The word "fascist" gets thrown around so much these days that it has lost almost all meaning. Scroll through X for five minutes, and you'll find conservatives calling liberals fascists and liberals calling conservatives fascists. Everyone's a fascist. Nobody's a fascist. But the truth is, almost nobody can tell you what one actually is.
So, this is an honest attempt by The Pennant editorial staff to try and fix that. Wish us luck.
Fascism was born in Europe after World War I, created by leaders who blamed national humiliation on weak governments, foreign enemies, and internal traitors. It combined extreme nationalism, a cult of personality around a strongman leader, and the brutal suppression of anyone who disagreed.
It wasn't just mean politics. It was a system. A very bad one. Perhaps history's worst. But sure — go ahead and compare it to your city's director of development or state representative.
History's chief fascists include some horrible people. There's Benito Mussolini in Italy, Adolf Hitler in Germany, and Francisco Franco in Spain. These men didn't just talk tough. They built police states, crushed free speech, rigged or eliminated elections, and sent opponents to prison camps or graves. They were not people you disagreed with on a school levy.
Here's something most people don't understand: fascist governments didn't abolish private business. They controlled it. German industrialists who cooperated with the Nazi regime did very well for themselves — at least initially.
Fascist regimes rewrote education, turning schools into factories for producing loyal citizens, not independent thinkers. Elections were either eliminated entirely or staged as theater, with opponents jailed and dissent treated as treason. And no — requiring a photo ID to vote is not fascism. It's also how you buy cold medicine, board an airplane, and get into the bar where you're complaining about fascism.
Now here's where it gets uncomfortable. Some on the far left — think Antifa, which ironically means "anti-fascist" — use fascist tactics: silencing opponents through intimidation, mob violence, and destroying property. Occupy Wall Street romanticized authoritarian collectivism while pretending to fight power. Using force to silence speech you dislike is a fascist move, no matter what flag you wave.
The far right has its own mirror-image problems: nationalism, hostility to press freedom, and contempt for democratic norms — a flag pin doesn't change that.
This week, we received a letter to the editor passionately arguing that anyone who supports data centers is, in fact, a fascist. We'll just let that one breathe for a moment because we're almost positive that's not factually correct. And if you've read this far without calling The Pennant a fascist publication, congratulations — you're already doing better than our comment section on a good day.
Look, here's the truth: most people getting called fascists today are just people you disagree with. Real fascism built and ran death camps.
Before you reach for that word again, maybe crack open a history book — because the millions who died under actual fascism deserved better than to have it become a Twitter insult.
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