#characteristicsoffascism

Lawrence W. Britt: 14 Characteristics of #Fascism

[Unattributed, but based on the writings of #UmbertoEco]

"#Historian #LawrenceBritt studied the fascist regimes of #Hitler (Germany), #Mussolini (Italy), #Franco (Spain), #Suharto (Indonesia), and #Pinochet (Chile) and found they had 14 elements in common. He calls these the identifying characteristics of fascism.

1. Powerful and Continuing #Nationalism Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of #patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. #Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.

2. Disdain for the Recognition of #HumanRights Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of “need.” The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, and long incarcerations of prisoners.

3. Identification of #Enemies / #Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: #racial, #ethnic or #religious #minorities; #liberals; #communists; #socialists, #terrorists…

4. Supremacy of the #Military Even when there are widespread #domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.

5. Rampant #Sexism The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional #gender roles are made more rigid. Opposition to #abortion is high, as is #homophobia and anti-#gay legislation.

6. Controlled #MassMedia Sometimes the media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation or by sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Government #censorship and #secrecy especially in war time, are very common.

7. Obsession with #NationalSecurity Fear of hostile foreign powers is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.

8. #Religion and Government are Intertwined Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government’s policies or actions.

9. Protection of #Corporate Power The #industrial and business #aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.

10. Suppression of #Labor Power Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor #unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed.

11. Disdain for #Intellectuals and the #Arts Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to #HigherEducation and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other #academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts is openly attacked, and governments often refuse to fund the arts.

12. Obsession with #Crime and #Punishment Under fascist regimes, the #police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego #CivilLiberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.

13. Rampant #Cronyism and #Corruption Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.

14. #FraudulentElections Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by #SmearCampaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control #voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.

This post is a summary of Fascism, Anyone? by Lawrence W. Britt published in 2003 by Free Inquiry magazine."

https://voxpopulisphere.com/2017/08/23/lawrence-britt-14-characteristics-of-fascism/

#History #Histodon #RabidRight #Antifa #Antifascism #FarRight #Trump #Putin #Russia #MAGA #Project2025 #CharacteristicsOfFascism #DetentionCenters #VoterDisenfranchisement #VoterIDLaws #SilencingDissent #CriminalizingDissent

When The #TwilightZone Imagined #Fascism in #America in a 1963 Episode Starring #DennisHopper in History, Television | March 25th, 2025 "Watch through The Twilight Zone, and you’ll find yourself spotting no end of familiar faces: Julie Newmar, Burt Reynolds, Robert Redford, Elizabeth Montgomery, William Shatner, even Buster Keaton. The 1963 episode 'He’s Alive' is at least doubly notable in that respect, featuring as it does a young (but in acting sensibility, almost fully formed) Dennis Hopper as Peter Vollmer, a ne’er-do-well made into an aspiring dictator by none other than Adolf Hitler. Played by Curt Conway, a specialist in doctors, judges, and other authority figures, the undead Führer offers his young disciple instructions like the above, from an early scene before his identity is revealed. "'How do you move a mob, Mr. Vollmer? How do you excite them? How do you make them feel as one with you?' Hitler asks. The answer, which he then provides, is first to join them: 'When you speak to them, speak to them as if you were a member of the mob. Speak to them in their language, on their level. Make their hate your hate. If they are poor, talk to them of poverty. If they are afraid, talk to them of their fears. And if they are angry, Mr. Vollmer… if they are angry, give them objects for their anger. But most of all, the thing that is most of the essence, Mr. Vollmer, is that you make this mob an extension of yourself.' "If accused of scapegoating minorities, he should address the throng thus: 'Should I tell you who are the minorities? Should I tell you? We! We are the minorities.' Soon, we see Peter in full neo-Nazi gear delivering just such a harangue, thoroughly Hopper-ized in diction, to a modestly attended rally. How could these ordinary-looking attendees be a minority? 'Because patriotism is a minority. Because love of country is the minority. Because to live in a free, white America seems to be of a minority opinion!' "Though hardly artful, this rhetoric eventually makes him into a popular figure, albeit one whose rise is cut short when he turns to conspiracy to accelerate his rise to power. "And what of the spirit of Hitler? 'Where will he go next, this phantom from another time, this resurrected ghost of a previous nightmare?' Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling asks in his episode-closing monologue. 'Any place, every place where there’s #hate, where there’s prejudice, where there’s #bigotry.' It was against such broad social phenomena that Serling so often used his scripts to argue, and with 'He’s Alive,' he made use of an unusually vivid ideological example. "A veteran of the Second World War, which had ended less than twenty years earlier, Serling surely had even fresher memories of the threat of Hitler than did the general American public — and understood even more clearly what could happen if those memories were to fade away." Source: https://www.openculture.com/2025/03/when-the-twilight-zone-imagined-fascism-in-america-in-a-1963-episode-starring-dennis-hopper.html#google_vignette Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05LaTuuKPlI #CharacteristicsOfFascism #USPol #WorldPol #Twitler #TheBalladOfTheLittleMan #LittleManWithin