RE: What's to the right of fascist?
September 15, 2010 at 6:36 pm
(This post was last modified: September 15, 2010 at 6:42 pm by Existentialist.)
(September 15, 2010 at 1:59 pm)Tiberius Wrote: There exists both right-wing and left-wing fascism; this is undeniable.I deny that there is left-wing fascism. Left wing is by definition anti-authoritarian and anti-capitalist; anyone claiming to be left wing who imposes authoritarian or capitalist rule, isn't. A good example is the Stalinist Soviet Union: Tony Cliff, a founder of the SWP, first described the USSR as a state capitalist system, the idea being that it effectively operated as one capitalist company rather than as what we would think of as a public sector entity. Putting Stalin on the left is an old right-wing propaganda trick. It muddies the waters, the fact is that Stalinism was as right wing as any right-wing party before or since. There is plenty to argue about in the definitions of left and right alone without introducing intersecting, and equally arguable, concepts like libertarian and authoritarian. The left is innately libertarian - if it is authoritarian, it isn't of the left. This tendency to take a simple word and start trying to divide it down into sub-categories that render the original words ambiguous seems to be a trend. I will look out for more of it. I would say, our history does not throw up very many examples of far left individuals or politics. Even now we have a highly capitalist, authoritarian, theocratic economic and political system. The left has barely had a look in for the last 30 years.
Oh and the original question - what's to the right of fascist? I don't know, I've never experienced it, and I hope I never do.