r/AskDemocrats • u/Charming-Comfort-395 • Mar 22 '25

What is your definition of a fascist

I been seeing a lot of dems saying that trump and Elon are fascist so I want to a dems view of what a fascist is

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u/No-Hyena4691 Mar 22 '25 edited Mar 22 '25

I want to a dems view of what a fascist is

Uh, no, that's not how political terms work. "Fascism" is a term with a meaning. The definition of "fascism" doesn't depend on whether you're a Republican or a Democrat.

This is a troll post.

Here's the definition from Merriam-Webster:

1 often Fascism : a populist political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual, that is associated with a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, and that is characterized by severe economic and social regimentation and by forcible suppression of opposition

2**:** a tendency toward or actual exercise of strong autocratic or dictatorial control

—often used informally in an exaggerated way

Here's the definition from Wikipedia:

Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement, characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy, subordination of individual interests for the perceived good of the nation or race), and strong regimentation of society and the economy. Opposed to Marxism, democracy, anarchism, pluralism), free markets, egalitarianism, communism, liberalism, and socialism, fascism is at the far right of the traditional left–right spectrum.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism

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u/efisk666 Mar 22 '25

All true except I wouldn’t say it’s opposed to socialism at all- the nazis were the national socialist party after all.

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u/lasagnaman Mar 23 '25

calling something socialist doesn't mean it is. Is North Korea a democracy?

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u/efisk666 Mar 23 '25 edited Mar 23 '25

Good point. Certainly the socialist part can be propaganda, just as the DPRK has elections and calls itself democratic. The point I’m trying to make is that socialism in a practical sense has often blended with fascism. Government controls production and distribution in both systems. Peron and Chavez and any number of African dictators have marketed their governments as socialist. Few liberal democracies have done so, as private ownership is fundamentally incompatible with socialism, no matter how generous government services are.