Quote:
Originally Posted by Munchkin03
This is true, but only to a point. Fascism--at least in its ideal form--endorses control of a population by very specific means (usually by extreme nationalism and militarism, and not by "any means possible." Fascism is also opposed to Communism and Socialism, by the way.
It seems to me that people tend to use the term not as a way to connect a politician's views to those of Hitler or Mussolini (textbook fascists), but as a slur against a political opponent.
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I agree with you on this, and I don't think that the Bush=Hitler rhetoric by some helped any.
I got irritated about the Bush as a fascist rhetoric a few years ago*, and spent time thinking about it: even the methods and ideologies of Hitler and Mussolini aren't really as close in terms of economic systems as maybe one would think. And they sure as heck don't apply to either of the mainstream two party candidates in this election.
*not that Bush was great, but we were a far cry from fascist by any stretch of the imagination, and yet I knew people who really felt there were strong parallels. There are actually probably stronger parallels with fascism now after the bailout, depending on how one interprets "corporativismo."