Michael Rosen's guest on Radio 4's Word of Mouth yesterday was Jacob Stanley, author of How Propaganda Works (2015) and How Fascism Works (2018). The two had a valuable discussion, but I would quarrel with the good professor's assignment to "fascism" the worst excesses of Hitler and Himmler. The point is that fascism has been clearly defined in a book by Giovanni Gentile and Benito Mussolini, the man who coined the term. It does not necessarily involve genocide; this was an evil twist added by the Nazis. Indeed, many Italian Jews initially supported Mussolini's rise to power. It was only later that the Italian dictator followed Hitler in turning against Judaism. Even then, only a minority of Italy's Jews were sent north to the death camps.
I am not defending fascism. Its underlying illiberal philosophy is anathema. Nobody should have to live in a conformist militarist state ruled by a single strong man whose every word is law, and where dissent is forbidden. But one should be precise in the use of language. "Fascist" in particular has been thrown about as an insult, usually inappropriately.
Having said all that, the Rosen-Stanley discussion turned up some disturbing parallels between then and now. The sort of language used by Mussolini and his cohorts to gain populist support is cropping up again on both sides of the Atlantic, not to mention Moscow and Budapest. A wedge has been inserted into our democracy. We must ensure that it is not driven in further.
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