That text just lists a set of comorbid traits of similar movements.
It’s vague from author’s viewpoint, but also quite specific as compared to how the word “fascism” is being used today.
I can agree there are regimes that fit there, but they are small. Nothing mainstream in USA is fascism. Putin’s Russia isn’t fascism. Even Turkey and Azerbaijan are not fascism. They all have fragments and elements of fascism, but that doesn’t mean anything.
I think everyone is focusing on that mechanism too much, equating it to despotism, tyranny, evil and death. All of these exist very well outside of fascism. That something isn’t fascist doesn’t mean it’s better.
That essay is about totalitarian regimes with cult of personality, cult of sacrifice and irrational youthful power, hierarchical structure, deification of technology, all that. I also advise you to read his “Foucault’s Pendulum”, a wonderful read, except with my ADHD I haven’t yet finished it. Its atmosphere is focused on literal fascism and its roots, but the atmosphere of Stalinism (which I know better) is not too different.
Fascists are a movement from 1920s Italy. You’ll see things clearer if you don’t try to classify them by tired labels.
That said, even if you are wrong here, there’ll be a lot of “worse”, I think.
Ur-Fascism was published in 1995 partly to document the modern fascist and draw lines to the originals.
Yes the term was first used a century ago, but unfortunately it hasn’t stayed in the past.
That text just lists a set of comorbid traits of similar movements.
It’s vague from author’s viewpoint, but also quite specific as compared to how the word “fascism” is being used today.
I can agree there are regimes that fit there, but they are small. Nothing mainstream in USA is fascism. Putin’s Russia isn’t fascism. Even Turkey and Azerbaijan are not fascism. They all have fragments and elements of fascism, but that doesn’t mean anything.
I think everyone is focusing on that mechanism too much, equating it to despotism, tyranny, evil and death. All of these exist very well outside of fascism. That something isn’t fascist doesn’t mean it’s better.
That essay is about totalitarian regimes with cult of personality, cult of sacrifice and irrational youthful power, hierarchical structure, deification of technology, all that. I also advise you to read his “Foucault’s Pendulum”, a wonderful read, except with my ADHD I haven’t yet finished it. Its atmosphere is focused on literal fascism and its roots, but the atmosphere of Stalinism (which I know better) is not too different.