I understand all Nazis are fascists, but not all fascists are Nazis
this post was submitted on 06 Mar 2025
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Nazism was the ideology of the Nazi party in 1930s Germany, and Fascism was the ideology of Italy under Mussolini. The main difference was that Nazism had more of an emphasis on racial purity and racism, whereas fascism was more focused on totalitarian, authoritarian control.
In the context of insulting a modern day extreme right wing person though, they're pretty much synonymous.
whereas fascism was more focused on totalitarian, authoritarian control
Really? As I recall, Mussolini was less authoritarian than Hitler
The term fascism is way older, goes back to at least ancient rome.
The idea being that the group stand above the individual: fasces being a bundle of stick. It motivates sacrifice of self and others for a group by stating the individual stick is weak, but the bundle is strong.
The difference between the word and the ideology.
Ceasar's rome was fascist in name and ideology.
No, it wasnβt.
Where did you read that?
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fasces section Rome > Imperial Period
Has any credible expert ever supported the claim that "Ceasarβs rome was fascist in name and ideology"
that only seems to talk about the use of the fasces as a symbol, which is pretty different from explicitly calling oneselves fascists, or holding specifically fascist beliefs. the same article lists a ton of other places one can find fasces. the symbol is much older than the ideology, but that doesn't mean anything using the symbol shares the ideology.
Nazi refers to the German Nazi party, while "fascist" refers to broad reactionary movements usually found in decaying Capitalist countries as a safeguard against rising Socialist or Communist sympathies among the Working Class, with its own unique set of aspects like ethno-centrism, xenophobia, intense millitarization, etc.
Assuming you mean as description of a contemporary person, in casual sense.
A nazi is someone consciously inspired by Nazi Germany, typically by using its symbolism or alluding to it, holding some ideas specific to the period but not necessarily all. A fascist is someone that supports a specific model of government and policies derived from ideology called fascism.
I feel like each answer here is wrong and right.
Literally, Nazi was a shortened version of National Socialist, and was the anglicized name for the German party that Adolf Hitler rose to power in.
In the vernacular, Nazi is a somewhat catch all to describe various fractions and identified ideologies which the broad usage I think hurts discourse.
Some people mean in this general way, any racist, or ethnostate advocate could be considered a Nazi, as could any racist or fascist group.
I'm not for any of it, but the fluidity of usage ends up feeling like hyperbole when someone is not a literal Nazi, or doesn't even share Nazi values and beliefs.
When describing our enemies, I think static definition matters, because inaccuracies can be an attack surface to dismantle arguments.
If you read Mein Kampf it's really focused on "the Jews".
Nazism was about anti-semitism first and foremost. They had a paranoid delusion that all Jews have an inborn desire to subvert the nobler Aryan civilisation.
There were non-anti-semitic fascists too like Eoin O'Duffy
Fascist is an ultranationalist/chauvinist meanwhile nazi is an ethno-nationalist
Aesthetic mainly. The are both manifestations of the same decay of capitalism.
Have you looked at Wikipedia already? It is a good starting point.
It usually doesn't matter