this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2024
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No they can't. Fascist is not a synonym for authoritarian.
Ok. I'll be more precise. Fascism is authoritarian, but not all authoritarians are fascist.
Mussolini was fascist, but held left wing beliefs like welfare and relief for the poor and government intervention and ownership.
At that level of discussion, a simplistic left-right characterization makes no sense.
What makes a fascist fascist is that they only defend welfare for the people they deem worthy and submit, who represent and strengthen the "nation". That is not "left".
What is usually called the left usually sees welfare as an end in itself and not exclusively as a means to strengthen the nation.
I think we are agreeing.
Left wing ideas are not fascist, but people with left wing beliefs can also hold fascist ideas (e.g. Mussolini).
It is a mistake to assume that only the right can be fascist.
ok, then we sort of agree, it is possible to be fascist "on the left" by putting the collective above all individual rights and wellbeing by force, where you would replace "the nation" with e.g. "the proletariat" instead, which you would not call fascist, would you? I mean, there is a name for it: Stalinism or marxism-leninism or communism, depending on who you're talking to.