In August 2017, one word was thrust back into the spotlight: Fascist.
Much of it had to do with the political-ideological violence we saw play out in Charlottesville, Virginia, and Berkeley, California last year at the “Unite the Right” rally.
The violence, which left one person dead, led to a political circus, with President Donald Trump morally equivocating “both sides.” It was an embarrassing moment for the Republican Party, who despite their condemnations of Trump’s comments, quickly fell back into line, with contrarian voices within the party growing weaker than before.
Apparently, the lesson that the Republicans learned is that no matter what Trump says, the party’s base will support him. It showed that there are no consequences for Trump in regards to his statements from the party’s base, but there are consequences from party members who condemn them, which has led us to where we are today.
Back to fascism, which is the word of the day.
But what the heck is fascism anyway?
Well, if you ask people who put themselves on a right vs. left ideological spectrum, it’s either A) a “left wing” ideology because Hitler’s political party had “socialist” in the name, or B) a “right wing” ideology because it was based on nationalism of the sort that built upon demonizing segments of the populations based on either race (like Hitler with Jews) or ideology (like Franco and Mussolini with communists).
Often, if something doesn’t fit decently into this established political paradigm, it’s called either “centrist” or “moderate.”
If there’s one thing that fascism isn’t, it’s definitely neither “moderate” or “centrist” in its views.
But, if you ask your typical black-clad Antifa person, fascists not only include racists, but capitalists, “liberal appeasers,” Democrats, Republicans and pretty much anyone that isn’t lock step with their views.
So, you can see why there’s so much confusion as to what fascism actually is.
