What is fascism? That question makes many people struggle to turn an image of Hitler and saluting Nazis into a definition. While a few will say something like “Fascism is a nationalistic and militaristic system where a small minority rule the majority.”
But every politician in every country plays the nationalistic card to an extent. Many highlighting the exceptional qualities their fellow country-people share, that seemingly set them apart from other countries.
And by size of military budget, the US has been the most militaristic nation for the past 81 years. Despite the country being a democracy.
So, in reality the core defining feature of fascism is simply the rule of a small minority over the majority.
Politicians react furiously when they’re called fascists, as if it’s the worst thing in the world. They’re probably thinking about being compared to Hitler, yet Hitler is so widely hated for attempting genocide against Jews, the Roma and Sinti people and disabled people. His implementation of the rule of a small minority over the majority isn’t what upsets people.
So politicians have no real reason to be outraged at accusations of fascism.
The poorest 50% of Americans now share just 2.5% of US wealth, down from 3.5% in 1989. At the other end of the scale, the wealthiest 10% have now hoarded 68.3% of US wealth. A 12.3% increase since 1989. With the wealthiest 1% alone increasing their wealth share by almost 40% since 1989 to 31.9%.
Think about that. The top 1% have more wealth than the poorest 90% of Americans.
Clearly a small minority of Americans are ruling over the majority and using their power to make themselves increasingly more wealthy, at the expense of the poor. And this system that has created a fascist like society has developed equally under both Republican and Democratic governments.
So, why do American politicians get upset when they’re accused of being fascists?
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