Fascism and You!

The 14 Characteristics of Fascism
by Lawrence Britt
Free Inquiry magazine
Spring 2003

Political scientist Dr. Lawrence Britt recently wrote an article about fascism ("Fascism Anyone?," Free Inquiry , Spring 2003, page 20). Studying the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia), and Pinochet (Chile), Dr. Britt found they all had 14 elements in common. He calls these the identifying characteristics of fascism. The excerpt is in accordance with the magazine’s policy.

The 14 characteristics are:

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism

Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.

2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights

Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.

3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause

The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.

4. Supremacy of the Military

Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.

5. Rampant Sexism

The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Opposition to abortion is high, as is homophobia and anti-gay legislation and national policy.

6. Controlled Mass Media

Sometimes to media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.

7. Obsession with National Security

Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.

8. Religion and Government are Intertwined

Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government’s policies or actions.

9. Corporate Power is Protected

The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.

10. Labor Power is Suppressed

Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed.

11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts

Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts is openly attacked, and governments often refuse to fund the arts.

12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment

Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.

13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption

Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.

14. Fraudulent Elections

Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.

Originally posted by count zero

3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause

The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: ... socialists...

Fascism itself is a form of Socialism, as can be seen from the full name of the Nazi party, "National Socialist German Workers' Party." Fascism is a left wing ideology, even though liberals try to associate it with conservatives.

Originally posted by count zero
5. Rampant Sexism

The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated.

Rampant Sexism? Compared to whom? Islam? Certainly not. Historical Western societies? No. Pre-1970's America? Not really.

Originally posted by count zero
Opposition to abortion is high

Generalized to the point of being deceiving. Research the links between American and German eugenics, Margaret Sanger, etc.

Originally posted by count zero

11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts

Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts is openly attacked, and governments often refuse to fund the arts.

You can see this in the "hate speech" laws of Europe, Canada, etc. that are really modern forms of heresy and blasphemy hunting. As far as "governments often refuse to fund the arts," that's incorrect, fascistic like all socialistic and communistic governments tend to heavily fund the arts, as long as they are politically correct. In an ideal society no art would be government funded, because it is inevitable that a government will attach an agenda to the money.

[edit on 14-2-2006 by Paul of Nisbis]

Originally posted by Paul of Nisbis

Originally posted by count zero

3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause

The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: ... socialists...

Fascism itself is a form of Socialism, as can be seen from the full name of the Nazi party, "National Socialist German Workers' Party." Fascism is a left wing ideology, even though liberals try to associate it with conservatives.

Originally posted by count zero
5. Rampant Sexism

The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated.

Rampant Sexism? Compared to whom? Islam? Certainly not. Historical Western societies? No. Pre-1970's America? Not really.

Originally posted by count zero
Opposition to abortion is high

Generalized to the point of being deceiving. Research the links between American and German eugenics, Margaret Sanger, etc.

Originally posted by count zero

11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts

Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts is openly attacked, and governments often refuse to fund the arts.

You can see this in the "hate speech" laws of Europe, Canada, etc. that are really modern forms of heresy and blasphemy hunting. As far as "governments often refuse to fund the arts," that's incorrect, fascistic like all socialistic and communistic governments tend to heavily fund the arts, as long as they are politically correct. In an ideal society no art would be government funded, because it is inevitable that a government will attach an agenda to the money.

[edit on 14-2-2006 by Paul of Nisbis]

Originally posted by Paul of Nisbis


Fascism itself is a form of Socialism, as can be seen from the full name of the Nazi party, "National Socialist German Workers' Party." Fascism is a left wing ideology, even though liberals try to associate it with conservatives.

Oh, because the Nazi's and the like weren't any good at propaganda
or anything like that.

Originally posted by count zero
5. Rampant Sexism

The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated.

Originally posted by Paul of Nisbis
Rampant Sexism? Compared to whom? Islam? Certainly not. Historical Western societies? No. Pre-1970's America? Not really.

What are you addressing here? You are arguing with a study. Did
you 1. Research this article at all before commenting; 2. Live in a
fascist regime and are able to personally comment on the sexism
3. Make up your analysis as you went along?

Originally posted by count zero
Opposition to abortion is high

Originally posted by Paul of Nisbis
Generalized to the point of being deceiving. Research the links between American and German eugenics, Margaret Sanger, etc.

There is quite a bit of difference between public rhetoric and propaganda
and secret science experiments/ secret Government Policy.

Originally posted by count zero

11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts

Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts is openly attacked, and governments often refuse to fund the arts.

Originally posted by Paul of Nisbis
You can see this in the "hate speech" laws of Europe, Canada, etc. that are really modern forms of heresy and blasphemy hunting. As far as "governments often refuse to fund the arts," that's incorrect, fascistic like all socialistic and communistic governments tend to heavily fund the arts, as long as they are politically correct. In an ideal society no art would be government funded, because it is inevitable that a government will attach an agenda to the money.

The funding of "politically correct" arts is much different than the funding
of the arts.

I'm new to this and not entirely sure how to work this quote thing...
I did the best I could without mucking around too much.

Originally posted by count zero

Originally posted by Paul of Nisbis


Fascism itself is a form of Socialism, as can be seen from the full name of the Nazi party, "National Socialist German Workers' Party." Fascism is a left wing ideology, even though liberals try to associate it with conservatives.

Oh, because the Nazi's and the like weren't any good at propaganda
or anything like that.

The Nazis certainly were Socialists in practice, and not just in name:

www.mises.org...

New farm programs were instated, along with propaganda about Blut und Bloden. Hitler appointed as head of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture Walther Darre, who in 1929 published a book, The Peasantry as the Life Source of the Nordic Race.

Darre wished to "reform" the production and marketing of food and to raise prices for farmers. Darre's entire program was designed with one objective in mind: to insulate the peasant farmer from the market.

Etc., etc., etc.

As far as propaganda, they weren't nearly as good at it as our modern presidents, from FDR to Bush II, passing off an ever increasing and intrusive socialism as victories for, or at least not contrary to, capitalism and individual freedom.

"Mass murder and other hideous crimes against individual rights do not reflect the 'degeneration' or 'misuse' of socialism, but rather its essence. As is the case with socialism of the Marxist-Leninist variety [Communism], the essential lesson of German National Socialism is that collectivism kills, and that the lawless state - in whatever form - is the real enemy."-R.J. Rummel

[edit on 14-2-2006 by Paul of Nisbis]

I agree with Paul here. A lot of this "research" is highly subjective, and designed to make us question US govt.

For instance, religion. Hitler supressed the church, and jailed thousands of ministers. His regime changed the name of Christmas to Yule, and deleted all references to Easter in the press.

Or take Pinochet as another example. He considered the Catholic church to be "dangerously international" and "infiltrated by marxists." Similarly, Mussolini, and avowed atheist, made no secret of blackshirt views of the church as weak and full of pacifism, a religion for losers.

Franco was the exact opposite, and I presume was the focus for the item on church/state conformity.

The fact is, each fascist regime is unique; their ultranationalism is what determines their piety or lack thereof. If a nation has a traditional allegiance to a religion, Like Spain and Catholicism, then the leader may cultivate those roots for "cultural" reasons. On the other hand, the church may become suspect for being pacifist and internationalistic, and "semitic" due to Jesus' own ethnicity.

Rampant sexism is more a function of the decade of the 30's when fascism flourished.

Paul also questioned Fascist hostility to Academia and the Arts. The truth is, fascists merely want to control those institutions. The Nazis funded architecture and sculpture on a grand scale, and pumped money into physics, even though it was unconventional "welteisanschauung" or "world-ice theory" that was funded. . . . Maybe it would be more accurate to say that fascists promote novel theories!

As far as control of media and suppression of Unions, those are the functions of Statists generally, and are hardly localized among fascists. . . .
The first thing Lenin did when the bolsheviks seized power was to arrest labor leaders that worked with the menshaviki.

The fourteen points of Fascism is more polemic than science, in my opinion. And the problem with such subjectivity is that it blinds people to the truth about fascism and totalitarianism----the public is watching for guys with little moustaches, instead of people who talk about how the state is the ultimate meme.

.

Hitler convinced millions of Germans to hate Jews! Jews were kicked out of Germany, and once Hitler started taking over other countries, the Jews were all "removed" from these places as well, and nobody thought it was a bad idea at all! Of course, if the people knew about the death camps from the start of the war, things might have been different... or they might not have been.

who said the nazi's weren't any good at propoganda? Are you having trouble integrating the concepts you read?

I said that propaganda wasn't confined to fascist states.

As far as control of media and suppression of Unions, those are the functions of Statists generally, and are hardly localized among fascists. . . .

That means other people can do it, too.