I have trouble taking people seriously when they use “fascist” as a blanket term to discredit people they don’t like.

Maybe we should define our terms then? I favour this definition of "ur-fascism" by Umberto Eco: https://archive.is/VamLM

To steal a few examples from a convenient summary list someone[1] made:

1. The cult of tradition. “One has only to look at the syllabus of every fascist movement to find the major traditionalist thinkers. The Nazi gnosis was nourished by traditionalist, syncretistic, occult elements.”

2. The rejection of modernism. “The Enlightenment, the Age of Reason, is seen as the beginning of modern depravity. In this sense Ur-Fascism can be defined as irrationalism.”

3. The cult of action for action’s sake. “Action being beautiful in itself, it must be taken before, or without, any previous reflection. Thinking is a form of emasculation.”

4. Disagreement is treason. “The critical spirit makes distinctions, and to distinguish is a sign of modernism. In modern culture the scientific community praises disagreement as a way to improve knowledge.”

...

10. Contempt for the weak. “Elitism is a typical aspect of any reactionary ideology.”

Open to other definitions. But I look at that list, written in 1995, and it feels like you can check off a lot of these items in things that are rapidly being normalised.

1. https://www.openculture.com/2024/11/umberto-ecos-list-of-the...

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bediger4000 18 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Do you feel the same about use of terms like "socialist" or "radical left"?

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mcphage 18 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I have trouble taking people seriously when they refuse to call things what they are because they don’t want to admit it.

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PaulHoule 16 hours ago | parent | next [-]

"Anti-fascists" were saying things like "Keir Starmer is a Fascist" (sci-fi writer Charlie Stross) or that "My local police department is Fascist" or "White people are Fascist"

If you know your 'Pataphysics or Chaos Magick you know that's a magic spell to put fascists in charge.

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queenkjuul 14 hours ago | parent [-]

So you can't call fascism fascism because some idiot called not-fascism fascism?

	▲	PaulHoule 43 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		You can but people won’t listen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boy_Who_Cried_Wolf

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kcplate 18 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

The problem is that fascism historically encompassed a number of political and power qualities and what is being described as “fascist” today might have some of those qualities, but not necessarily all of them. Ironically the side yelling “fascist” today also has some of those qualities, but doesn’t want to admit either.

Probably just best to focus on those qualities you don’t like on the other side and leave the labeling to the future historians.

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queenkjuul 14 hours ago | parent [-]

We need words people understand now to describe what's happening now.

Curious what you consider fascist about people who hold zero corporate or political power

	▲	kcplate 5 hours ago \| parent [-]
		> We need words people understand now to describe what's happening now. Ok, so use words appropriate to what is happening. When you work to redefine “scary” words in an attempt to try and piggyback on their negative history you minimize that history. > Curious what you consider fascist about people who hold zero corporate or political power The point was that I don’t consider what we see today as fascist and you shouldn’t either…because it’s not.

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al_borland 18 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Trump has given power back to the states for various things and seems to be consistently anti-war. Musk has been pushing the idea of starting a new political party to better represent the people and is for less regulation and smaller government.

This doesn’t sound like a couple of fascists.

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yencabulator 20 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

That's very much a rules for thee not for me scenario. Watch Trump regarding California and try to claim he's all about state's rights.

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queenkjuul 14 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Yes it does

	▲	msgodel 38 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		It's fascist in the anti-communist sense sure, but most Americans would be fascist then.

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cholantesh 16 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

>Musk has been pushing the idea of starting a new political party to better represent the people and is for less regulation and smaller government.

This is self-contradictory gibberish. Deregulation and small government for him means further weakening labour laws to the point where the interests of the majority of Americans, ie, wage workers, have no ability to advocate for their needs and no recourse when he encroaches on them.

>Trump [...] seems to be consistently anti-war.

This was already a surreal claim to make when he was sending troops and PMCs into Iraq and Syria, deploying SEALs on abortive raids in Yemen, where Saudi troops were using arms his administration provided them, oh and, I dunno, ordering the assassination of the highest military official of a sovereign nation. It becomes solipsistic in the month after he oversaw the US' direct intervention in Israel's war with Iran.

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queenkjuul 14 hours ago | parent [-]

It's only war when the guy i don't like does it. Otherwise it's "intervention" or "police action" or "limited engagement" or the term du jour

	▲	yencabulator 19 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		The US special operation in middle east.

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mcphage 16 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> seems to be consistently anti-war

…this is the guy who bombed Iran?

> to better represent the people

Do you just believe everything that people with power tell you?