People struggle to place Fascism as "Left" or "Right" because it's...
James Lindsay, anti-Communist@ConceptualJames
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Apr 16, 2025
~2 min read
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People struggle to place Fascism as "Left" or "Right" because it's a Left-wing (Progressive) movement using regressive (coded Right-wing) means as the basis for power consolidation so that it can achieve Progress. Similar is true for Communism but in reverse.
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It's not just because the Communists labeled the Fascists the real "Right," somewhat disingenuously. It's deeper than that. Communists always marry a truth to a lie, and the truth is that Fascists are Progressives by Regressive Means.
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Whether you read Mussolini about Fascism directly or read Hitler's takes and goals with National Socialism, that these were unambiguously (failed) Progressive state projects is overwhelmingly clear. Their whole point was to galvanize the people for the correct glorious future.
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Both Fascists and National Socialists, but especially National Socialists, were very clear in their ideological vision about advancing the state of human civilization to a higher organizational principle under their totalitarian dominion, and that's textbook Progressive.
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They also both resisted Marxists, which Marxists always code as "Right-wing" and hearkened to "tradition," which I put in quotes because it's actually romanticized notions of tradition that were chosen as likely to galvanize people and advance them toward the Ideal (Progressive).
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Basing a society legitimately on tradition is the literal definition of philosophical Conservatism, a la Edmund Burke, but conservatism and "Right-wing" don't align. Fascism is Reactionary and regressive more than it is traditional and conservative.
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The regressive aspect of Fascism is really its sales pitch. The idea is that the state and its Fascist Party will force society back to some lost Golden Era that can only be reclaimed through force and regression to cruder forms, but in a shiny new way for the common good.
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In other words, Marxists say society is based on oppression and that's bad so they'll seize power to end it, which always destabilizes and ruins everything, and Fascists say it was the oppression that made society work and its loss that made everything fall apart.
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This isn't theoretical or historical. It's literally happening now again with the Woke Right attacks on Classical Liberalism (which may not be perfect or even complete or adequate to our technological state but which did not fail or become Communism). It's misplaced blame.
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The fault is the Marxist destabilization and degradation of trust and competence, which is not the failure of the previous system, particularly not some strawman of it. Fascists misplace the blame and offer the wrong cure: oppression where a little cultural/civic pride would do.
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But make no mistake, neither is Fascism "conservative" nor is it based. It is Progressive by Regressive Means on the one hand, which isn't even "Right-wing" (maintain status quo). It's also not based, not even on tradition. It's romantic and idealistic and ultimately arbitrary.