It's deja vu all over again

[fpb]

I have often found myself in the position of having to say: "You are talking nonsense. I know what Fascists are like. I have met them in considerable number since I was a child. I was born in the same country as Fascism. I have studied Fascism as a historian. [insert personal or group name] may be a detestable person, and his/her/their views

Comments

[fellmama]

Communism looms bewilderingly large in the American psyche. Most people in the United States have no idea what it is (or what Fascism is, for that matter). It might help if you put Communism in the same conceptual category as the bogeyman--we're not sure what it is or what it would do, but we fear it all the same.

[fellmama]

True, though I don't think it's ever borne any resemblance to the way we think about it.

[marielapin]

People have just forgotten that words have meaning. "Commie" and "Fascist" have now become derogatory slang which keeps a person from having to use real words or a real argument.

[fpb]

I wish that were the case here. Laura Hollis has just enough perception of what the Communist tradition is to make it pretty sure that she means it; but not enough to be able to distinguish between a Communist and someone who has been one way or another influenced by that tradition. The worst of all worlds, and the perfect demonstration that a little learning is a dangerous thing.

[dustthouart]

Indeed, it is not unimaginable to me to hear someone in a torrent of invective accuse someone of being both a commie and a fascist. And probably also a Nazi. Maybe in the form "You commie Nazi fascist bastard!" To the contemporary American mind, this is too often just like hearing "You bad bad bad thing-that-is-bad!"

[fpb]

Another one who hasn't read Jonah Goldberg's book. I'm afraid I have to tell you that as of last year, the idea that Nazism and Fascism were really left-wing movements is a part of the patrimony of the American conservative movement. I tried to explain to my conservative friends that I found this both ridiculous and (as an Italian) offensively cultural-imperialist, and failed completely.

[inverarity]

In America today, both "communist" and "fascist" mean, approximately, "someone who has political views I don't like."

The only difference is that both the Right and the Left will sling "fascist" around, but "communist" is pretty much limited to the Right. However, Obama apparently has the amazing ability to be both a fascist and a communist at the same time.

[fpb]

What I called - to huge offence from some - the Protocols of Jonah Goldberg. Sorry, but politically motivated horror stories are politically motivated horror stories - whether the inventor is a Russian policeman or a Jewish American journalist.