When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.
When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.
When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.
When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I was not a Jew.
When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.
Please note that Jews were 4th on the list.
Nazi Germany's extreme right wing reactionary fundamentalist conservatism was NOT primarily about the Jews.
And what about now, in the US?
Are Republicans and Blue Dogs "fascist"?
Are anyone who stands up to them and opposes them "communists"?
Nazi Germany, and Hitler, were deliberately contrived constructs of the US, Britain, and other capitalist nations, who deliberately built up, supported and tried to manipulate Hitler, intending to sic him on Russia, to crush, or at the very least cripple, the revolution there.
Fascism is primarily about suppressing the communists, social democrats and trade unionists...IE: anyone who stands up for labor rights, civil rights, human rights, democracy, and justice, and who criticizes the strong propensity of capitalism to seek unprincipled profits over and above, and all too often, against the public interest.
Such critique of capitalism was also voiced by a lot of Jews in Germany, since they were an oppressed, vulnerable religious minority, already subject to much long-standing prejudice, vilification and discrimination, in a very fundamentalist, conservative reactionary Protestant country...but the real reason the Jews were so avidly demonized by Hitler was more about that fairly substantial (albeit far from unanimous) progressive tendency in their communities, than about their religion.
Indeed, many rich conservative reactionary (and "middle class", and even some "working class", albeit not many) Jews actually supported Hitler and the Nazis, on political and economic grounds. Some of the richer Jews were even accused of collaboration with anti-jewish sanctions, early on, since, in their own privilege, they were not subject to those sanctions. Of course, the richer, more privileged Jews also had the money and means to escape before things got really bad, or actually reached them personally. Some made a lot of money from that collaboration.
And that's how it has come to pass, that a Jewish state, Israel, which started out as a very progressive, more or less socialist and democratic state, mostly based on rural communes called the Kibbutz, eventually evolved into a proto-fascist, racist (against Arabs, rather than Jews) regime, with the substantial influence of US money, which certainly didn't want them to go "commie", and thus directly intervened and manipulated the internal affairs and politics of Israel, to make it what it is today, where a Settler wingnut can assassinate a very popular president, for trying to make peace with their neighbors, and thus usher in an extreme right wing conservative fundamentalist regime to reverse that motion.
And, after all, it was that minority of rich, reactionary conservative Jews who had escaped the worst of the Nazi expropriations and atrocities in Europe, and their counterparts who already lived in the US, that had the most money after the war, to invest in building the new country and fairly quickly seizing the power there.
Fascism is not about Jews. It's about extreme right wing reactionary conservative anti-communism. They do tend to use fundamentalist religious and racial bigotry, as an opportunist tool, like the ultra nationalist right wing reactionary conservative "fundamentalist" proto-fascist Revisionist "Zionists" do against the Palestinians, but that's just a contrived construct.
Indeed, anywhere in the world, the US has tended, over the last 50 years, to give money and guns to the most right wing, reactionary, conservative fundamentalist elements it can find, in any country, to harass, beat up, torture and kill anyone who supports labor rights, civil rights, human rights, justice and democracy in their country.
They don't care if they are extreme right wing conservative fundamentalist "Catholics", like Pinochet, and the Contras, or if they are extreme right wing conservative fundamentalist "Muslims", like the Taliban, as long as they can be counted on to terrorize their own population, kill "communists", and serve the "interests" of US capitalism.
Pinochet, the Taliban, Revisionist Zionists, and "Fundamentalist Christians" do not in any way, shape or form represent their respective religions and, indeed, tend to be despised by those who do actually embrace those religions.
Fascism is not really based on religion, any more than our own right wing reactionary conservative fundamentalist US "Christians" are really based on the teachings attributed to Jesus. It's all about politics, and using religion as a prop, to justify elitism and violations of human rights, for profit.
It's all about crushing any movement for social justice, and seeking contrived, bogus "justification" for the rapacious actions of capitalism.
It's all about anti-communism. And communism, after all, is not about Lenin, or Stalin, or Mao, or anyone else like that...it's all about the people of a nation, and the world, taking over the means of production and managing the production and distribution of goods and services themselves, democratically, in the public interest.
Indeed, a country like Russia, or China, or, say Cuba, that embarks on such a program inevitably finds itself encircled by hostile capitalist nations, embargoed and blockaded, subject to invasion, infiltration and internal domestic subversion and sabotage by reactionary conservative elements (like our own Republicans and Blue Dogs), who so staunchly oppose social justice, human rights and real democracy, in favor of private profit, over and above, and even against, the public interest.
When, under such circumstances, besieged on all sides, and from within, a nation is forced to adapt a defensive military posture for their very survival (and especially when their entire infrastructure has been decimated or virtually destroyed by years of war and civil war), conditions are going to tend to suck, really bad. Such conditions are not very conducive to social, economic, or political development, and real democracy.
Of course, the capitalists will scream bloody murder about the "theft" of capital resources for reallocation to the public interest, and the "brutal" suppression of the "freedoms" of counter-revolutionary traitors in that country to raise counter-revolutionary armies, to poison the society with religious bigotry and class hatred, or to sabotage the economy.
And, of course, capitalism will gleefully point to the terrible results of it's own deliberate vicious sabotage and retardation of social, economic and political development in those countries, as "proof" that "communism" is neither feasible nor desirable.
But that's not really because they care so damn much about the suffering and deprivation they have themselves directly and deliberately caused for the people of that nation. It's really all about spite and revenge, for having their capital assets nationalized and turned to providing the education, health care, housing and other survival needs that capitalism tends to deny, or to severely limit, for any population under their control, in order to maximize profits at any cost, even against the public interest.
And I would hasten to point out that the US today is NOT 1917 Russia, or 1947 China, or even 1950's Cuba, where, in each instance, virtually total illiteracy, complete lack of modern communications, truly grinding, abject poverty, and ancient throwback religious views prevailed among a population who had never been substantially socialized by industrial production and were up against a completely destroyed and, indeed, previously grossly underdeveloped infrastructure.
Our present situation may seem pretty dire...but it's nowhere near as complicated and drastic as it was in those countries, in those times.
While it may not be appropriate, or technically accurate, necessarily, to call all Republicans, or all Blue Dogs, or all "Zionists", for example, "fascists", there are distinct tendencies that do characterize fascism, and proto-fascist tendencies.
The primary tendency of fascism is a rabid, uncompromising, vicious, brutal, absolutely morally bankrupt blind support of capitalism as some kind of god-given "right" and natural human mandate, and to equally as rabidly and viciously demonize, vilify and attack, by any means necessary, any popular democratic movement for social and economic justice as "communist".
We can bicker over the real meanings, or modern applications of such words as "communist", "progressive" and "liberal", but the semantics and rhetoric are far less important than the socio-economic reality.
And fascists do not tend to make such distinctions, anyway, when the long knives come out.
What it all boils down to, what it's really all about, is democracy.
Democracy is the most fundamental revolutionary concept.
So...take a good look at our situation today in the US. Consider the implications of your position, and your analysis. Consider those of the opposition, both within our own ranks, and in the Republican Party.
Whose side are you on, comrades?
Death to Fascism!
(figuratively, metaphorically, politically speaking, of course)
All Power to the People!
(for real)