of misdirection. President Trump and his supporters are a threat to all of that. If he wins, we need to be prepared for the Democrats to come after him and us like a wounded cornered beast.
“The general acceptance in such elitist government encroachment had to be the capture of our educational system….”
You’ve touched upon something I have been harping about for years. At the root of most if not all of America’s problems is academia. No one ever seems to ask the question of where do all these left wing Marxists ideologues come from? Well I’ll tell you: They’re being incubated/minted right here in America right under our noses and few seem to notice.
When Marxism made its way to America around the turn of the last century, the Marxists ideologues (the offspring of wealthy Americans who sent their children abroad to study) ensconced themselves in academia and have been there every since and are now in full country of the American education system from kindergarten to the college and university level.
That just a quick synopsis of how Marxists came to be in charge of the American education system.
By the way, over the years, they’ve gotten adept at hiding who and what they really are by using the nom de plume “progressives.” That is to say, under the veneer of every progressive is a dyed in the wool Marxist.
By the way, has anyone ever notice that the Marxists all tend to be rich or from wealthy families? Interesting to say the least
I mean, think about it. They all seem to have plenty of time to loaf around and hold demonstrations & protests while regular folks get up and go to work everyday to earn enough to pay bills and make ends meet and maybe have a little spare change left over to buy a 6-pack of beer and some hotdogs for the weekends or treat the family to MacDonald’s, KFC or a Domino’s Pizza every now and then.
You might not be able to go to a McDonald’s this week. Some of them are boarded up against leftists but none of us can eat there either. I suppose Wendy’s “restaurants” are still open but only because nobody eats there.
F’ing leftists. What a bane on humanity they are.
I believe Trump will win for one basic reason:
No one has voted for Harris.
She did not win one primary in this election or in the last election. People will think about that when they vote.
She dropped out of the last election before the primary in her home state of California because she was not even going to win that primary.
Biden picked her to be Vice President because he promised to pick a woman of color. People in her own state can’t stand her.
There are reasons not to like Trump but no one can deny that at least people have voted for him in the primaries.
No one has ever voted for Harris.
Not sure about that. I think the Democrats could run Satan – as literally Satan – and virtually all Democrat voters would vote for him. These are not thinking people. They are so brainwashed that you could point out that they’re running actual Satan, and they’d say, ” Yeah, but he’s not Trump.”
It’s the successful application of “projection” by the Dems. Their ploy to tag Trump with every evil name and attribute has worked brilliantly on the “I leave politics to the politicians” crowd who tune into elections a month or two before to fulfill their civic duty. Most are “legacy Democrats” who couldn’t pass a sixth grade civics class. Words like fascist or democracy are just words they hear but couldn’t define on a bet.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/10/conservative-argument-against-trump/680438/
Not much difference between Fascism and Communism. Both totalitarian big government socialist states with loss of freedom. Communist governments own the corporations but in China not completely. So is the Chinese Communist Party really the Chinese Fascist Party? Since the Democrats are Socialistic totalitarians who want to deprive Americans of their freedoms, I have concluded that the Democrats are Progressive FascistCommies. To keep it simple for the average uneducated voter I just call the Democrat Party the de facto Communist Party USA.
Not all fascists are communists (Hitler was a socialist) but all communists are fascists. So are all socialists……and all Dirtbagocrats.
China is a hybrid created to address the harsh reality that communism doesn’t work. The Democrat party seeks the same thing for the US. Capitalism is permitted so there is enough “productivity” to keep from going broke but “the Party” will own and direct it all. No one dares fall out of line for FEAR of the consequences.
So, my question is this: What the heck happened to Jonah Goldberg? Have that book. It was an excellent book.
My theory: He was SOOOoooooo completely wrong about DJT, he has too much pride and is an elite DC insider and he just dug in, cause he couldn’t be WRONG. Oh, man has he been wrong since 2016.
It’s not difficult to understand. He’s a product and acolyte of the MSM. As such, he has to play the child’s game of Simon Says. When Simon Says “everybody hates Trump”, he has no choice but to accede to what Simon Says if he wants to remain a member of the MSM mob in good standing.
George Will, Bill Kristol, Neil Cavuto, et al, are all willing participants in that same game. A prerequisite for being a member of the media establishment in good standing is to reflexively despise Trump and Trump supporters on cue.
The problem with these never-Trumper so-called “conservatives” is that they cannot get past Trump’s style as a non-politician populist. I can understand their concern with his seemingly careless speaking style. What I cannot understand is their unwillingness to face reality and realize that, while Trump does tend to “paint with a broad brush,” he is a strong leader, and he is the far better alternative at this point. That these guys can’t see the totalitarian danger of a Harris presidency is telling.
Easy…It’s called greed and love of money! They willingly sold their soul to Satan for faux power, luxuries, and their egos.
Yes, he went full retard when Trump was elected. He probably squats in some tenement eating rats and reading old newspaper shreddings of his old articles nowadays. “I used to be a big man!” He’d probably kill you for a stale matzah cracker.
I see where he “backed off” his recent comments on CNN. He took to X to make amends. It appears he’s playing both sides of the fence in an attempt to remain relevant. When I saw him make his comments, on CNN, I thought do these “expert” political analysts get paid that much to say what the venue calls for?
Something I have eluded to many times in my articles in American Thinker and elsewhere. The so-called right is us individualists (as opposed to collectivists/statists in modern terms) and we see all individuals as supreme over the state (within reasonable limits consistent with civil society of course). By definition, we cannot be fascists.
I like to use simple arguments with simple people. Hence, when I tell people what Fascism is I don’t go into all the squigglies. I just say its the same thing as Communism – a Dictatorship. That’s all you need to know, assuming you like Liberty..
Dinesh D’Souza’s 2017 book, The Big Lie: Exposing the Nazi Roots of the American Left, is a better and more recent book than Goldberg’s book on the mislabeling of fascism and Nazism as “far right”. As I have said before, I was so impressed with it that I wrote my own summary for those who have neither the time nor inclination to read the book:
National Socialism is Not Right-Wing
https://russp.substack.com/p/the-false-flag-of-right-wing-fascism
I recall Mussolini’s maxim. “Everything in the state. Nothing outside the state Nothing against the state”.
If a university prof these days put that on a test and asked who said it, I wonder how many of his students would think it sounds like Obama, Elizabeth Warren, Hillary, Bernie Sanders, Newsom ad nauseum?
The King and Queen of Hearts the Queen Big Loud and Theatening and the King was this Puny little guy in the Disney Version of Alice in Wonderland