Charlie Kirk shot at an event in Utah

[FlyersFan]

Suggested reading - Liberal Fascism by Jonah Goldberg.

Found Here
 

Fascists,” “Brownshirts,” “jackbooted stormtroopers”—such are the insults typically hurled at conservatives by their liberal opponents. Calling someone a fascist is the fastest way to shut them up, defining their views as beyond the political pale. But who are the real fascists in our midst?

Liberal Fascism offers a startling new perspective on the theories and practices that define fascist politics. Replacing conveniently manufactured myths with surprising and enlightening research, Jonah Goldberg reminds us that the original fascists were really on the left, and that liberals from Woodrow Wilson to FDR to Hillary Clinton have advocated policies and principles remarkably similar to those of Hitler's National Socialism and Mussolini's Fascism.

Contrary to what most people think, the Nazis were ardent socialists (hence the term “National socialism”). They believed in free health care and guaranteed jobs. They confiscated inherited wealth and spent vast sums on public education. They purged the church from public policy, promoted a new form of pagan spirituality, and inserted the authority of the state into every nook and cranny of daily life. The Nazis declared war on smoking, supported abortion, euthanasia, and gun control. They loathed the free market, provided generous pensions for the elderly, and maintained a strict racial quota system in their universities—where campus speech codes were all the rage. The Nazis led the world in organic farming and alternative medicine. Hitler was a strict vegetarian, and Himmler was an animal rights activist.

Do these striking parallels mean that today’s liberals are genocidal maniacs, intent on conquering the world and imposing a new racial order? Not at all. Yet it is hard to deny that modern progressivism and classical fascism shared the same intellectual roots. We often forget, for example, that Mussolini and Hitler had many admirers in the United States. W.E.B. Du Bois was inspired by Hitler's Germany, and Irving Berlin praised Mussolini in song. Many fascist tenets were espoused by American progressives like John Dewey and Woodrow Wilson, and FDR incorporated fascist policies in the New Deal.

Fascism was an international movement that appeared in different forms in different countries, depending on the vagaries of national culture and temperament. In Germany, fascism appeared as genocidal racist nationalism. In America, it took a “friendlier,” more liberal form. The modern heirs of this “friendly fascist” tradition include the New York Times, the Democratic Party, the Ivy League professoriate, and the liberals of Hollywood. The quintessential Liberal Fascist isn't an SS storm trooper; it is a female grade school teacher with an education degree from Brown or Swarthmore.

[FlyersFan]

 a true fascist would have absolutely no trouble convincing these people that they are fighting the good fight while slowly but surely establishing authoritarian rule.

 BOTH sides do that.   BOTH.

[Bootless]

Suggested reading - Liberal Fascism by Jonah Goldberg.

Found Here

And form an article by Jonah Goldberg: "What I Got Wrong About Fascism". The Dispatch. January 5, 2022.

there's one important claim that has been rendered utterly wrong. I argued that, contrary to generations of left-wing fearmongering and slander about the right's fascist tendencies, the modern American right was simply immune to the fascist temptation chiefly because it was too dogmatically committed to the Founders, to constitutionalism, and to classical liberalism generally. Almost 13 years to the day after publication, Donald Trump proved me wrong.

Disclosure: I got the quote from Wikipedia. His original article is behind a must sign up wall (like a pay wall but free, they say).

[FlyersFan]

And form an article by Jonah Goldberg: "What I Got Wrong About Fascism". The Dispatch. January 5, 2022.

Yeah ... he went on after the book to admit that the right does it too.
When Trump was elected he had to ... it was obvious.
That doesn't negate that what he said about the left in it is true.
The left does have fascist tendencies just like the right.
BOTH SIDES DO IT.

[putnam6]

 BOTH sides do that.   BOTH.

Yes, it's an unfortunate byproduct ...and when our ratios are within 5 percentage points, there will be large swathes feeling as they live under"authoritarian federal law ", it's partially why we are seeing so many states enact laws opposing "fed overreach". in thier constituents' minds 

Like the blue states still pushing COVID vaccines, or the red states pushing the repeal of property taxes. 

States' rights trump Federal rule in enough areas where it's supposed to be a pressure release valve; it is to varying degrees, but who knew we would be so hyper-connected and hyper-aware, caring intensely about what individual states do? 

And we haven't even got to the foreign influences sprinkling sand in Uncle Sam's shorts repeatedly

again on all sides.
 

 
Wall Street Apes

@WallStreetApes
·
18m

United States Attorney of Minnesota “Minnesota is drowning in fraud” - Taxpayer funded housing stabilization services companies are creating fake programs and making fake claims to bill for services that never happen - Over $100 million per year is stolen - Fraudulent health care companies set up - Fraudulent housing programs set up - Rehab patient fraud - Fake Medicare and Medicaid claims “Many of these companies operated out of dilapidated storefronts or run down office buildings that were full of other fraudulent health care companies” “They identified vulnerable individuals, Medicaid eligible individuals, many of whom were being released from drug or alcohol rehab facilities. They sign them up to receive housing stabilization services to help them, purportedly to help them find stable housing. Then they bill them for services that they did not, or they build Medicaid for services they did not actually provide. Despite the hundreds of millions of dollars in payments that have gone out from the state of Minnesota to housing stabilization services companies, many of these, most of these individuals did not receive stable housing they so desperately needed. The money was just simply stolen” “The level of fraud in these programs is staggering.” Now imagine this same fraud in every major city in every state. We can’t even comprehend the real amount of theft taking place against taxpayers

[Ignorant]

Suggested reading - Liberal Fascism by Jonah Goldberg.

Found Here 

Again just quotes and links. Did you even read that book? This is the last time I'm responding to this kind of low-effort copy-paste post.

It's disingenuous to argue that fascism and modern progressivism "share intellectual roots". Sure they do. Ideas evolve much like the tree of life. They always share a root somewhere. It's a redundant truism meant to inspire in the reader a sense that these ideas are somehow the same, which they clearly aren't. And anyone who writes
 

In America, [fascism] took a “friendlier,” more liberal form. The modern heirs of this “friendly fascist” tradition include the New York Times, the Democratic Party, the Ivy League professoriate, and the liberals of Hollywood. The quintessential Liberal Fascist isn't an SS storm trooper; it is a female grade school teacher with an education degree from Brown or Swarthmore.

... can't be taken seriously. The New York Times and female grade school teachers are fascists. Lmao.

The characteristics that most clearly distance fascism from modern progressivism and liberalism in general are its structure of government (dictatorship with suppression of opposition), nationalism, and strong (ethnic) national identity.

To be clear, the vast majority of people on "the right" aren't fascists either. Conservatism has as little to do with fascism as progressivism does. But there is a fringe minority of Trump cultists who would actually like for him to be a dictator, who are white supremacists (that's the ethnic national identity) and who think America should do things like annex Greenland, Canada, etc. Trump himself obviously plays into this. He concentrates power in the executive branch, attacks the freedom of the press if it's critical of him, all but condones white nationalism, talks of Canada becoming the 51st state, etc. Thát is the closest thing to fascism one can find in America (a point your boy Jonah Goldberg would apparently agree with, thanks for pointing that out Bootless), and what groups like Antifa oppose.

[FlyersFan]

 This is the last time I'm responding to this kind of low-effort copy-paste post....  (a point your boy Jonah Goldberg...

You are rather snotty.
It's not 'low effort' to point out that a good case can be made for left wing fascism.
And Jonah Goldberg is not 'my boy'.   He's just the author.
Both the left wing and the right wing have their elements that gravitate towards fascism.
To say that it's only something that infects the right wing in America is what is 'low effort' intellectually.
BOTH SIDES have elements that gravitate towards totalitarianism and fascism.
That's the truth of it.

[FlyersFan]

The New York Times and female grade school teachers are fascists. Lmao.

You poor thing.  You don't get how it works.   The fascist leadership is at the top, and then their brainwashed followers do the leg work and are part of the fascist machine.    Everyone, all the lay people, get in on it.   Read up on fascist WWII Germany and see how it was done.   Teachers.  "Journalists" (propagandists).  Doctors.  Lawyers.  Judges.   Shop workers.  Everyone carries the banner and is part of the machine.

[Ignorant]

You are rather snotty.

I'm tired of people making points by links and quotes and appeals to authority, rather than putting things in their own words. It happens very often here.
 

It's not 'low effort' to point out that a good case can be made for left wing fascism.

It is if you do it by links and quotes. That post probably took you less than 2 minutes to make and I have no reason to believe you've spent even a single second thinking about this subject. Sure as hell didn't read the book you recommended.
 

Both the left wing and the right wing have their elements that gravitate towards fascism.
To say that it's only something that infects the right wing in America is what is 'low effort' intellectually.
BOTH SIDES have elements that gravitate towards totalitarianism and fascism.
That's the truth of it.

When it comes to totalitarianism, yes I agree. But fascism is something more specific and is considered a far-right ideology for a reason.

This "both sides" thing comes across like a deflection when you have someone in the white house, whom you clearly support, showing real fascist tendencies.

[UltraBudgie]

I mean if you want to get in to actual fascistic parallels you could mention that the the US dollar is squeezed to provide a minimal sustainable domestic framework while maximizing economic investment and direct funding of the Department of War. That's sort of fascistic, right?