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View Full Version : Fascism Anyone? The 14 Defining Characteristics of Fascism by Laurence W. Britt



ironboltbruce
02-20-2012, 03:43 PM
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FASCISM ANYONE? THE 14 DEFINING CHARACTERISTICS OF FASCISM BY LAURENCE W. BRITT
Originally published in the Spring 2003 edition of Free Inquiry Magazine

Laurence Britt has examined the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia) and several Latin American regimes. He found 14 defining characteristics common to each:

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism - Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.

2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights - Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.

3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause - The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial, ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.

4. Supremacy of the Military - Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.

5. Rampant Sexism - The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Divorce, abortion and homosexuality are suppressed and the state is represented as the ultimate guardian of the family institution.

6. Controlled Mass Media - Sometimes to media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.

7. Obsession with National Security - Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.

8. Religion and Government are Intertwined - Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government's policies or actions.

9. Corporate Power is Protected - The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.

10. Labor Power is Suppressed - Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed.

11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts - Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts and letters is openly attacked.

12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment - Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.

13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption - Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.

14. Fraudulent Elections - Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.

Any questions, America?

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Mister D
02-20-2012, 03:51 PM
Not this Laurence Britt buffoon again. Larry, Franco wasn't a fascist. Nor was Spain fascist. Ever.

Peter1469
02-20-2012, 05:30 PM
And corporations under fascism are only favored if they toe the State's line. If not, they are destroyed.

Corporatism is not fascism.

Mister D
02-20-2012, 05:54 PM
Right. Corporatism also predates fascism by millennia. It need not (and usually did not) have anything to do with entities like Exxon-Mobil, for example. Medieval Europe was a corporatist society.

Peter1469
02-20-2012, 06:05 PM
Right. Corporatism also predates fascism by millennia. It need not (and usually did not) have anything to do with entities like Exxon-Mobil, for example. Medieval Europe was a corporatist society.


Most of the things that ticked off our Founders were actions that the King took on behalf of the East Indian Trading Company.

Mister D
02-20-2012, 06:27 PM
George III was a proto fascist! :grin:

Chris
02-20-2012, 07:49 PM
Fascism is a branch of socialism, so is communism, nazism. So is social democracy (socialism lite). So is modern liberalism (liberal fascism). --I was in a lumping mood, :-).

The best book I've read on fascism is John T. Flynn's 1944 As We Go Marching. For a free copy download here: http://mises.org/document/2972.

Mister D
02-20-2012, 08:47 PM
I like some of Walter Lacquer's work but he has a habit of using terms like "Islamofascism". I wasn't aware of it at the time (I must have read Fascism: Past, Present and Future 12 or more years ago in my early to mid 20s) but he strikes me as a neocon to some extent. It's just the impression I get looking back on him. Anyway, I prefer a much narrower definition of fascism.

Mister D
02-20-2012, 08:47 PM
Flynn seems like an interesting guy.

Peter1469
02-20-2012, 09:06 PM
I like some of Walter Lacquer's work but he has a habit of using terms like "Islamofascism". I wasn't aware of it at the time (I must have read Fascism: Past, Present and Future 12 or more years ago in my early to mid 20s) but he strikes me as a neocon to some extent. It's just the impression I get looking back on him. Anyway, I prefer a much narrower definition of fascism.

Yes Islamo-fascism was a neocon term designed to instill fear into the general public. I understand its meaning, but with the historical significance of Fascism (big F), the term is not helpful. Islamist is just fine.

Mister D
02-20-2012, 09:09 PM
Agreed. I don't find it very helpful either in terms of trying to understand Islamism.

Chris
02-21-2012, 06:57 AM
The politicization of Islam has an interesting history.

Peter1469
02-21-2012, 04:22 PM
The politicization of Islam has an interesting history.

By whom? The Islamists or the West (particularly the Neocons)?

Chris
02-21-2012, 07:55 PM
By whom? The Islamists or the West (particularly the Neocons)?
Interesting question. Both. Islamism--Egyptian Brotherhood, Qtub, etc--arose in reaction to Western influence before it was later globalized by Al Queda and others.

Peter1469
02-21-2012, 09:24 PM
Interesting question. Both. Islamism--Egyptian Brotherhood, Qtub, etc--arose in reaction to Western influence before it was later globalized by Al Queda and others.

I was getting at the way the Islamists politicize Islam as opposed to the way the Neocons do it.

Chris
02-22-2012, 08:20 AM
Aren't neocons, and others, politicizing Islamism?

Chris
02-22-2012, 08:52 AM
Anyway, I'd agree with Paul we're slipping into Corporatocracy: Ron Paul Says US ‘Slipping Into Fascism’ (http://lewrockwell.com/rep3/corporatocracy.html):
Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul slammed America's system of governance at a rally in Kansas City, saying businesses and government are pushing the country into twenty-first century fascism.

But before you start picturing fair-skinned, blue-eyed CEOs and bureaucrats running amok and with their right arms held high, calm down. What the outspoken Texas Republican meant was fascist corporatism – an economic model most prominently seen in Mussolini’s Italy of the 1920s to the 1940s. Fascist economic corporatism involved government and private management of full sectors of the economy – which Paul says is par for the course in today's America.


“We’ve slipped away from a true republic,” Paul told thousands of his supporters at the rally. “Now we’re slipping into a fascist system where it’s a combination of government, big business and authoritarian rule, and the suppression of the individual rights of each and every American citizen.”...
What Hayek warned about in The Road to Serfdom.

Conley
02-22-2012, 09:33 AM
Aren't neocons, and others, politicizing Islamism?

I believe so. Not only that, they've gotten a lot of mileage out of it.