Sorry to do this debate-bro stuff, but how would you respond to someone who says fascism is left-wing?

https://yewtu.be/watch?v=qOsVqXMFAdg is two rightists talking is fascism left or right, and Gerard Casey concludes that fascism is left-wing. He cites the Fascist Manifesto of 1919, which in fairness does look pretty left-wing, is mostly about worker benefits.

Counterpoints I can think of:

  • Fascism is inegalitarian.

  • Fascism is oppressive

  • Fascism is about privatisation – but I'm not very clued in on the history of this, on what industries fascist governments privatised and how consistent they were with this. Did they also nationalise other industries?]

  • Unask the question, say 'left' and 'right' are meaningless

Again, sorry about this. Obviously not trying to defend fascism, just trying to get clarity.

      • YoungBelden [any]
        ·
        1 year ago

        this thread i presume

        one convincing model/definition of fascism is that it's the bourgeois reaction against the working class, arising or activating in order to crush/discipline labor and preserve the institution of private property at any cost. under this definition of fascism, one wouldn't call it a distinct system apart from capitalism, but rather a microcosm or phenomena that happens within capitalist systems to preserve capitalism. as someone stated elsewhere in the thread, the fascisms of the early 20th century were in many ways direct responses to leninism.

        so someone ascribing to this definition of fascism (which I do myself) would strongly believe that you can't define/understand fascism without also describing capitalism. also we would obviously think the idea of fascism being leftist is absurd on multiple levels

        iirc the capital order is a good read to understand this better. its central thesis links austerity and fascism as reactions against labor.