this post was submitted on 27 May 2024
316 points (89.5% liked)
US Authoritarianism
1019 readers
292 users here now
ChonkyOwlbear is an Illegitimate Usurper
There's other groups and you are welcome to add to them. USAuthoritarianism Linktree
See Also, my website. USAuthoritarianism.com be advised at time of writing it is basically just a donate link
Cool People: [email protected]
founded 11 months ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Capitalism and fascism go hand in hand.
something something fascism is capitalism in decay
Fascism is socialism, it can't go hand in hand with capitalism.
did somebody tell you that, or did you get to this conclusion yourself?
I mean Mussolini told that to the world through his actions.
Mussolini invented fascism, specifically and deliberately as the antithesis of socialism, in a hate strop after having been kicked out of the Italian socialist party for not being remotely socialist. Ita why the first people fascists go for are socialists.
Fascism is peak corporatist-capitalism, without the pretence of a fair market or choice.
What were his socialist policies?
Mmm... Let me see...
He nationalised 75% of Italian businesses by 1935 and later took over all foreign assets, stocks and bonds held by private citizens and businesses.
He nationalised whole key industries, like railways and metallurgy.
He invested a lot into public sector and infrastructure and by 1925 Italy had food supplementary assistance, infant care, maternity assistance, general healthcare, wage supplements, paid vacations, unemployment benefits, illness insurance, occupational disease insurance, general family assistance, public housing and old age and disability insurance.
Mussolini also had plans to move the country to a planned economy a-la USSR, but he couldn't implement it in time before the war.
He made trade union membership compulsory.
And much much more.
It is also important to remember that key people in Mussolini's government believed that the Italian working class could not have the requisite numbers or consciousness to make revolution and required full maturation of capitalism as the precondition for socialist realization. Their policy was a gradual move to socialism with the help of an authoritarian state and slow nationalisation of everything instead of Russian style revolution. And people like Rossoni called industrialists and capitalists as "vampires" and "profiteers".
Saying that fascists are not socialists is just plain wrong.
Only nazis try to convince people that the nazis / fascists were socialist. If it isn't socialism for everyone, it isn't socialism at all.
When you say "nationalised" you mean owned by the dictator, personally and not the nation state. A pathetic attempt at twisting history. Such was his hate for socialists and socialism, mussolini would roll over in his grave hearing your nonsense.
Yeah, Hitler nationalised a lot, too.
The programs you describe, benefits, pensions and so on might convince some that they are dealing with a socialist state, when in fact anybody in Europe would merely call them social. When it comes down to it, socialism, which indeed is constantly being conflated with a lot of things, is about the workers owning the means of production. Of course you know that! But it also has never been the goal of the Russian Avantgarde nor the fascists in the west. Both their systems were exploiting workers. This time in the „national interest“. About that they had different opinions, though.
Where did Hitler come from?
And no, sorry, fascism is socialism. Always was, always will be. You can't bend the truth to suit your narrative.
Why do you insist? Nobody would agree with you on that
Only authoritarian "lefties" disagree.
Can you provide some reading for context? I'm looking into Mussolini and at least according to Wikipedia, where you seem to have directly lifted most of your points, the story is quite a bit more nuanced than you're presenting.
Some quick things I found:
A lot of these things seem to be directly in conflict with the elevation of the working class, but rather strictly state-corporatist and explicitly hierarchical in their implementation. Simply nationalizing industries doesn't really equate to socialism I don't think.
You got the nationalism part down.
Someone has never seen the "signs of fascism" list at the holocaust museum.