The Myth of Fascism

By Selwyn Duke

Napoleon Bonaparte once said, “History is a series of agreed-upon myths.” I’m not quite that cynical, but our history books do sometimes seem more like mythology than reality. In fact, in school we don’t even call the subject “history” anymore but “social studies” (socialist studies?). Yes, the victors write the history, and it’s pretty easy to see who has been winning the culture war for the last 100-odd years.

“You’re a fascist!”

It’s an accusation so common that I can only paraphrase Helter Skelter figure Charles Manson’s remarks about being “crazy” and say, there was a time when being a fascist meant something; nowadays everybody’s a fascist. Why, even the Online Etymology Dictionary, a source not generally known for hyperbole or any discernable sense of humor, has the following statement under the entry “fascism”: “1922, originally used in English 1920 in its Italian form (see fascist). Applied to similar groups in Germany from 1923; applied to everyone since the rise of the Internet.” Unfortunately, though, the term’s sloppy application didn’t start with the virtual world. It started with virtual history.

Read the rest here.

Comments

[Robert Berger]

Nowadays, the most misused term is actually "socialist", with Marxist and communist coming close. Right-wingers today will call any one who is even slightly less right-wing than J.Edgar Hoover, Joe McCarthy, and Archie Bunker a socialist, implying that you're a closet Marxist and communist too.
But they mistake the existence of a safety to net for the unfortunate in society for socialism, and foolishly believe that if our government would just get rid of welfare,medicare and social security and all those government programs, as well as reducing taxes as much as possible and getting rid of all government regulations etc,
general prosperity will somehow "trickle down" and supply side economics will transform America into a free and prosperous nation. WRONG !!!!!!!!!
Without that vital safety net, millions of people would be absolutely helpless in the face of losing their jobs, being disable in accidents or being struck by catastrophic illness. Most Americans a re NOT lazy bums who want the government to support them for life in style while it takes hard-earned money away from honest,hard-working people. This is just a conservative myth.
All over the internet, right-wingers are always accusing me, a pretty moderate guy,of being a socialist,Marxist and communist, which is absolutely ludicrous.

[Shaun]

Way to turn every Selwyn article in a blabbing about yourself and obsessive rant against "the right wing". Jeez!

[lurker]

"So they took “fascism,” lumped almost every non-communist authoritarian regime into its category, and painted it as a baby of the right. And then the message was, “Okay, w-w-well, well, we have communism — but you have fascism! And your demon child is worse than ours!”"

I always use "fascist" as a synonym for "totalitarian" typically applying it to activism from any group that invades other people's privacy in order to enforce ideological conformity. Just as you have discovered, distinguishing left-wing from right-wing isn't always easy. While calling even leftists "fascist" might confuse them, it is accurately applied to oppressive/repressive actions by a political faction. I do employ the moniker "tote" at times though this does tend to confuse both varieties of oppressive barbarian.