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Strictly speaking, yes. It was a totalitarian communist state, though people often use "fascist" to mean any totalitarian state, even if fascism is only one of
by smsm42 1y ago
Strictly speaking, yes. It was a totalitarian communist state, though people often use "fascist" to mean any totalitarian state, even if fascism is only one of many ways a totalitarian state can be implemented.
- School-Cotton 1y ago> It was a totalitarian communist state, though people often use "fascist" to mean any totalitarian state Indeed, but those people are wrong. It would be like calling Jerry Falwell an Islamist extremist. Maybe they are bad for vaguely similar reasons but it is still inaccurate.
- lupusreal 1y agoQuibbling about the flavors about authoritarianism is like quibbling about the flavors of shit. "No no, this is pig shit not chicken shit, it's completely different in a way that is totally irrelevant to the person being forced to eat it."
- School-Cotton 1y agoNo, words mean things and if you use them randomly people will not take you seriously. If you start telling me about how Syria has a serious problem with fundamentalist Baptists I am just going to assume you have no idea what you're talking about.
- lupusreal 1y agoThe meaning of words shifts over time. Fascism and authoritarianism are colloquially conflated so often that if you make a stink about somebody calling the GDR fascist, people are going to assume you are either an apologist for the communist flavor of authoritarianism, or an autistic pedant. Really, you're just pissing into the wind.
- School-Cotton 1y agoAlright, then what do you think I should call what used to be called “fascism” ? Since it is really quite a different thing from Soviet Block-style communism (even if both are bad!) and so could use a different word to describe it.
- disgruntledphd2 1y agoAuthoritarianism seems to be the correct word. I agree that the term fascist is wildly over-used, to the point where actual fascist behaviours are getting normalised.
- School-Cotton 1y agoAuthoritarian encompasses both Soviet Bloc-style communism as well as what I used to think was called fascism. However the other poster is claiming fascism now means both. So I need another word to describe the specific thing that I used to think was called fascism.
- disgruntledphd2 1y agoYeah, I'm with your original definition. I think it's important to distinguish between left wing and right wing authoritarianism as they tend to be quite different.