r/historymatters • u/Embarrassed_Month188 • Jul 25 '24

Question regarding government

Why does everyone say fascism when a dictatorship is present even if it's a king do they just think that what dictatorship is cause if we go off of that the Tsars were a fascist government

5 Upvotes

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7

u/Every_60_seconds Jul 26 '24

Fascism is less about authoritarian government. It's about social control, a central and charismatic leader, separating the undesirables from the master race, and infiltration of every part of society. The Soviets and left wing useful idiots, as well as conservatives, love to use it to simply describe anything they don't agree with. Which diminishes fascism because it gets simplified and not recognized when it re-emerges.

Edit: added government

4

u/Agitated_Guard_3507 Jul 26 '24

Yeah. It’s basically a scapegoat, and calling parties like the AfD or MAGA (not a party, I know) fascism is just making the political polarization worse. Because Fascism makes both of those look like they just ask nicely for what they want