Fascism and Corporations

[cthulu2016]

5. That is political red meat

The same things were said during the cold war about communism, seeking to stretch the bad thing of the moment to encompass everything on Earth other than the current ruling Party in the USA.

(The funeral industry ran ads saying the cremation was communism. For real. And Hitler said that Jewish bankers were Bolsheviks which was absurd by definition, but it is handy to label just about everyone as that thing everybody hates.)

In 1938, all right thinking people were very upset about fascism. It was a useful tactic to stretch to encompass one national and domestic enemies, and FDR had plenty of both.

But that description would make 99% of governments throughout human history as of 1938 fascist. It cannot be the definition of much of anything other than, "everything other than a Representative democratic republic."

For instance, if "ownership of government by an individual" is fascism then it is just a word game to see if we can paint an Egyptian Pharaoh or Henry VIII as a fascist.

Is that really useful?