3 ms·

Fascism has a specific definition that is not just "whatever Mussolini did".

busterarm 6y ago
Considering that the term itself comes from his movement, the "Fasces of Revolutionary Action", and that he coined the word fascism personally in 1919 (after the word "fascio"), I think at the very least he gets to be attributed the lions' share of it.
- JoshuaDavid 6y ago
  Newton can be credited as being substantially the inventor of Newtonian Physics. That doesn't make alchemy a sub-field of Newtonian Physics, despite the fact that Newton wrote numerous treatises on alchemy.
  - busterarm 6y ago
    Or possibly that alchemy has nothing to do with motion and gravitation. Chemistry isn't a sub-field of Physics either.
    - JoshuaDavid 6y ago
      Exactly.
      - busterarm 6y ago
        No, we don't agree. He literally coined the term when talking about his movement. If anyone has claim to what the definition was, it's him. But history is written by the winners and I'm sure modern day fascists would like to distance themselves from that history as much as possible...and thus the term gets narrowed and redefined.
    - nobody9999 6y ago
      >Chemistry isn't a sub-field of Physics either. Chemistry is just applied Physics. And yes, for all you mathematicians out there, Physics is just applied math. :)
      - Koshkin 6y ago
        Except neither is true.
    - Koshkin 6y ago
      > has nothing to do with motion and gravitation. Oh but it does. (The force of gravity is essential for some (al)chemical techniques.)
  - Koshkin 6y ago
    > That doesn't make alchemy a sub-field of Newtonian Physics No, but it does make it part of "Newtonism."
- dragonwriter 6y ago
  > Considering that the term itself comes from his movement, the "Fasces of Revolutionary Action", and that he coined the word fascism personally in 1919 (after the word "fascio"), I think at the very least he gets to be attributed the lions' share of it. Sure, but that doesn't mean any one aspect of what he did, in isolation from the rest, is "the definition of fascism". (And the understanding of the genericized term is at least as much shaped by Naziism as Italian fascism, anyhow; this might annoy Mussolini if he was around to be annoyed -- frankly, that Nazis are taken as an example of "fascism" would probably annoy Hitler, too -- but, you know, that's just the way language evolves; if we're talking about Mussolini's movement in Italy specifically, we generally say "Italian fascism", not just "fascism" unless there is context to indicate that we are specifically talking about Italy.)
- int_19h 6y ago
  So then why not take Mussolini's own words on what fascism is and isn't? His definition required it to be totalitarian: "Everything within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state".

Considering that the term itself comes from his movement, the "Fasces of Revolutionary Action", and that he coined the word fascism personally in 1919 (after the word "fascio"), I think at the very least he gets to be attributed the lions' share of it.

JoshuaDavid 6y ago
Newton can be credited as being substantially the inventor of Newtonian Physics. That doesn't make alchemy a sub-field of Newtonian Physics, despite the fact that Newton wrote numerous treatises on alchemy.
- busterarm 6y ago
  Or possibly that alchemy has nothing to do with motion and gravitation. Chemistry isn't a sub-field of Physics either.
  - JoshuaDavid 6y ago
    Exactly.
    - busterarm 6y ago
      No, we don't agree. He literally coined the term when talking about his movement. If anyone has claim to what the definition was, it's him. But history is written by the winners and I'm sure modern day fascists would like to distance themselves from that history as much as possible...and thus the term gets narrowed and redefined.
  - nobody9999 6y ago
    >Chemistry isn't a sub-field of Physics either. Chemistry is just applied Physics. And yes, for all you mathematicians out there, Physics is just applied math. :)
    - Koshkin 6y ago
      Except neither is true.
  - Koshkin 6y ago
    > has nothing to do with motion and gravitation. Oh but it does. (The force of gravity is essential for some (al)chemical techniques.)
- Koshkin 6y ago
  > That doesn't make alchemy a sub-field of Newtonian Physics No, but it does make it part of "Newtonism."
dragonwriter 6y ago
> Considering that the term itself comes from his movement, the "Fasces of Revolutionary Action", and that he coined the word fascism personally in 1919 (after the word "fascio"), I think at the very least he gets to be attributed the lions' share of it. Sure, but that doesn't mean any one aspect of what he did, in isolation from the rest, is "the definition of fascism". (And the understanding of the genericized term is at least as much shaped by Naziism as Italian fascism, anyhow; this might annoy Mussolini if he was around to be annoyed -- frankly, that Nazis are taken as an example of "fascism" would probably annoy Hitler, too -- but, you know, that's just the way language evolves; if we're talking about Mussolini's movement in Italy specifically, we generally say "Italian fascism", not just "fascism" unless there is context to indicate that we are specifically talking about Italy.)
int_19h 6y ago
So then why not take Mussolini's own words on what fascism is and isn't? His definition required it to be totalitarian: "Everything within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state".