• JLock17@lemmy.world
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      3 hours ago

      I’m surprised the comments seem to be defending authoritarianism like it’s any more acceptable than fascism. “Stalin may have had millions of people killed and fueled the negative reputation of communism world wide for nearly a century, but at least he wasn’t a fascist.”. I don’t seem to understand why democratic social ownership is considered a worse alternative than letting a centralized tyrannical government harm people unchecked.

      • NewDark@lemmings.world
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        1 hour ago

        “shooting a home invader and killing the neighbor next door are both violent killings, so we should classify them both as murder” - you, probably.

      • frog_brawler@lemmy.world
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        3 hours ago

        Words have meanings - if people start calling left-leaning authoritarians “fascists” and no one corrects them, the red-hats will never understand how to differentiate; or why to differentiate.

    • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
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      8 hours ago

      I’m using the definition of fascism as it relates to dictator advocacy. I know that confuses a lot of people who associate socialism with left and fascism with right, but it is proper use of the term.

      The etymology is rooted in Italian authoritarianism from root words meaning a political gathering of men.

      • andros_rex@lemmy.world
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        6 hours ago

        Who has defined fascism as such? How do the practices of Stalinism root in Italian authoritarianism?

        Defining fascism as any form of authoritarianism broadens the term so much as to render it useless.

        It’s useful to be able to talk about the ways in which the ideologies which governed Franco’s Spain and Mussolini’s Italy are more similar to each other than say, something like the DPRK under Juche. If we want to refer to something as authoritarian, we already have the word authoritarian.