Reader Roger Meier, commented on the previous post, Trump is forcing us into socialism, hatred and recession.
He makes a good case for Trump not being a socialist, but rather, a fascist. I agree with his comments and have included them below.
However, I stand by the “hatred and recession” claims, as there can be no doubt he is the ultimate hatemonger and that his incoherent use of tariffs will negatively impact our economy.
I opt for Trumpism-Fascism as fascism is an authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology characterized by a dictatorial leader, the forcible suppression of opposition, and the regimentation of society and the economy.
Core features of fascist regimes, such as those that ruled Italy and Germany in the 20th century, include:
- Dictatorial leader: A single leader, often viewed with a personality cult, holds complete control over the government.
- Ultranationalism: The nation and often race are exalted above the individual. The national community’s unity is prioritized over individual rights.
- Militarism: The government actively builds up its military strength and prepares for—or engages in—aggressive warfare to expand its territory.
- Suppression of opposition: All forms of political dissent are suppressed, often through violence. Free elections are eliminated or made fraudulent.
- Rejection of other ideologies: Fascism stands in opposition to communism, liberal democracy, and traditional conservatism.
While not based on state ownership of the means of production like communism, fascist economies tightly control private enterprise to serve the state’s nationalistic goals. This is achieved primarily through a corporatist system.
Corporatism.
This system involves the government organizing the economy into a series of state-controlled “corporations,” or syndicates, that include representatives from government, industry, and labor.
- Controlled “collaboration”: In theory, this arrangement fosters “harmonious cooperation” between workers and employers for the national good. In practice, it destroys independent labor movements and solidifies state control.
- State-directed production: Through these state-run bodies, the government dictates industrial policy, setting production levels, wages, and prices.
- Benefit for favored elites: While claiming to represent all, corporatism protects powerful corporations and existing elites who align with the regime. The state’s power in this “partnership” is always dominant.
Economic examples
- Fascist Italy (1922–1943): Benito Mussolini’s regime implemented a system where private initiative was considered an instrument to protect national interests. By the late 1930s, the state controlled most of Italy’s economy after taking over failing banks that owned many businesses during the Great Depression.
- Nazi Germany (1933–1945): Adolf Hitler’s regime forced businesses into cartels and eliminated independent labor unions. Private enterprise was heavily regulated and directed toward the goals of rearmament and autarky (economic self-sufficiency).
Key takeaways on business control
-
Private ownership, public control: Fascism maintains the appearance of private property and private enterprise, but the state exerts total control over production and industry.
-
Hierarchy over class struggle: Instead of socialist class struggle, fascism imposes a strict national and social hierarchy where the individual serves the state and economic interests are subordinated to the national agenda.
-
Suppression of labor: Independent labor unions are banned and replaced with state-controlled syndicates, often resulting in lower wages and worse conditions for workers.
-
Economic self-sufficiency: Autarky, or national economic self-sufficiency, is a primary goal, often achieved through protectionist trade policies and militaristic expansion.
The comments look AI generated (That is not a negative. To my mind the comments are perfectly appropriate, regardless of the source. The format just seems “AI-ish.” As readers know, I often refer to AI.)
I thank Roger for reminding us how seemingly opposite philosophies can circle back and meet at their extremes. Socialism, in its extreme form, communism, and fascism inevitably are dictatorships.
Given absolute power, as the Supreme Court has done with Trump, a leader will use it. “Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
In communism, all property is publicly owned, which in reality means government owned and directed by a dictatorial leader. Fascism means a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy.
The two essentially are indistinguishable in practice.
Hitler and Stalin, fascist and communist, were cut from the same cloth. Hitler had his concentration camps. Stalin had his gulags. Trump has his Alligator Alcatraz (“Auschwitz”), and deportations to hellish locations.
In one, people were rounded up and gassed to death. In the other, people were rounded up and worked to death. In the third, people are rounded up, families separated, and deported.
Trump often uses Hitlerian phrases like “poisoning the blood” when referring to non-citizens.
Neither system countenances disagreement with the supreme leader, and both are brutal in their execution of laws as determined at the whim of the dictator.
Donald Trump encompasses all the traits of the fascist/communist leader. Watch a video of a Hitler speech and its translation and you easily can imagine Trump giving exactly the same speech — and receiving the same reactions from acolytes.
The Republican Party is as much an echo chamber for Trump as the Communist party was for Stalin and is for Putin. No difference.
It is no wonder that Trump has expressed admiration for Putin, Kim, Bolsonaro, and Orban. He wishes to be them.
Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Twitter: @rodgermitchell
Search #monetarysovereignty
Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell;
MUCK RACK: https://muckrack.com/rodger-malcolm-mitchell;
……………………………………………………………………..
A Government’s Sole Purpose is to Improve and Protect The People’s Lives.
MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY
#Monetary Sovereignty - Mitchell 
Rodger, yes, I did an “AI”. As I set out to obtain definitions of fascism, my search engine has a default to also provide an AI response. Once I examined the result, off it went with small modifications. Thank you for the continuation and expansion of the discussion with the Venn diagram.
As a point of interest my current lens at looking at economic realms is my self-cooked process viewing them as “systems.” A system being interlocking processes and/or logical steps serving a defined result or policy … whether good or bad, legal or not legal, ethical or not ethical. For lack of a better term, I call it “what-works-bestism”. As your Venn diagram hints, here are two systems … fascism and socialism … with definite interlocking characteristics both providing legal, cultural and economic functions to provide a system with clear delineation of wealth, freedoms and power. These systems being “the best” to those sorry objectives.
Now take MMT, as a definition … not a theory … it is clearly an explanation of a system which can be applied, theoretically to various ends … good or bad … as noted. It is a neutral system of money creation. Most MMTer’s I know apply that system to ethical and uplifting objectives. But what could Trump do with this in mind?
Rodg, I am drifting here with something that requires much more clarity from me and time and understanding from you. The point I am trying to get to is … economic labels often limit our thinking toward the creation or understanding of unique systems to be applied and considered toward an objective regardless of what those objective may be.
Well … thanks for my musing. Thanks for your response. It has been a very good interchange.
LikeLike
Roger, as I said, I see nothing wrong with quoting AI or any other source. I have devoted entire posts to AI quotes. My comments were to forestall dismissal of your comment on that basis.
As for “economic labels often limit our thinking,” I agree. The irony here is that one epithet common to the right-wing is to call someone a communist, while their cult leader not only worships the leading communist but tries to emulate him.
A dictatorship by any other name — communist, fascist, monarchy, theocracy, personalist, military, single party — is still a dictatorship, and cannot have the moral underpinnings of a democracy.
Still, humans are imperfect, and even the best-intended democratic governments cannot be fair to, or even please, a vast minority. It’s just that democracy-based (there are no true democracies) governments come closer to morality than any dictatorships. Power corrupts.
And the personalist dictatorship of Trump makes no pretense of even trying for morality. It is dominated by three groups: The rich, the uninformed and the bigots, none of which demands morality from their leader.
Sadly, those three groups together comprise the majority political power in America.
=========================
The Trump administration notified eight employees of their termination on Friday following their decision to sign a letter dissenting from current policies at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Associated Press reports. No dissent allowed in a dictatorship.
LikeLike