Op-ed views and opinions expressed are solely those of the author.

On August 25, 2022, President Joe Biden announced to the entire world that the ideology of Republicans is “semi-fascism.” To many “semi-fascists,” this screams out for a review of the actual history of fascism.

Virtually every regime in history labeled fascist was founded by a democratic-socialist dictator (i.e. socialist dictator who identifies as a Democrat). This is also true of many fascist regimes that weren’t labeled as such by the Leftist professors who write history books and Wikipedia articles.

All the great fascist dictators of the 20^th Century–responsible for some 100 million deaths and condemning billions to abject despair–were democratic socialists. Lenin, Stalin, Mussolini, Hitler, Mao, Castro, Kim Il Sung, Pol Pot, Hussein, Gadaffi… democratic socialists all. And fascists all.

Wikipedia’s Leftists, in defining fascism, lead with a bald-faced lie to ensure it’s the first implant to the public mind, but then get it right: “Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, 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 good of the nation and race, and strong regimentation of society and the economy.”

Wikipedia in the same article states: “Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler, the leaders of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, respectively, were both fascists.” In fact, Mussolini was the founder of fascism and Hitler its highest ideal.

Let’s plumb the depths of these masterminds of history’s most horrific human catastrophe.

Wikipedia in its article on Mussolini states: “Mussolini was originally a socialist politician and a journalist at the Avanti! newspaper.” Avanti! was the official organ of the Italian Socialist Party. Wikipedia also notes that Mussolini was “one of Italy’s most prominent socialists.”

After resigning from the Socialist Party in a dispute over WWI, Mussolini came to power in a 1922 coup d’état as the founder of the National Fascist Party, reigning for over 20 years. His fascist version of socialism featured complete control of the people, their thoughts and actions (teachers forced to swear an oath to the regime), and their economy.

Mussolini affected socialist economic control through the government’s National Council of Corporations. Its many subsidiaries exerted full decision-making power over private sector enterprises and workers. By 1934, Mussolini bragged he’d taken 75% of all corporations into state ownership. By 1939 Italy had a higher percentage of nationalized corporations than any country on earth save the Soviet Union.

This socialization of property and workers caused Italy’s economy to perennially lag behind those of free Europe.

In a prescient statement, Mussolini said the 20^th Century “will be a century of authority, a century of the Left, a century of fascism.”

There it is straight from its founder’s mouth: Fascism is a Leftist ideology. It is not “far-right” as the disinformation darlings of Wikipedia so desperately try to convince us.

Hitler, for his part, founded the National Socialist German Workers’ (Nazi) Party and was elected to national office in the last free German election until after he killed himself. Nazi is an acronym of the party name in German: “Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei.” The Na and zi from the first term create Nazi.

Half of the name Nazi stands for socialist.

When a Leftist calls a “right-winger” a “Nazi,” they are calling him a socialist, unwittingly spewing one of the worst insults possible.

Hitler early in his career visited Mussolini’s Italy and exchanged ideas with him, apparently taking home some of the worst traits of that other socialist’s society.

Regarding the rest of that list of major 20^th Century despots: They were totalitarian, militaristic communists–most seizing power through warfare and many later invading or brutally subjugating their neighbors. They spewed “democratic” in their party names and propaganda, but as soon as the Democratic Socialists were in, opposition leaders were jailed or killed–even to the point of tracking down and slaughtering them halfway around the world (e.g. Leon Trotsky). All other political thought was banished and the democratic icon of voting rendered a forlorn exercise in futility.

These despots all fully meet Wikipedia’s definition of fascism, except for its lie. Although each preached egalitarianism to gain the people’s trust and seize power, they instead set up appalling societal stratification, using torture, terror, gulags, and mass starvation to keep the masses in their pitiful place.

But many of those despots were communists, not socialists, you say?

It seems most Americans have accepted Leftist disinformation that communism and socialism are different ideologies. An inquiring American mind should want to know why Lenin named his country the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Lenin also directly stated that communism is a form of socialism. And indeed it is, as is fascism.

Communism and fascism are types of socialism just as constrictors and vipers are types of snakes.

Additional references from Gindler, Allen. 2022. Fascism: Left, Right, or Neutral. Independent Review 27 no. 1: 75–98.

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Steve Overholt

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