There used to exist a communist country which was commonly known as East Germany. I remember once seeing its head of government on television making a speech. In a country devoid of democracy, he referred to its western frontier as the frontier with fascism. I found this curious - even a trifle amusing - but I eventually realised that this was in fact a key part of the communist mindset.
Fascism - like communism - is a difficult concept to define in words, but basically it is a political ideology which arose in Italy around one hundred years ago. As with communism, it maintains that the power of the state should be without limits, and holds both democracy and free speech in contempt. Someone at some point coined the word totalitarianism as an umbrella term to classify both communism and fascism.
But whatever fascism was originally, it is now a word habitually used by communists to vilify almost anything they dislike.
Take for example this recent essay on the website of a national newspaper. The author talks about the rise of fascism, but without offering any definition, and neither can I find a definition in any of her previous work.
What is obvious however is that she dislikes the outcome of the Brexit referendum, the election of Donald Trump, and tax avoidance by large companies. I also have a dislike of tax avoidance by large companies, but I would not describe it as fascism. I would not vote for Donald Trump, but I'm not sure I would describe him as a fascist. I voted for Brexit, and I certainly do not regard myself as a fascist.
In an essay written in August 2016, the same author describes supporters of Jeremy Corbyn as ordinary, fed-up voters, and I wonder why she cannot bring herself to apply a similar description to British people who voted for Brexit or for American people who voted for Trump.
While the author may see herself and other people like her as marginalised, it is nevertheless the case that she is allowed to put her views across in a national newspaper. By contrast, I am not sure I have ever come across a genuinely nationalist comment writer in any of Britain's national newspapers. It is of course true that newspaper comment writers will occasionally put across a patriotic point of view, but this is merely a cynical ploy to encourage people to buy the newspaper.
I have never been invited to write for a national newspaper, and neither to my knowledge has any other patriotic blogger. I hope that readers of this site will follow my example and never buy any national newspaper. Read them only when you can do so without letting them have any of your money.
Related previous posts include:
The communist-loving "right wing" tabloids
The Trump phenomenon
What is tax avoidance?
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