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Comment by IAmEveryone | Hacker News Reader

Funny you should say that. Eco anticipated not only Trump and Putin, but meerita as well:

Eco grew up under Mussolini’s fascist regime, which “was certainly a dictatorship, but it was not totally totalitarian, not because of its mildness but rather because of the philosophical weakness of its ideology. Contrary to common opinion, fascism in Italy had no special philosophy.” It did, however, have style, “a way of dressing—far more influential, with its black shirts, than Armani, Benetton, or Versace would ever be.”

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Unpopular fact: Trump is definetively not like Mussolini's or a fascist. He (Mussolini) was a disappointed Marxist, turned into a corporativist socialist. He did not have all the time in the world to carry out his project of totalitarianism, but he had already achieved enough.

Mussolini's policies were socialist, like those of Franco, Hitler and others, nothing to do with Trump. Biden is also not a fascist if we apply the textbook. My father and grandfather grew up with Mussolini.

There's an obsession to relate fascism with modern politics, and this article mainly can be applied to any modern president anywhere in the world

> There's an obsession to relate fascism with modern politics, and this article mainly can be applied to any modern president anywhere in the world

I was thinking as I read this how many of the items applied to modern politics especially in the US, in both parties. I don’t think either party gets all of them, and the combinations are a bit different. Both parties certainly exhibit some of the uglier items

So the question becomes if they both aren’t quite ticking all the fascism boxes, but are ticking most…what are they?

First, once you read Mussolini's view on fascism you understand the prime key points needed for that. I didn't see Trump trying to shuting down all the press and funding only one source, specially since the entire press is clearly left leaning. Also, he didn't made printing, no inflation and no corporativism. He was a bit on the protectionist side, but overall, we can say is far from being the stereotypical fascist. The problem is, in America and some EU countries, people completely forget what the fascist term means and calls fascism to anything that is on the opposite side of their point of view.

With Trump I think most people conflated his words (“fake news”, and a obvious disrespect for certain news orgs) as action. When in reality it was just rhetoric. There was no doubt that it had some influence on the population but I agree that it doesn’t rise to the action of shutting down all press but for one official news source.

I’d even go as far to say that most of the other things that cause people to consider Trump as a fascist, were mostly based on that rhetoric as opposed to direct actions.

One thing is calling something "fake", other differently is shutting it down because you dislike or interfere with your agenda. People must understand this properly. Although Biden is socialist too, his agenda and mindset is far from a fascist ruler.

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