Fascist (epithet)
1836110
223732126
2008-07-05T14:26:35Z
DOI bot
6652755
Citation maintenance. Formatted: doi. You can [[WP:DOI|use this bot]] yourself! Please [[User:DOI_bot/bugs|report any bugs]].
The word "'''fascist'''" is sometimes used to denigrate people, institutions or groups that would not describe themselves as [[Fascism|ideologically fascist]], and that may not fall within the formal definition of the word. As a political epithet, the word ''fascist'' has been applied to a broad range of people and groups on the [[far right|extreme right]] for the most part, but also to groups on the [[far left]] and most points in between. It has also been applied to people of many [[religion|religious]] faiths, particularly [[religious fundamentalism|fundamentalist]] groups. Not surprisingly, the individual, institution or group(s) called fascist often find the use of the term in this way to be highly offensive and inappropriate.
The word "fascist" when used in this sense is meant to mean "[[oppression|oppressive]]," "[[intolerance|intolerant]]," "[[chauvinism|chauvinist]]," "[[genocide|genocidal]]", "[[dictatorship|dictatorial]]," "[[racism|racist]]" and/or "[[aggression|aggressive]]," all concepts that are at least loosely inspired by the ideology of actual [[fascism]]. One might accuse an inconveniently placed [[police]] [[roadblock|road block]] as being a "fascist tactic" or an overly [[Authoritarianism|authoritarian]] teacher as being "a total fascist." Terms like "[[Nazism|Nazi]]" and "[[Adolf Hitler|Hitlerite]]," correctly or incorrectly, are often used in similar contexts.
The word ''social fascists'' was used by [[Communism|communists]] against [[Social democracy|social democrats]] before [[1933]] and is still in use in some communist circles when referring to modern social democracy movements. As early as [[1944]], the term had already become so widely and loosely employed that British essayist and novelist [[George Orwell]] was moved to write:
{{quotation|It would seem that, as used, the word ‘Fascism’ is almost entirely meaningless. In conversation, of course, it is used even more wildly than in print. I have heard it applied to [[farmer]]s, [[shopkeeper]]s, [[Social Credit]], [[corporal punishment]], [[fox hunting]], [[bullfighting]], the [[1922 Committee]], the [[1941 Committee]], [[Rudyard Kipling|Kipling]], [[Mahatma Gandhi|Gandhi]], [[Chiang Kai-shek|Chiang Kai-Shek]], [[homosexuality]], [[J. B. Priestley#Career|Priestley's broadcasts]], [[hostel#Travellers Hostels|Youth Hostel]]s, [[astrology]], [[Misogyny|women]], [[Fear of dogs|dogs]] and I do not know what else.<ref>Orwell, George. "[http://www.orwell.ru/library/articles/As_I_Please/english/efasc What is Fascism?]", ''[[Tribune (magazine)|Tribune]]'', [[1944]]. [http://www.orwell.ru/ Orwell.ru], retrieved [[September 13|09-13]]-[[2006]].</ref>}}
During the late 1960s and 1970s, 'fascist' was popular term used to describe a wide range of individuals, governments, and public institutions. The term was often paired with other insulting terms, the most common being [[pig]], as in [[fascist-pig]]. In this context, the term fascist generally referred to conservative positions which prioritised the maintenance of existing social relations over various personal rights upheld by protesters and dissidents. It basically served as an emotive substitute for "authoritarian", though it also described specific analytical functions (such as emphasising the privileging of order over freedom in an opponent's discourse, the perceived racism of 'imperialist' practices, or even specific Marxist theories of the origins of fascism).
In the 1980s the term was used by leftist critics to describe the [[Reagan administration]] and in the 2000s, the [[George W. Bush administration]]. In her 1970 book ''Beyond Mere Obedience'' radical activist and theologian [[Dorothee Sölle]], coined the term [[Christofascist]] to describe fundamentalist [[Christians]]. <ref>{{cite book|author=[[Dorothee Sölle]] |date=1970|title=Beyond Mere Obedience: Reflections on a Christian Ethic for the Future |publisher=Augsburg Publishing House|location=Minneapolis | url=http://books.google.com/books?id=zbeCGwAACAAJ&dq}}</ref> <ref>{{cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Confessing Christ in a Post-Christendom Context. |url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-66279081.html |quote= ... shall we say this, represent this, live this, without seeming to endorse the kind of christomonism (Dorothee Solle called it "Christofascism"! ... |publisher=The Ecumenical Review |date=[[July 1]], [[2000]] |accessdate=2007-12-23 }}</ref> <ref>{{cite book |first=Sarah K. |last=Pinnock |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=The Theology of Dorothee Soelle |url=http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=56_VviorwEsC&dq |quote= ... of establishing a dubious moral superiority to justify organized violence on a massive scale, a perversion of Christianity she called Christofascism. ... |isbn=1563384043 |publisher=Trinity Press International }}</ref>
By the 2000s, the term was just as frequently used in the opposite direction.
Following the [[September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks]], a number of commentators, particularly in the [[United States]], began using the term "[[Islamofascism]]" to describe [[Islamism]] and [[militant Islam]]. A very popular yet controversial talk show host named Michael Savage has been known by many to be the one to coin the term. On [[August 10]], [[2006]], in the wake of an alleged terror plot foiled in London, President Bush described the [[war on terror]] as a war against "Islamic fascists".
So by 2004, [[Samantha Power]], lecturer at the [[John F. Kennedy School of Government]] at [[Harvard University]], reflected Orwell's words from 60 years previously when she said, "Fascism -- unlike [[Communism]], [[socialism]], [[capitalism]] or [[conservatism]] -- is a smear word more often used to brand one's foes than it is a descriptor used to shed light on them." <ref>Power, Samantha. "[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE0DB153AF931A35756C0A9629C8B63 The Original Axis of Evil]", ''[[The New York Times]]'', [[May 2|05-02]]-[[2004]].</ref>
The term is also often used as an insult with regards to the ruling party being too heavy-handed in certain actions. For instance, it was frequently used to describe [[Margaret Thatcher]]'s policies such as using the police to quell public disruptions during the miner's strike.
The cult British sitcom, ''[[The Young Ones (TV series)|The Young Ones]]'', regularly had the term "fascist" used as an insult. It was often used to get a laugh at the expense of [[The Young Ones (TV series)#Neil Pye|Neil]], the [[hippie]], who by all ideological standards would have been anything but an actual fascist.
[[National Review Online]] editor [[Jonah Goldberg]] presents a perspective that fascism is fostered from [[liberalism|liberal]] ideals, as the title of his [[2007]] book ''[[Liberal Fascism|Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning]]'' asserts.
==Possible justifications for use==
While attracting criticisms for imprecision and for downplaying the extremity of actual fascism, the use of "fascist" as an epithet for authoritarian and intolerant power-holders has a distinct analytical basis, suggesting that fascism is a continuum or a social relation rather than simply a political system, and that acts of repression are in some way homologous with fascist ideology.
Theories such as [[Felix Guattari]]'s concept of [[microfascism]] and [[Wilhelm Reich]]'s theory of fascism as repressive-desire provide an analytical basis for interpreting intolerance, [[chauvinism]] and authoritarianism as "fascist". The idea of [[authoritarian personalities]] prone to fascist attachments may be one reason why "fascism" is used as an epithet for the same kind of people who might be called "[[anal-retentive]]". [[On An(Archy) and Schizoanalysis]] by [[Rolando Perez]] is an example of a text which uses the word "fascist" in an analytically-informed way which is almost coterminous with the usage of "epithet", showing that such usage is not necessarily ill-informed or unsystematic. One basic point of these perspectives is that a libertarian or emancipatory outlook requires openness of social space, tolerance or celebration of difference and opposition to arbitrary authority; an absence of such an outlook contributes to social closure and exclusion, thus producing social effects similar to a fascist regime (oppression of minorities, lack of basic liberties and so on).
There are also Marxist theories which back up particular uses of "fascism" beyond its usual remit. For instance, [[Nicos Poulantzas|Poulantzas]]'s theory of state monopoly capitalism could be associated with the idea of a [[military-industrial complex]] to suggest that 1960s America had a fascist social structure; this kind of [[Maoism|Maoist]] or [[Guevarism|Guevarist]] analysis often underpinned the rhetorical depiction of Cold War authoritarians as fascists.
Some Marxists from groups such as the Indian section of the [[Reunified Fourth International|USFI]] and the [[Mansoor Hekmat#Views|Hekmatist]] groups in Iran and Iraq have also provided analytical accounts as to why the term "fascist" should be applied to groups such as the [[Hindutva]] movement, the [[Iranian Revolution|1979 Islamic Iranian regime]] or the [[Islamism|Islamist]] sections of the [[Iraqi insurgency]].
Other scholars contend that the traditional meaning of the term fascism does not apply to [[Hindutva]] groups, and may hinder an analysis of their activities.<ref name="Refute">''[http://world.christianpost.com/article/20031219/1016.htm RSS neither Nationalist nor Fascist, Indian Christian priest's research concludes]'', ''[[The Christian Post]]''.</ref><ref>[http://www.expressindia.com/ie/daily/19980823/23550294.html RSS neither nationalist nor fascist, says Christian priest after research], ''[[The Indian Express]]''.</ref><ref>
{{cite journal
| author = Walter K. Andersen, Shridhar D. Damle
| year = [[1989]]
| month = May
| title = The Brotherhood in Saffron: The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and Hindu Revivalism
| journal = [[American Academy of Political and Social Science#The Annals|Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science]]
| volume = 503
| pages = 156–157
| doi = 10.1177/0002716289503001021
}}
</ref><ref>''Ethnic and Racial Studies'', Volume 23, Number 3, [[May 2000]], pp. 407–441 [[International Standard Serial Number|ISSN]] 0141-9870 print/ISSN 1466-4356 online.</ref>
==References==
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Pejorative terms for people]]
[[Category:Political terms]]
[[Category:Fascism]]
[[es:Fascista (epíteto)]]
[[ru:Фашист (эпитет)]]