I know that you lean to the far right, anarchist side of things. Your response leaves me feeling like anything that deviates to the left of the rightmost point can and will be viewed as "fascist". That is a very extreme point of view, that I can somewhat understand, but tends to oversimplify things.
"Fascism has been seen by some as a reactionary force against the rising power of liberalism that was ignited by the French Revolution, and was allied with and aided conservatives in regaining power."
Among the key elements of Nazism were anti-parliamentarism, Pan-Germanism, racism, collectivism, eugenics, antisemitism, opposition to economic liberalism and political liberalism, anti-communism, and totalitarianism.
Denny, other than the anti-economic-liberalism, that is about as
Right Wing as it gets! Left wingers and liberals are on the opposite side of that spectrum, period.
Nazism was not a monolithic movement, but rather a (mainly German) combination of various ideologies and groups, sparked by anger at the Treaty of Versailles and what was considered to have been a Jewish/Communist conspiracy (known in the vernacular as the Dolchstoßlegende or “Stab-in-the-Back Legend”) to humiliate Germany at the end of the First World War.
The paragraph above is the one that really resembles what I read on the American Nazi Party page. First of all, they are white supremicists, just as the Nazis were. Second, they found some socio-economic reason to shun all people of brown skin because they are coming to our country illegally and stealing jobs from white people, etc, etc. This, again, is on the right wing side of the spectrum.
Personally, I think the Nazis were ultra left-wing national socialists though there's some agenda out there to paint them as right-wing. If you think about it just a little, you will realize that our left wing is much closer to the ultra left-wing than our right wing is close to the ultra right-wing, in terms of philosophy. Hitler and the Nazis were so evil, the left-wing doesn't want to be associated with them - who blames them?
The distinction the left makes to arrive at the Nazis being right-wing is government ties to big business. Yet I find that the similarities end there and the similarities with other left-wing philosophies are much stronger. The commonality is a populist pitch! Marx appealed to the lower classes with populist rhetoric, which works good in underdeveloped nations. The fascists appealed to the middle classes with populist rhetoric, which works good in developed nations with a mature middle class. The fascists' founding and fundamental principles are in socialism (Mussolini was a prominent member of Italy's Socialist Party, NAZI literally means National Socialist Party).
Actually, the distincitions do not end there. The far right wing of this country is where the American Nazi Party votes on a consistant basis. They are very interested in the elements of Hitler's platform. They hate the liberal left wing in this country, and they claim to be the true citizens, everyone else is second class or scum.
Rather than looking at how these leaders rose to power, look at how they ruled once they were in power. Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Castro, and Saddam were militant - they wore military garb to enhance their authoritarian stature. They all used military power to invade and conquer their neighbors (Castro/Cuba on an island, had a heavy military presence in places like Angola and Nicaragua). They all committed mass murder of their own populations and forced migrations of their people. They all enforced a rigid control over industry, through govt. ownership or regulations. They all used a Republican Guard type of police force to terrorize the population into submission (SS, KGB, et al). Perhaps most importantly, they sought to engineer society in their own image through social programs and the like. Heck, the Nazis even had their own version of the "President's Physical Fitness Program." Another commonality is the concept of "godlessness" or anti-religion.
I found the correct label for your above examples...
Totalitarianism (or totalitarian rule) is a concept used to describe political systems where a state regulates nearly every aspect of public and private life. The term is usually applied to Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany,Shōwa Japan or communist states, such as USSR, Democratic Kampuchea, Vietnam, Mao-era and modern China and North Korea. Totalitarian regimes or movements maintain themselves in political power by means of an official all-embracing ideology and propaganda disseminated through the state-controlled mass media, a single party that controls the state, personality cults, central state-controlled economy, regulation and restriction of free discussion and criticism, the use of mass surveillance, and widespread use of terror tactics.
I would argue that the true far right is anarchy. It lacks the compassion that social programs promise. It favors Social Darwinism. It would use military for defense purposes only. No regulation of industry at all. Etc.
On a left/right scale where left is totalitarian and right is anarchy, the US and most of the free world would be considerably left of center, though the US would be to the right of most Social Democracies (Japan would be, too).
Your "far right" concept is that of the US Libertarian Party. The "far right" in our country, in our media, and in all loud bar conversations that I have ever been in has always asked for
more government and more regulation, but for completely different issues. Anarchy implies that anything goes. The extreme right will not tolerate "anything goes" Quite the opposite actually. They want more laws based on their personal reigious beliefs, drugs to stay illegal, gays to have absolutely zero rights, and to cut and paste their own religious dogma into the Constitution.
I have read "Why Government Doesn't Work" in 1996 before voting for Harry Browne.
Left can lead to totalitarian, but so can the far right. In fact, I offer the following new dimension to a traditionally 2 dimensional static viewpoint - there is a left wing, a right wing, and an anarchist wing. The Libertarian party in the US is neither left or right.
