Fascist (insult)

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(Redirected from
Fascist (epithet)
)

Fascist has been used as a

bully.[4]

During the

Axis Powers had posed during World War II.[8] Accusations that the enemy was fascist were used to justify opposition to negotiations and compromise, with the argument that the enemy would always act in a manner similar to Adolf Hitler or Nazi Germany in the 1930s.[8]

After the end of the Cold War, use of fascist as an insult continued across the political spectrum in many countries. Those labeled as fascist by their opponents in the 21st century have included the participants of the

Rashism") and supporters of Sebastián Piñera in Chile and Javier Milei
in Argentina.

Eastern Europe

Further information: Holocaust trivialization § Invasion of Ukraine

The

right-wing critics.[8]

East German military parade in 1986, celebrating the "25th anniversary of the Anti-Fascist Protection Wall", the official name of the Berlin Wall

After the

Third Reich being just the "most reactionary" one.[10][11] The international investigation on Katyn massacre was described as "fascist libel"[12] and the Warsaw Uprising as "illegal and organised by fascists."[13] In Poland during the Polish People's Republic, communist propaganda referred to the Home Army (Polish: Armia Krajowa) as a fascist organization.[14] Polish Communist Security Service (Polish: Służba Bezpieczeństwa) described Trotskyism, Titoism, and imperialism as "variants of fascism."[15]

This use continued into the

Republic of Latvia from the Soviet Union, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union declared that "fascism was reborn in Latvia."[20]

In 2006, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) found contrary to the Article 10 (freedom of expression) of the ECHR fining a journalist for calling a right-wing journalist "local neo-fascist", regarding the statement as a value-judgment acceptable in the circumstances.[21]

Russian invasion of Ukraine

See also:
Media portrayal of the Ukrainian crisis, and Denazification § Russian justification of invasion of Ukraine

During the

anti-LGBT activism.[26]

In his

Azov Battalion and Right Sector,[33] experts have described[34] Putin's rhetoric as greatly exaggerating the influence of far-right groups within Ukraine; there is no widespread support for the ideology in the government, military, or electorate.[35][36][37] Russian far-right organizations also exist, such as the Russian Imperial Movement, long active in Donbas.[41] Ukrainian president Zelenskyy, who is Jewish, rebuked Putin's allegations, stating that his grandfather had served in the Soviet army fighting against the Nazis.[42] The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Yad Vashem condemned the abuse of Holocaust history and the use of comparisons with Nazi ideology for propaganda.[43][44]

Several Ukrainian politicians, military leader and members of the Ukrainian civil society

have also accused the Russian Federation of being a fascist country.[45][46][47] Ukrainian propaganda also compares Vladimir Putin to Adolf Hitler, calling him a "Putler," and Russian troops to the Nazis, calling them a mixture of Russians and fascists, "ruscists."[48]

Serbia

During the 1990s, in the midst of the

Ustasha" (Croatian fascists).[49] In modern Serbia, Dragan J. Vučićević, editor-in-chief of Serbian Progressive Party's propaganda flagship Informer, holds the belief that the "vast majority of Croatian nation are Ustaše" and thus ''fascists''.[50][51] The same notion is sometimes drawn through his tabloid's writings.[50] In 2016, Serbian singer Jelena Karleuša tweeted: "If we Serbs were always aligned with occupiers and fascists like Croatia was, we would be in European Union a long time ago."[52]

In 2019, after a Serbian armed forces delegation was barred from entering Croatia without prior state notice to visit Jasenovac concentration camp Memorial Site in their official uniforms, Aleksandar Vulin, the Serbian defense minister commented on the barred visit by saying that modern Croatia is a "follower of Ante Pavelić's fascist ideology." The Croatian authorities searched them and returned them to Serbia with the explanation that they cannot bring official uniforms into Croatia and that they do not have documents that justify the purpose of their stay in the country.[53][54][55] In June 2022, Aleksandar Vučić was prevented from entering Croatia to visit the Jasenovac Memorial Site by Croatian authorities due to him not announcing his visit through official diplomatic channels which is a common practice. As a response to that certain Serbian ministers labeled Andrej Plenković's government as "ustasha government" with some tabloids calling Croatia fascist. Historian Alexander Korb compared these labels with Putin's labels of Ukraine being fascist as a pretext for his invasion of Ukraine.[56][57][58]

After the EU banned Serbia from importing Russian oil through Croatian Adriatic Pipeline in October 2022, Serbian news station B92 wrote that the sanctions came after: "insisting of ustasha regime from Zagreb and its ustasha prime minister Andrej Plenković".[59] Vulin described the EU as "the club of countries which had their divisions under Stalingrad".[60]

England

In 1944, the English writer,

democratic socialist, and anti-fascist George Orwell wrote about the term's overuse as an epithet, arguing:

It will be seen that, as used, the word 'Fascism' is almost entirely meaningless. In conversation, of course, it is used even more wildly than in print. I have heard it applied to farmers, shopkeepers, Social Credit, corporal punishment, fox-hunting, bull-fighting, the 1922 Committee, the 1941 Committee, Kipling, Gandhi, Chiang Kai-Shek, homosexuality, Priestley's broadcasts, Youth Hostels, astrology, women, dogs and I do not know what else. ... [T]he people who recklessly fling the word 'Fascist' in every direction attach at any rate an emotional significance to it. By 'Fascism' they mean, roughly speaking, something cruel, unscrupulous, arrogant, obscurantist, anti-liberal and anti-working-class. Except for the relatively small number of Fascist sympathizers, almost any English person would accept 'bully' as a synonym for 'Fascist'. That is about as near to a definition as this much-abused word has come.[61]

Historian Stanley G. Payne argues that after World War II, fascism assumed a quasi-religious position within Western culture as a form of absolute moral evil. This gives its use as an epithet a particularly strong form of social power that any other equivalent term lacks, which Payne argues encourages its overuse as it offers an extremely easy way to stigmatize and assert power over an opponent.[62]

United States

In the United States, fascist is used by both the left-wing and right-wing, and its use in American political discourse is contentious. Several U.S. presidencies have been described as fascistic. In 2004, Samantha Power, a lecturer at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, reflected Orwell's words from 60 years prior when she stated: "Fascism – unlike communism, socialism, capitalism, or conservatism – is a smear word more often used to brand one's foes than it is a descriptor used to shed light on them."[63]

Conservative use

In the

left-wing ideology, which is contrary to the consensus among scholars of fascism.[5] According to the History News Network, this belief that fascism is left-wing "has become widely accepted conventional wisdom among American conservatives, and has played a significant role in the national discourse."[64] According to cultural critic Noah Berlatsky writing for NBC News, in an effort to erase leftist victims of Nazi violence, "they've actually inverted the truth, implying that Nazis themselves were leftists", and "are part of a history of far-right disavowal, projection and escalation intended to provide a rationale for retaliation."[65]

An example of this belief is conservative columnist

mask mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic to Nazi Germany and the Holocaust.[65]

Use by the left

In the 1980s, the term was used by leftist critics to describe the presidency of Ronald Reagan. The term was later used in the 2000s to describe the presidency of George W. Bush by its critics and in the late 2010s to describe the candidacy and presidency of Donald Trump. In her 1970 book Beyond Mere Obedience, radical activist and theologian Dorothee Sölle coined the term Christofascist to describe fundamentalist Christians.[66][67][68]

In response to multiple authors claiming that the then-presidential candidate Donald Trump was a fascist,[69][70][71][72] a 2016 article for Vox cited five historians who study fascism, including Roger Griffin, author of The Nature of Fascism, who stated that Trump either does not hold and even is opposed to several political viewpoints that are integral to fascism, including viewing violence as an inherent good and an inherent rejection of or opposition to a democratic system.[73]

A growing number of scholars have posited that the political style of Trump resembles that of fascist leaders, beginning with his election campaign in 2016,

Robert O. Paxton went so far as to state that Trump is a fascist, despite his earlier objection to using the term in this way.[84] Other historians of fascism such as Richard J. Evans,[85] Griffin, and Stanley Payne continue to disagree that fascism is an appropriate term to describe Trump's politics.[81]

Chile

In

classism" (Spanish: roteo de izquierda) and implies that "certain ideas can only be defended by the priviledged class."[86]

In 2019, left-wing deputy and future President Gabriel Boric publicly criticized the phrase facho pobre as belonging to an "elitist left", and warned that its use may lead to political isolation.[89]

Israel–Hamas war

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Hamas the "new Nazis".[90] On 27 November 2023, Israel's Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said that "there are 2 million Nazis" in the West Bank, "who hate us, exactly as do the Nazis of Hamas-ISIS in Gaza."[91] Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett also made comparisons between the Nazis and Hamas.[92] Israeli-born historian Omer Bartov said about associating Hamas or Palestinians in general with the Nazis that it means "you don't talk with Nazis, you kill Nazis."[93]

See also

References

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External links

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