The Fasces is a really good symbol for fascism: an implement that appears equal parts tool and weapon but is ultimately ceremonial, a flimsy looking clumsy approximation of utility and power
The original parable of the Fasces is basically the argument behind unionism.
But Fascism loves to appropriate icons of left wing movements and pervert them. That's nothing new.
So funny story, the Fasces was apparently used as the symbol of the Consul during the Roman republic, but became much more associated with the Empire, when the Empire reached the territorial heights. It became the symbol of Mussolini and his party because Mussolini liked to pretend that Italy was about to become a great power and conquer the rest of Europe like Rome did during antiqueity, and to that end he used the classical roman symbol of the Fasces, which was meant to denote strength through unity.
The main reason it's seen everywhere in the US, is because the US (up until like 2002) liked using Roman imperial iconography, until Bush made everyone a rabid jingoist that just put flags everywhere.
Further proof that America is secretly being controlled and undermined by nefarious Communists.
Guy who got mad about an assumed frenchman stealing his slaves away from him (ripped)
The cutting edge of the sickle is on the inside. This shouldn't bother me as much as it does.
...what. I don't even know what the image on the left is. I'm gonna guess it's some Nazi shit.
Holy fucking shit. Bro the amount of fucking dog whistles and esoteric Nazi symbols we need to keep track of is mind blowing.
the amount of fucking dog whistles and esoteric Nazi symbols we need to keep track of is mind blowing.
agreed, though i wouldn't call the fasces esoteric. it's kinda the original fascist symbol used by the very first fascist party. it's right up there with the swastika as the most well known symbols of fascism. And much like the swastika it's a very old symbol that has pre-fascist meaning as well. it technically dates to Etruscan monarchies before Rome existed. The fasces was also used by Republicans (i.e. bourgeois nationalists) in the 1700s and 1800s. Both the French revolutionary movement and the American independence movement were fond of fasces. You can see the fasces in the house of representatives on either side of the speaker's chair.
Show
(not trying to give you a hard time, just providing some extra historical context for it)
No, I get it. This one was on my lack of knowledge. But in my defence, I was not taught any of this.
I also find it interesting that some people get pressed about other cultures continuing to use the Swastika (as it was originally intended, not the tilted version ofc), especially when people from those cultures immigrate to the West and demand they get rid of it because "of what it means in Western history" but no one seems to care that this seemingly equally big symbol is being trotted around in the fucking Congress with no issues.
Anyways, thanks for educating me on the history. I'll keep this one in mind, if I ever see it (esp. the explicitly fascist one) in any media I consume. I think I've seen the OG one floating about in some parts but I can't quite recall.
My "favorite" place you can find them is literally the Lincoln Memorial
Which, is important to point out, is from before fascism. (Because order in time matters, and some people don't know when things happened.)
Well... that's sort of a chicken-egg question. I'm not betting that fascist tendencies in social circles post-dated the allegory of the Fasces. I'm sure you can find them going back thousands of years.
Having to put up with socieities that are on The Riddler levels of "slap symbols everywhere for the hell of it" bullshit sucks. Fucking pattern-brained great ape pieces of shit
