Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Are You Leaning Far Enough to the Right to be Considered a Fascist?

loquitur · 03-03-2008, 06:56 PM

Host, without commenting on your own political self-assessment, let me just say that to make your point cogent you really would have to define what you mean by "fascist." I understand it to mean -- historically, and roughly speaking -- an all-powerful state, driven by nationalism, with large dollops of militarism, and insistence that the individual is submerged to the will of the whole. I don't think anyone here supports anything that matches that description. Of course your definition might be different. But if it is, you may want to consult the words of George Orwell, as far back as 1946, lamenting the distortion of words for political purposes: "The word Fascism has now no meaning except in so far as it signifies "something not desirable."" He had more to say about accusations of fascism here (good quote: "it is impossible to define Fascism satisfactorily without making admissions which neither the Fascists themselves, nor the Conservatives, nor Socialists of any colour, are willing to make. All one can do for the moment is to use the word with a certain amount of circumspection and not, as is usually done, degrade it to the level of a swearword.").

The term is not an all-purpose catch-all that means "political things I disagree with." It has a specific historical context, meaning and practice, originating in Europe in the 1920s and 1930s, originally in Italy under Mussolini, who invented the term. I'm unaware of any American who subscribes to Mussolini's tenets, and I certainly have not seen anyone here who does.

03-03-2008, 06:56 PM	#5 (permalink)
loquitur Junkie Location: NYC	Host, without commenting on your own political self-assessment, let me just say that to make your point cogent you really would have to define what you mean by "fascist." I understand it to mean -- historically, and roughly speaking -- an all-powerful state, driven by nationalism, with large dollops of militarism, and insistence that the individual is submerged to the will of the whole. I don't think anyone here supports anything that matches that description. Of course your definition might be different. But if it is, you may want to consult the words of George Orwell, as far back as 1946, lamenting the distortion of words for political purposes: "The word Fascism has now no meaning except in so far as it signifies "something not desirable."" He had more to say about accusations of fascism here (good quote: "it is impossible to define Fascism satisfactorily without making admissions which neither the Fascists themselves, nor the Conservatives, nor Socialists of any colour, are willing to make. All one can do for the moment is to use the word with a certain amount of circumspection and not, as is usually done, degrade it to the level of a swearword."). The term is not an all-purpose catch-all that means "political things I disagree with." It has a specific historical context, meaning and practice, originating in Europe in the 1920s and 1930s, originally in Italy under Mussolini, who invented the term. I'm unaware of any American who subscribes to Mussolini's tenets, and I certainly have not seen anyone here who does.