Revealed Truths

[Belacqua]

Check out this article in New Humanist.
It has the ring of truth to me.

https://newhumanist.org.uk/articles/5311...led-truths

"My father had a point. Fascism is different from other political isms. If I tell you that someone is a socialist, or a libertarian, or a communist, you know roughly what principles would govern that person’s perfect society. If I tell you someone is a fascist, all you know is that the person has put their faith in a leader. You don’t argue with the leader, any more than you argue with the Pope. Fascism is as near as you get in politics to the idea of revealed truth.

I am not arguing Catholics are fascists, or religious folk are fascists. But the good fascist, like the good Catholic, must contract out their thinking. “I am done with those who think,” said Mosley on the day that he abandoned democratic politics for fascism. “Henceforth I shall go with those who feel.” Those who feel but do not think require someone to do their thinking for them, and that, in Mosley’s view, was what the Leader (it always has an upper-case L in fascist circles) was for. "

While fascist governments have local variations, I don't think it's true to say that the only distinguishing characteristic is faith in a leader. There are qualities that determine what fascism is. The well-known "14 signs" go like this:

• Powerful and continuing nationalism
  
• Disdain for human rights
  
• Identification of enemies as a unifying cause
  
• Supremacy of the military
  
• Rampant sexism
  
• Controlled mass media
  
• Obsession with national security
  
• Religion and government intertwined
  
• Corporate power protected
  
• Labor power suppressed
  
• Disdain for intellectuals & the arts
  
• Obsession with crime & punishment
  
• Rampant cronyism & corruption
  
• Fraudulent elections
  

If someone is a fascist, this is what he'll be for. If he's for other things, he's probably not a fascist. So the premise of the article you quote seems doubtful to me. 

Moreover, I doubt very much that fascists consider these goals to be revealed truths. They will say that there are good reasons for them, based on history. There are long and tedious books with arguments that fascists find persuasive. Oswald Spengler, anyone?

The attempt to tie fascism to the Catholic church is just silly. For one thing, all monotheistic religions rely on revealed truth, not just Catholics. For another, while it's true that the Vatican may be guilty of some of the things on that list, none of them is a defining aspect of Catholicism per se. That is, while it may be true that today Catholics want the supremacy of the military (really?) that is essential to fascism and not to Catholicism. The Central American priest, murdered by U.S.-trained death squads and recently named a saint by the Vatican, opposed every single item on the list.

The leadership of the Pope is much exaggerated. Catholics around the world are free to disagree with him, and to express that disagreement. Have you not heard any of the conservative Catholic complaints against Francis's recent statements? Intellectual conservative Catholics are making carefully-argued cases against his opinions. The supposedly infallible statements that he issues are rare and carefully considered by whole committees in the Vatican -- while the leader is clearly the top, this is far from the kind of authoritarian nationalist dictatorship which defines fascism. 

I think somebody is trying too hard to tie together two things which don't go.