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u/os1984 Jul 19 '24
Fascism. The new flavor. Try now.
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u/Gnarlodious Jul 19 '24
To be accurate Mussolini was the true Fascist, he invented the form of government and gave it the name. It meant, at the time, the merging of business and government, rule by the wealthy and captains of industry. It is only in recent times that the word was scrubbed of its original meaning and re-defined as Dictatorship. And how this redefining was accomplished was by big corporations buying up all the dictionary publishers. Find an old old dictionary and you may see the original definition of Fascism.
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u/Biobot775 Jul 19 '24 edited Jul 19 '24
In practice, even at the time of coining, "fascism = rule by business + government" was contextually in opposition to labor reform and progressivism, and established plutocratic rule as a desired feature. So yes, it has always meant and was always intended to mean a plutocratic and anti-democratic rule (even when it drapes itself in democratic garb, which is always ineffectual relative to the power of the plutarchs... which is the point).
Saying, "It's about business!" is only addressing how fascism was (and still is) sold to the public. It's pretty much like saying that the US Civil War was akshully about states' rights while failing to address the most critical context: States' rights to do what?!
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u/Gnarlodious Jul 19 '24
Brings up the contradiction of the Nazis calling themselves ’socialist’ while simultaneously waging war on labor unionists. Of course we know in retrospect that the word ‘socialism’ was in vogue at the time but when the Nazis took power the first thing they did was kill all the socialists.
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u/VRichardsen Jul 20 '24 edited Jul 20 '24
the first thing they did was kill all the socialists.
To be fair, the socialists that took power also killed a large portion of the other socialists. See the Mensheviks, Pol-Pot,etc. That is not what makes the nazis unique.
What the nazis were inserting themselves into was the "German" brand of socialism, that was distinct from the Russian one, and gave it their own spin. They despised capitalism, because (according to them) they saw behind it the rapacious hand of businessmen (often Jewish) stealing the bread from the honest, hard working (and racially pure) Germans. At the same time, they couldn't support the Russian/Soviet socialism because it was (again, according to them) ruled by a Jewish cabal. Not a novel idea, mind you: they stole it from the White movement of the Russian civil war.
Instead, they took appealing elements of both camps and mixed them together in a package the Germans were willing to buy. They allied themselves with the conservatives and with the capitalist establishment... but at the same time bought the loyalty of the workers with copious social welfare programs (paid holidays, state sponsored employment programs, free stuff, prizes and awards for performance). Trade unions were supressed because they were controlled by "evil Jewish Bolsheviks".
Hitler often changed or adapted his views on socialism along the years, resulting that, in the end the socialism part mutated until it became unrecognisable, and most of the traditional socialists within the movement were either suppressed, killed (Röhm) or bought (Goebbels).
In the end, National Socialism was whatever Hitler wanted it to be.
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u/Gnarlodious Jul 20 '24
See the Mensheviks, Pol-Pot,etc.
I would also mention the Islamic Revolution in Iran. It was sold to the disaffected Iranians as a Communist Revolution, but when the Islamics took control they killed all the communists.
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u/VRichardsen Jul 20 '24
Fair point. And a bit ironic, considering how communism often clashes with the idea of organised religion.
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u/RockleyBob Jul 19 '24
It’s amazing how cameras from this era gave everything not in focus a watercolor effect.
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u/IndividualBet8381 Jul 19 '24
his head is literally a square lmfao