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No, American conservatives are not Fascists

The modern far left, especially in the United States, is both a cult of victimhood, and a cult of fear (both of which, obviously, go hand-in-hand, and are closely related.) One prominent way in which the latter can be seen is that their major political tactic is demonizing their opposition (which in the United States means the conservatives and the Republican Party, of course) and making their own side as scared and fearful of them as possible, using all the scaremongering tactics in the book.

One tactic that they love to use is petty name-calling. They will take a word with a very negative connotation, and just keep throwing it at the people that they hate, over and over, day after day, year after year, trying to make it true via sheer repetition. They literally do not care what those words mean, they only care about the negative connotation that they have, and how much it scares their own side.

Currently, and for the past several years, their pet insults are "Nazi" and even more prominently "Fascist". They do not care one iota what those words actually mean, they just throw them at the people they hate, again and again ad nauseam.

But let's examine especially that second word, "Fascist", and see how well or badly it actually applies to your archetypal American conservative.

Fascism is an inherently and fundamentally totalitarian political ideology. Totalitarianism means that the government controls every aspect of society, top down (that's what the term literally means, "total", as in total control of everything.) The government tightly controls all institutions, all companies, all the industry, all the economy, all the capital, all the means of production, all schools, all services, everything.

Totalitarian regimes, such as Fascism, as a direct consequence of this absolute control, are also inevitably extreme police states, because that's how they enforce said totalitarianism: State and military police forces are present everywhere, watch everything, control everything, enforce laws with an iron fist, and keep citizens and institutions constantly in check in an oppressive manner.

American conservatism, in contrast, is pretty much the exact opposite to that. American conservatism is classical liberalism to a T. It's libertarianism to an extreme, even to the point of borderline anarcho-capitalism, where there's no or almost no government at all.

Indeed, the vast, vast majority of American conservatives very strongly want as small of a government as possible. They want absolutely minimal governmental interference and control over society. No better symbol of this than the Gadsden flag: "Don't tread on me." This is a message to the government: Leave us alone! Keep away. Don't mess with us, don't interfere. Minimal to no government intervention in our lives. The flag is the American symbol of libertarianism.

Most American conservatives also extend this sentiment to the relationship between the government and businesses and corporations: Hands off! Keep away! Minimal to no governmental intervention. A free market to almost the point of anarcho-capitalism! Businesses should be free to engage in commerce how they want, in whatever way they want, without governmental restrictions.

They also, by far and large, heavily oppose oppressive policing. Whenever the police abuses their power, conservatives are on the frontlines denouncing them and calling them pigs, and for their qualified immunity to be removed.

As staunch libertarians and Classical Liberals, American conservatives value freedom and rights above everything else. Totalitarianism is the exact opposite of what they want. They don't want a totalitarian government. They don't want a Fascist government. They want the government to leave them alone.

You can call American conservatives a lot of things, but "Fascist" is not one of them, not by a long shot.



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