Home Depot Worker Receives Death Threats After Wearing 'America Was Never Great' Hat

[branford]

68. There's a wide gulf between pride in one's nation and culture and actual fascism.

Tribalism is also inherent in humanity. Countries exist, borders have meaning, cultures are different. Tribalism is not necessarily nativism, and cultural relativism and related beliefs are dangerous (See, migrant crisis in Europe) and do not lead to fascism unless the democratic will of the people are ignores.

In fact, the fascism allegation is used so freely and loosely in common discourse as to almost render the term meaningless.

I would also ironically note that our generally far more liberal, democratic political cousins in Europe are the ones who actually elect tried and true fascists and neo-Nazis to national and European parliaments. Despite the hyperbole of some in our country, Americans really have little tolerance for truly far left or right-wing politicians. Communists and hardcore socialists and fascists are not electable to high office in the USA, unlike many other parts of the Western world.

Whenever the specter of fascism is brought up, I always recall the classic Tom Wolf quote, "the dark night of fascism is always descending in the United States and yet lands only in Europe."