'Antifa are the real fascists'

I think the source of this notion began with Bush era liberals. They were the first to water down the definition of fascism to mean anything ugly, negative, or authoritarian. All of Bush's policies were labeled 'fascist' and people forgot what the actual definition and history of fascism. It made it easy for today's politically illiterate (aka vast majority of people) to swallow up the idea that militant responses to racism are fascistic.

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nybooks.com/articles/1995/06/22/ur-fascism/
e-reading.club/bookreader.php/135772/Fascism_-_theory_and_practice.pdf
youtube.com/watch?v=BHibZA-Qs78
twitter.com/NSFWRedditImage

But what is fascism then? And don't tell "class collaboration", because I'm sure there must be better definitions than that.

I've personally always defined fascism as völkisch movement seizing power with the goal to implement aggressive foreign policies for imperialist gains.

Well, I would add ultranationalism and very reactionary and tradisionalistic to that definition aswell

Umberto Ecco's 14 points:
1. The first feature of Ur-Fascism is the cult of tradition.
2. Traditionalism implies the rejection of modernism.
3. Irrationalism also depends on the cult of action for action’s sake.
4. No syncretistic faith can withstand analytical criticism.
5. Besides, disagreement is a sign of diversity. Ur-Fascism grows up and seeks for consensus by exploiting and exacerbating the natural fear of difference.
6. Ur-Fascism derives from individual or social frustration. That is why one of the most typical features of the historical fascism was the appeal to a frustrated middle class,
7. To people who feel deprived of a clear social identity, Ur-Fascism says that their only privilege is the most common one, to be born in the same country. This is the origin of nationalism. Besides, the only ones who can provide an identity to the nation are its enemies. Thus at the root of the Ur-Fascist psychology there is the obsession with a plot,
8. The followers must feel humiliated by the ostentatious wealth and force of their enemies.
9. For Ur-Fascism there is no struggle for life but, rather, life is lived for struggle. Thus pacifism is trafficking with the enemy.
10. Elitism is a typical aspect of any reactionary ideology, insofar as it is fundamentally aristocratic, and aristocratic and militaristic elitism cruelly implies contempt for the weak.
11. In such a perspective everybody is educated to become a hero.
12. Since both permanent war and heroism are difficult games to play, the Ur-Fascist transfers his will to power to sexual matters. This is the origin of machismo (which implies both disdain for women and intolerance and condemnation of nonstandard sexual habits, from chastity to homosexuality).
13. Ur-Fascism is based upon a selective populism, a qualitative populism, one might say.
14. Ur-Fascism speaks Newspeak

nybooks.com/articles/1995/06/22/ur-fascism/
^Read it, is good shit.

Useful stuff, thanks!

No, it started with antifascism itself, when the Komintern decreed that everything deviating from the current party line is "fascism" they must destroy, even especially Social Democracy. It has never been more than a movement to shut down dialogue.

I have read more "points and characteristics of fascism" than I can recall, and all of them read like screeching at boogiemen under the bed, rather than any observation of actual movements.
They are nothing more than a leftoid ideologue's formulaization of the "Other".

You should ask an actual fascist instead.

Actual fascist would give me a dishonest answer.

not a fan of umberto eco's definition, which i think is a bit too loose. there are some excellent books on fascism by robert o. paxton, stanley g. payne and roger griffin.

i'd define fascism as "palingenetic ultranationalism."

the idea of "palingenesis" is important. the idea is to create an authoritarian state that revives the pure, uncorrupted (frequently ethnic) origin of the nation that existed in a mythic past. hence why fash look back at vikings, ancient rome or samurai.

leftists often underestimate the revolutionary nature of this. fascists are not simple conservatives … usually. they want to create a new society that contains the essence of a lost one.

another big thing is an almost "organic" connection between people and the nation-state. the nation-state is like an organism that must be purged of decadent, international, cosmopolitan elements to be made "fit" and "healthy."

this is why fascism is usually anti-semitic, and obsessed with physical fitness. the nation must be purged just like the body must be purged; so fascists are big on raw/natural foods and such; milk and wheat. the holocaust in the fascist's imagination was like wiping out parasites to purify / clean the nation.

look up "aryan girls in wheat fields" on Holla Forums

blonde hair = blonde wheat. blood and soil. a fascist is "rooted" unlike the "rootless" jews and such. fascists are human vegetables.

Aspects of this argument are reasonably challenged in David Renton's book on fascism: e-reading.club/bookreader.php/135772/Fascism_-_theory_and_practice.pdf
Do read it, Renton gives a worthwhile Marxist treatment on fascism.