"The Republicans are fascists!" "The Democrats are fascists!" "Barack Obama’s a fascist!" "Newt Gingrich is a fascist!" Fascism is probably one of the most overused pejoratives in politics, and most who use it don’t know its true meaning. You want to know what real fascism is? The actual academic definition? I just read David Neiwert’s new book The Eliminationists, and that book brought up probably the best actual definition of what fascism is.
What’s funny is that it’s hard to narrow down fascism. It doesn’t have a coherent ideology - it’s based on emotion. Ever read Mein Kampf? It’s a terribly written book - not just because it has batshit psycho hate talk about exterminating Jews, but it’s flat out badly written - the grammar is terrible, even after it was cleaned up when translated to English. It consists of half-coherent rants filled with nasty broad-brush attacks that Hitler dictated to one of his flunkies while he was serving prison time after the Munich Putsch. Fascism doesn’t have coherent philosophy behind it. It rides purely on anger, hate and fear. The Dark Side of politics, if you will.
Anyways, the definition was originally posited by Oxford professor Roger Griffin. He took on the unenviable task of digging through the incoherence, negative emotions and destructive crap to find the essence of fascism. He boiled it down to three words:
Palingenetic, ultra-nationalist populism.
Palingenetic is a word that doesn’t have anything to do with Sarah Palin (though she probably believes in palingenetic politics.) Palingenesis means "rebirth". It describes a Phoenix-from-the-ashes mythology about the country being reborn. Hitler ranted about how Germany was stabbed in the back at the close of WWI, and promised to rebuild it into a new Thousand Year Reich.
I think it’s safe to say we know what ultra-nationalism is. Hitler was all about German Nationalism, and dressed it up with swastikas and speeches and marches and patriotic songs. Be wary when people wave the flag in your face too much. Also be wary when you hear a lot of talk about abandoning diplomacy as weak, replacing it with bluster, and attacking every country that gives your nation lip because "Our nation is the greatest!"
Oh, and there’s the populism. Fascism, when it goes into full bloom, is a popular movement, with throngs of people cheering in the streets. Or bashing the heads of the outgroup du jour... Approval ratings of mature fascist movements tend to be high.
Or as David Griffin puts it:
"Fascism: modern political ideology that seeks to regenerate the social, economic, and cultural life of a country by basing it on a heightened sense of national belonging or ethnic identity. Fascism rejects liberal ideas such as freedom and individual rights, and often presses for the destruction of elections, legislatures, and other elements of democracy. Despite the idealistic goals of fascism, attempts to build fascist societies have led to wars and persecutions that caused millions of deaths. As a result, fascism is strongly associated with right-wing fanaticism, racism, totalitarianism, and violence."
Now granted, corporations have frequently gotten in bed with fascist movements. They can usually cut deals with the fascists, and get lots of strings to pull in exchange for financing and corporate backing. But fascism is at its core a populist right wing movement based on nationalism and that promise of national rebirth. Fascism gets its power from anger, hatred and fear, which is why people under its thrall go batshit and start committing acts like genocide and torture. The core statement of the fascist could be "The outgroup screwed up our country, and we're going to bring it back! (and punish the outgroup!)"
You want to make people fascist? Start by getting them angry.
Oh, and can I mention that anyone who calls liberals or progressives "fascist" has absolutely no idea what they’re talking about.
(Note: This diary, like many of mine these days, was originally published on my personal website at http://meldroc.com/.)