Unpopular Opinion
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I would argue that fascism is indeed characterized by those things, but fascism is associated with the right, not the left. You're not a fascist if your trying to create equality for all, even if your actions are crazy. It's something else, but not facism.
Well, it's gonna be hard to accurately label all the mad authoritarian bastards we've had.
Some called Stalinism "red fascism", but yes, I do get your point.
My point is rather that, like "literally", "fascism" has started veering away from the prescriptive, "official" meaning it has, and more towards a (colloquial) generalised term for autocrats and authoritarian behaviour. Colloquial language is what it is, unfortunately.
Yeah I know. I think it's mostly people new to the topic not understanding the nuances. But that still worries me since it seems wrong to lump communists in the same group as fascists. Seems almost sinister imo. The two groups could not stand for more different things.
It's problematic that a lot of people conflate communism with fascism and/or authoritarianism.
Communism might be ideological, sure, but it's not a form of government, it's an economic system. No, I don't believe any preplanned economy (which "real" communism sort of requires) would work in this day and age. However, I can definitely imagine it working in the far future.
It's not especially well explained how the economy works in Star Trek, but that is communism, and I don't see much fascism there.
(CCCP was autocratic communism, just so we're clear on what their system of government was.)
I believe it's largely due to the red scare. Which is also why so many Americans and (wannabe-American libertarians) conflate "socialism" with "communism". The same people also have a milder issue, conflating "capitalism" with "market economy."
I literally had a guy tell me "fascism is preferable to communism". And this guy lives in Finland and was from an academic bourgeoisie family, so should have basic education on what fascism actually is.
But no, they don't fucking get it.
I used to wonder, as a younger man, how on Earth the Nazi ever gathered enough support. I thought it's maybe one of those "fool me once" things, and people in the early 20th century weren't as connected or literate as we are.
But now it's happening again? Despite us having seen what happened last time? Despite us having unlimited connections to literally the whole world and it's information?
It just... depresses me so. I want to fight the windmills, but always having to fight alone is exhausting.