• Zombiepirate@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    Well that’s a pretty ridiculous thing to say. Here are the 14 points of ur-fascism laid out by Eco. While some apply to the DNC, every single one applies to the GOP, which makes it look like you have no idea what Fascism actually is:

    The cult of tradition. “One has only to look at the syllabus of every fascist movement to find the major traditionalist thinkers. The Nazi gnosis was nourished by traditionalist, syncretistic, occult elements.”

    The rejection of modernism. “The Enlightenment, the Age of Reason, is seen as the beginning of modern depravity. In this sense, Ur-Fascism can be defined as irrationalism.”

    The cult of action for action’s sale. “Action being beautiful in itself, it must be taken before, or without, any previous reflection. Thinking is a form of emasculation.”

    Disagreement is treason. “The critical spirit makes distinctions, and to distinguish is a sign of modernism. In modern culture, the scientific community praises disagreement as a way to improve knowledge.”

    Fear of difference. “The first appeal of a fascist or prematurely fascist movement is an appeal against the intruders. Thus Ur-Fascism is racist by definition.”

    Appeal to social frustration. “[…] one of the most typical features of the historical fascism was the appeal to a frustrated middle class, a class suffering from an economic crisis or feelings of political humiliation, and frightened by the pressure of lower social groups.

    The obsession with a plot. “The followers must feel besieged. The easiest way to solve the plot is the appeal to xenophobia.”

    The enemy is both weak and strong. “[…] the followers must be convinced that they can overwhelm the enemies. Thus, by a continuous shifting of rhetorical focus, the enemies are at the same time too strong and too weak.”

    Pacifism is trafficking with the enemy. “For Ur-Fascism there is no struggle for life but, rather, life is lived for struggle.”

    Contempt for the weak. “Elitism is a typical aspect of any reactionary ideology.”

    Everybody is educated to become a hero. “in Ur-Fascist ideology, heroism is the norm. This cult of heroism is strictly linked with the cult of death.”

    Machismo and Weaponry. “This is the origin of machismo (which implies both disdain for women and intolerance and condemnation of nonstandard sexual habits, from chastity to homosexuality). Since even sex is a difficult game to play, the Ur-Fascist hero tends to play with weapons—doing so becomes an ersatz phallic exercise.”

    Selective Populism. “There is in our future a TV or Internet populism, in which the emotional response of a selected group of citizens can be presented and accepted as the Voice of the People.

    Ur-Fascism speaks Newspeak. “All the Nazi or Fascist schoolbooks made use of an impoverished vocabulary, and an elementary syntax, in order to limit the instruments for complex and critical reasoning.”

      • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
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        6 months ago

        convoluted non-standard

        Umberto Eco’s description of ur-Fascism is widely accepted as the most complete and accurate definition that exists.

        There are plenty of bad things in the world that aren’t fascism. But if you want a detailed description of this one specific bad thing, how it operates and why it’s dangerous, this is it.

        This is like someone saying Noam Chomsky wrote about a convoluted and non-standard version of western imperialism.

        • blackbelt352@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          Laurence Britt also has a fantastic writeup mirroring Umbertl Eco’s writing, diving a bit more into the tactics of fascism than Umberto’s breakdown of the fascist mindset.

        • bloodfart
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          6 months ago

          ur-fascism is a text about semiotics, not politics.

          while it can be useful in decoding political stuff, it’s not a tool intended for that use, like scraping paint with a flathead screwdriver.

          while i don’t think it’s out of the ordinary to reference the fourteen points, ur-fascism is absolutely convoluted and not considered a standard interpretation of the politics of fascist movements. in ecos defense, most semioticians are incapable of writing without convolution for obvious reasons.

          i’m not saying this to be pedantic, but to maybe help someone reading along to understand why anyone would reference ecos fourteen points. they make a lot more sense when theyre taken as an outline of fascism’s semiotic content, not a checklist of actions some regime needs to meet before it’s officially fascist or else be considered merely sparkling corporatism.

      • Zombiepirate@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        TIL that Stalin was a fascist.

        You seem easily confused. How is saying that some of these terrible things apply to the DNC defending them?

        And just because you can’t be bothered to read it doesn’t make it convoluted and non-standard; it’s a pretty widely cited list.