What is a Fascist Anyway?For a lot of folks, what the liberal elites condemn as 'fascism' is just plain old law and order
Rod Dreher
Oct 31, 2022
Let's ask Wikipedia what a fascist is. It says:
Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology and movement, characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy, subordination of individual interests for the perceived good of the nation and race, and strong regimentation of society and the economy. ... Fascism rejects assertions that violence is inherently bad and views imperialism, political violence and war as means to national rejuvenation. Fascists often advocate for the establishment of a totalitarian one-party state, and for a dirigiste economy, with the principal goal of achieving autarky (national economic self-sufficiency) through protectionist and economic interventionist policies
That's a pretty clear definition. I don't see any mainstream Western politicians of the Right anywhere close to that definition. The only thing that you see among mainstream conservatives that even approaches this is the claim that globalist economics has been bad for the interests of the nation-state, and the assertion that political leaders ought to favor their own people's interests more than those of trans-national interests. You also see advocacy for the subordination of individual interests for the common good, but anyone who isn't a libertarian believes in that; the question is where you draw the line. For example, the Left believes that the interests of white and Asian individuals should be sacrificed for the greater good, which (in the Left's view) entails advancing other racial minorities through institutional promotion. The Right draws its lines in a different place. Putting a concept of the common good above individual interests is not necessarily fascism, but ordinary politics.
We are accustomed to hearing people on the Left accuse people on the Right of "fascism" every day. Former bartender AOC went on TV the other day to accuse conservatives of, yep, fascism. For the Left, there is never a bad time to call someone on the Right a fascist. The term is all but meaningless in US political discourse. While AOC bleats about the fascist threat, almost all the political violence in this country is carried out by far-left extremists called Antifa.
But will it always be? I saw on Twitter today a link to this 2018 essay by Costin Alamariu, about the prospect of Jair Bolsonaro becoming president of Brazil. As you know, Bolsonaro was elected that year, but yesterday was turned out of office by voters in a narrow election. Still, this part of the Alamariu essay is quite relevant today:
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Source:
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/what-is-a-fascist-anyway/
