I loved this short video from TIK History, one of my favorite Youtube channels. He simply reads quotes from George Orwell “What Is Fascism”
People all across the assumed political spectrum, from Democrats to Republicans, spend a great deal of time trying to argue that the other side are the Real Fascists™, a very similar strategy to the arguments about who are the Real Racists™. The astute student of American politics already knows that the two major parties are mostly quite similar in practice, if not in rhetoric, and that the real American political spectrum is far more vast. Those same observers also recognize that virtually no one accusing their political opponents of being “fascist” has a clue what fascism actually is and how it fits into the historical setting. This is not surprising as fascism is a very slippery concept to nail down and is impossible to understand without first understanding the context in which it existed as a significant political force.
As you can see from the video, the use of fascism as a slur to decry anything and everything you don’t like isn’t new, it goes way back to the first half of the 20th century. It is wise to generally ignore people talking about fascism in contemporary America, Republican or Democrat, because they have no idea what the word even means. The same is true for: racism, justice, White supremacy/nationalism, Nazi and about one hundred other words.
You should view being called a fascist the same way you view being called a racist: a sign you won the argument.
I'm a huge fan of TIK. My only complaint is he doesn't produce more.
He got into WWII history after playing HOI4.
I haven't done it but I assume producing decent quality videos like that is very time consuming. My oldest son loves HOI, I need to try it one of these days.
HOI is my guilty pleasure. Only get to play it on Saturday nights (as in, that's the only time I have time).