Jim Sciutto: The clearest and most concise definition of fascism I've seen - a word often thrown around without much...

[demmiblue]

The clearest and most concise definition of fascism I’ve seen - a word often thrown around without much understanding. Thank you @TimothyDSnyder

Link to tweet

1/11. The people who told you that fascism was not a threat were wrong.

2/11. The people who told you that Russia was not fascist were, if possible, more wrong.

3/11. Fascism is might over right, conspiracy over reality, fiction over fact, pain over law, blood over love, doom over hope.

4/11. Fascism advances every injustice. Its victory will leave us serfs of a vengeful nature, of relentless technology, and of unquestionable oligarchy.

5/11. Analytic clarity is needed for political clarity. If you do not know what you face, you do not know how to act.

6/11. Once named, fascism can be defeated. Indeed, once named it can be easily defeated.

7/11. Russian fascism must lose on the battlefield. Americans can bring this about by supporting courageous Ukrainians.

8/11. American fascism must lose at the ballot box. Americans can bring this about by organizing, canvassing, phone banking, donating, and voting.

9/11. We know from history that fascism can lose. And we know today the contests that must be won.

10/11. Compared to challenges that others face around the world, our odds in 2024 and 2025 are excellent. Americans have chances, not excuses.

11/11. A defeat of fascism is not a negation. It is an affirmation: of a future that can be more beautiful, more just, and more free.

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1793288021783031909.html

[gab13by13]

1. We need to call out the fascists every damn day,

we cannot normalize what Magats are doing.

[peggysue2]

2. Love that last line, # 11

A defeat of fascism is not a negation. It is an affirmation: of a future that can be more beautiful, more just, and more free.

[demmiblue]

3. I do, too... I think I'm going to edit the post to highlight it!

[lastlib]

4. Bookmarked! K & R!

Thank you, Prof. Snyder, for penetrating the fog with clarity and insight.

- - - - - - - - - -

[Wild blueberry]

5. Excellent

Thank you.

[erronis]

6. Follow the power. Simple.

The only reason people espouse fascism is because they want to exert power over others.

There are no big policy goals, just enough to throw turmoil into normal discussions.

Normal people such as the Germans in the 1930s and the magats in the 2020s don't care about the "issues". They want what their leaders tell them to want. And the leaders want pure power.

[markodochartaigh]

7. From Frank Wilhoit

“Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.”


https://slate.com/business/2022/06/wilhoits-law-conservatives-frank-wilhoit.html

[Elessar Zappa]

9. Wow, that is so true.

Never thought about it like that but it makes perfect sense.

[NanaCat]

20. I always liked John Kenneth Galbraith's definition:

From Harper's Magazine March 1964:

'The modern conservative is not even especially modern. He is engaged, on the contrary, in one of man’s oldest, best financed, most applauded, and, on the whole, least successful exercises in moral philosophy. That is the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. It is an exercise which always involves a certain number of internal contradictions and even a few absurdities.'

[Layzeebeaver]

8. Prof. Snyder is a national treasure

He deserves the National medal of Freedom

I truly believe that.

[DC77]

10. Another, shorter definition

Fascism="Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power” ― Benito Mussolini.

I was always taught, classically, it is the merger of government and business.

[calimary]

11. OUTSTANDING quotes!

Using the 3/11 one in the next Call to Action email that my Indivisible group issues every week.

[William Seger]

12. Regardless of what their propaganda says, fascism always serves an oligarchy

Fascist propaganda sounds like populism, but it's actually the opposite: An authoritarian, supporting (and therefor supported by) the elites.

[Faux pas]

13. K N R

Where is Jim anyway? He's one of my favorites, did cnn dump him?

[Skittles]

14. describes Americ's current repuke party perfectly

[surfered]

15. Our parents beat them!

[Igel]

16. In part, I agree.

Russia is fascist.

Militaristic. Nationalistic. Authoritarian. "Religion"? Not sure what Mussolini's or the Nazi hierarchy "religion" was, but a religion is a set of values, rites, and practices, and not all religions require a deity, historically and etymologically. Recent re-definitions are excluded in this as superfluous.

The economics also match up well--a well fleshed-out "industrial policy" that's corporatism in some sense, where private industry serves the government.

Fascism was 1/2 a political theory and 1/2 an economic theory. Remember, both Mussolini and Hitler hated capitalism--fascism is as far from capitalism as Stalin and Mao were. Everything in the state, nothing out of the state, everything for the state. The state is firmly in control of social and economic life. Civil society abides by the government's writ--as does meaningful industry. (Local fishmongers, meh.)

I oppose all forms of authoritarianism. Socialist and fascist. (We haven't had "communist"--which, by definition, can't be centralized. The USSR was "communist" but what's the second "s" stand for? Communism was the goal, socialism was the then-current means.)

[NanaCat]

21. Nazi Germany was explicitly Christian

The military even wore belt buckles that proclaimed, 'Gott Mitt Uns' = 'God with us.' Hitler repeatedly asserted that Christianity was the religion of Nazi Germany, and proclaimed himself a 'warrior for Jesus.' He also got many of his ideas for how to deal with the Jews from Christian history: The Holocaust almost exactly follows the plan Martin Luther laid out in his execrable, 'On the Jews,' and the Nazis even conducted Kristallnacht, their first major hatefest against Jews, on the anniversary of Luther's birth. The gold stars were a variation on the gold crosses that Cathars had to wear to identify themselves to one and all as heretics--a law passed in France at the insistence of the church.

And speaking of the Cathars, Hitler believed a whole bunch of loopy conspiracy theories related to them, similar to the nonsense Dan Brown peddles in the execrable, 'The DaVinci Code.'

Many of Hitler's most infamous cohorts were Catholic or raised Catholic: Goebbels, Mengele, and Heydrich, to name but a few. And it is a hard fact that the many minions who carried out the Holocaust and other abuses on the population in the name of the Nazi regime were Christians. Atheists tended to get murdered in Nazi Germany, because, like Jews, Hitler associated them with 'degeneracy' and Communism (Communists were his first target for death by concentration camp).

Mussolini was an atheist, but, like Stalin, he supported Christianity for the masses. He was the one who made The Vatican its own country in a blatant sop to Italy's conservative Catholics.

Another example of the deep ties between fascism and Christianity, particularly Catholicism, is Franco's Spain. He explicitly associated his regime with conservative Catholicism, and he was brutal to anyone who wasn't of that faith. He was a vicious anti-Semite and considered atheism a 'malign influence,. Repression of everyone not Catholic was rife.

The argument about that second S in the USSR is ludicrous, because the USSR was about as socialistic as the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) was democratic. It was window dressing, not a genuine stance. Any country can slap a descriptor into their brand name, but it means nothing if they don't live up to it.

Really.

[DENVERPOPS]

17. Good ones............

But the simplest definition of FASCISM I ever heard was: A MERGING OF GOVERNMENT AND CORPORATIONS..........

We are indeed, a millimeter away, from them being able to re-name our County from the United States of America, to:

Corporate Tyranny of America, or United Corporations of America.............

The Uber Rich, here and abroad, along with all U.S. Corporations, and some foreign, invested a phenomenal amount in getting
"Citizens United" to become law.......

[Martin68]

18. Fascism is all those things, but that is not a meaningful definition of fascism.

[NanaCat]

22. Maybe consider that Mr Snyder was keeping it brief

For a Twitter audience. Since he's a renowned expert on authoritarian regimes, I can assure you he has a full definition of the term that he can provide for you, and one that will exceed whatever your definition could possibly be.

[Martin68]

25. I'm not sure such a simplistic definition is very helpful.

Miriam-Webster is very accessible: a political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition.

That's not so hard to understand, is it? But the concept that it is a political philosophy is essential, and the definition above doesn't allude to it all.

[niyad]

19. KNR

[Javaman]

23. I prefer Orwell, "imagine a boot stamping on a human face-- forever" nt

[The Mouth]

24. A word with a specific definition nearly 100 years old

Academics and journalists do NOT get to just redefine words as they wish, in my opinion.

"Fascism" means one political party control of a capitalist state with an implicit Nationalist and expansionist emphasis. Not "I don't like that person/party/bill so it is Fascist'.

Yes, it is a word thrown around by lots of people, left and right, who have no clue what it means.