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This is a thoughtful reply; thanks for it. I know that my framing is a sorites paradox, and won't have a tidy answer. But maybe that's my point: Fascism is but
by Brendinooo 6y ago
This is a thoughtful reply; thanks for it. I know that my framing is a sorites paradox, and won't have a tidy answer.
But maybe that's my point: Fascism is but one particular flavor of malicious totalitarianism, and totalitarianism can coagulate around a vast variety of beliefs across the political/religious/cultural spectra.
Studying the commonalities of particular flavors can be helpful, but it's tremendously unhelpful to whip out the list, check some boxes, and decide that someone is A Bad Person as a result.
- AnimalMuppet 6y agoI think it's at least as often used to decide that I am not A Bad Person...
- Brendinooo 6y agoWhat do you mean?
- AnimalMuppet 6y agoYou said: > Fascism is but one particular flavor of malicious totalitarianism, and totalitarianism can coagulate around a vast variety of beliefs across the political/religious/cultural spectra. I can go through a list like that, make sure that I check none of the boxes, and decide that I am verifiably not A Bad Person. (As if the only kinds of badness are fitting Eco's fascism checklist.) Or that the movement I'm attracted to is verifiably not A Bad Movement. (All that said, it's not a totally bad list, and it does cross over some between different flavors of politics. Even Antifa checks more boxes than they would be comfortable with, if they seriously considered it.)
- Brendinooo 6y agoThanks for clarifying!