Talk:Left-wing fascism

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This term illustrates the uselessness of the idiotic "left-right" dichotomy in conveying subtle distinctions between diverse political ideologies.

The term "left-wing fascism" was originally developed by Juergen Habermas, a radical leftist, to distinguish his political views from authoritarian leftists who follow in the Marxist-Leninist tradition.

Chomsky has always been strongly anti-Leninist and his anarchism or "libertarian socialism" cannot be characterized as left-wing fascism, as that term was originally used.

In fact, I'm deleting the sentence: it is a "weasel" sentence that avoids "weasel words" by adopting the passive voice. If Chomsky "has been" accused of "left-wing fascism," this accusation must be attributed to a source, complete with explanation. - Joe Pythag3

[edit] Changes

I went ahead and changed the entire entry. As noted in the article, the term was originally used by anti-authoritarian leftists, rather than conservatives, to distinguish their own views from elements on the "left" that advocated the use of force and/or supported socialism via centralized and undemocratic institutions.

I realize that the paragraph dealing with the conservative critics uses the "weasel" passive voice in the way I criticized earlier. But I know the statement is true -- just have no examples off-hand. I'll change it in the near future, when I can provide the examples.

The concluding paragraph seems to violate guidelines concerning POV: but I think the statements are fair, accurate, and easily defensible. The ideology "left-fascism" has never been fully delineated in any books or scholarly journal articles. The link provided attempts to point out similarities between modern, left-wing thought and with Mussolini's fascism: okay, but that's not the same as describing an ideology called "left-fascism." Pointing out similarities between the circumference of the Earth and the circumference of Mars does not mean that they are the same. Frankly, I found the article to be poorly argued, though I suppose that is irrelevant to the discussion at hand.

Unlike the term "neoconservative," which is also used as a pejorative, there are no self-described adherents of "left-fascism." It can be argued that "fascism" does not represent a clearly defined ideology -- the Italian 'fascists' essentially started out as a group of street thugs --, and that many "fascists" (i.e., the Nazis) did not describe themselves as such. Nevertheless, much has been written on the ideology of "fascist" political thought, often by credible historians and political philosophers, and "fascism" did begin as an actual political movement in an actual place at an actual point in time.

As to the state/corporate/capitalism crap, this is all irrelevant and/or has no meaning. The idea that the New Deal was "fascist" is absolute hogwash: if anything, it was mildly Keynsian. That is all. It would be like suggesting that Eisenhower was a Nazi for building the first interstates -- on the grounds that Hitler and the Nazis were the first to do so.

Both in Italy and Nazi Germany, fascism started out as a quasi-populist movement and so embraced quasi-socialist platforms early on. Recall that the workers' movement had made terms like "socialist" perfectly acceptable in places like Italy and Germany. Both embraced elements of economic populism in their original platforms, though the Nazis jettisoned much of it while consolidating their political power. Within Nazism, there were "left/socialist" critics of capitalism (e.g., Joseph Goebbels) as well as staunch supporters of capitalism (e.g., Hermann Goering). The Nazis, like the Bolsheviks (and, I suspect, Mussolini), banned all independent unions, prohibited the strike, and spied extensively on factory workers: not what one would expect from a committed socialist. Meanwhile, the SS had a special branch of "honorary members" who had donated more than $100,000 Reichsmarks to the Nazi Party: usually opportunistic businessmen seeking government contracts. Similarly, the Nazis relied extensively on German corporations such as IG Farben in building and implementing their gas chambers and crematoriums.

Fascism really has nothing to do with economics. - Joe Pythag3

[edit] VFD debate

This article has been kept following this VFD debate. Sjakkalle (Check!) 5 July 2005 07:41 (UTC)