Quote:
Originally Posted by JurisDictum
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A more sober view than the post you quoted.
Facist and communist regimes are similar in their methods of control. In practical reality there isn't a lot of difference between the two (Hitler once said Stalinism was just "red facism"). But the theory behind the two are completely different. One is about achieving the closest thing to real equality. The other is about state strength, empowering the country at the expense of others.
Facism is closely related to racism. I had a libertarian professor once said the main difference between facism and communism was that facism also had racism. Ultimately I don't agree with him, but in practical reality there is something to it.
Ultimately this kind of stuff usually devolves into some BS semantic argument though.
Edit: The reason american liberals and conservatives always fuck up there understanding of facism -- is because they don't understand that there isn't a big "goverment vs free market" dichomity in the German intellectual tradition. They never really bought into that "the economy" (which exists independent of society) in mass as much as they have here. To Hitler, the economy wasn't a big theater of ideological warfare. Most Germans agree some government and some market is good.
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I wanted to readdress the issue of fascism and racism. I would be interested to know what your professors basis for this is. To my knowledge only one ethnocentric fascist state has existed. Mussolini rejected Hitler's racial views. Francoist were Catholics and so have an inherent degree of universalism. Milosoevic's reign was ethnocentric but I am unsure of just how much "fascism" there was there since I haven't studied the issue as much. I think fascism has become a misnomer.
Now if as I said before its because of the nationalism that is as I said owed to the exclusivity of the ideology however depending on the cultural makeup of a country you could be a fascist nationalist without being a racist (see the above).