From the comments, www.dailykos.com/…
While the list is highly cited on the internet, its author is a former Allied Chemical executive and reads history in his spare time — a history buff.
Even academic historians cannot agree on a single definition of Fascism, in part because there were different practices in different nations. Going back to the 19th century, fascist tendencies can be found to occur after progressive revolutions — the return swing of a pendulum.
For me, the list from Eco is a little hard to follow.
What most forms of fascism had in common (highlights from Encyclopedia Britannica):
- Opposed to leftists (Marxism, social democracy). This itself creates many sub-lists (anti-Union, anti-labor, etc). So fascism is definitely far right, not far left — remember that when Republicans try to link Democrats to fascism.
- Opposed to parliamentary democracy. Elections “undermined the natural selection of ruling elites.”
- Opposed to political and cultural liberalism (rights of individual should not be placed above the needs of the collective state, cultural liberalism leads to immorality)
- Favored the wealthy far more than the middle/working class, less regulations for corporations
- Favored corporatism to suppress the labor movement and political dissent while aligning private industry to the needs of the state
- Social disparities between rich and poor were not important (nothing to see here, move along)
- Favored imperialistic foreign policies
- Military: “Nothing has ever been won in history without bloodshed”
- Patriotic fervor that played on emotions, not reason
- A single leader with absolute power
- Portrayed fascism as virile man vs cerebral feminine/weak liberals
- Education: indoctrination and loyalty more important than intellectual growth and critical thinking (because the latter was a threat to fascism)
- Moral justification of intolerance, repression and violence (especially against political opponents)
- Extreme nationalism — a purity devoid of liberal corruption
- Scapegoating — the problems fascists created were blamed on someone else
- Populist anti-intellectualism
- Women should assume their ‘traditional roles’
- Racism is ok
- Fascist leaders “portrayed themselves as defenders of Christianity”
While there are many similarities to the 14-points posted, I think the discussion should be based not on the 14-points (the work of a history buff) and something that at least has an editorial/peer review process that is less easily discounted by most readers. Sure, Republicans will still complain, but the fact is that they ARE anti-liberal, and if the fascist shoe fits….