Comments on: Fascists are left wing:

By: Tom Papworth

Tom Papworth — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 00:20:02 +0000

Many also support greater personal freedom for all, though I think that’s because they’re too stupid to know what they’re doing.

By: thomas

thomas — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 20:53:38 +0000

Dividing opinion into any simplistic left/centre/right axis really depends on the question being asked at that moment. It is then used as the basis for extrapolation to manipulate people into creating associations between issues which don’t necessarily exist, because an assumption is made that the original questions are formulated from some external and objective political position.

As such using the description left/right/centre deemphasises and deprioritises the founding principles of individual opinion and obscures far more than it reveals.

The use of generalised left/centre/right descriptions is paradoxically and fundamentally illiberal.

By: Roger Thornhill

Roger Thornhill — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 13:17:13 +0000

“left-right” is by its own definition one-dimensional and not helpful at all.

Authoritarian-Liberal is another axis, as is economic and personal/social.

Those of the Left more often as not, when you scratch the surface, end up with rather authoritarian views and some even call it “liberal”!

By: Charlotte Gore’s Diary » Blog Archive » Is Fascism Left Or Right?

Fri, 23 Nov 2007 00:43:47 +0000

[...] on from a post by Tristan Mills and a follow up by John Dixon I thought I’d offer my own perspective on the question [...]

By: tristan

tristan — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 23:29:39 +0000

Anonymous - I’ve only just got to a computer being off in the US for a bit. Your comment was waiting in the moderation queue and has been put up now.

By: John Dixon

John Dixon — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 22:19:11 +0000

Hmm, I think I’d disagree, under your definition of the terms left and right wing you are quite correct in pointing out that fascists were anti free market (pro private corporation and state working together as one) and you are thus correct under your terms. But I believe left and right wing can be seen more in terms of sympathies and where those sympathies lie rather than in differing methods such as whether they are free market or corporatist. For instance the sympathies of communism lie with the proletariat (although in practise it only truly favours the bureaucrat) while the sympathies of fascism lie with those in traditional authority such as monarchy, church and state (although mainly the state as this tended to be turned into both a religious and monarchical organisation). My view of left and right is not so much based on your well defined methods but on which people those methods are aimed at helping, whether it is aimed at creating equality and fraternity in society or class and hierarchy. Under those definitions which I find portray the left and right far more accurately fascism is a thoroughly right wing ideology. It also shows why the old classical liberals of the 19th and 18th century were relatively left wing while the protectionist tories were right wing for surely under your definition the oppossite would be true.
P.S. Hitler was a National Socialist rather than a Fascist, they are different ideologies although rather similar.

By: Joe Otten

Joe Otten — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 14:51:32 +0000

The two extremes meet up somewhere round the back, yes. If there is no freedom, and no democractic institutions, it doesn’t matter whose interests or what ideology a government claims to represent, the character is much the same.

The left wing is right wing and vice versa. Nice.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 11:09:28 +0000

Tristan, I wonder if you by mistake deleted the wrong message. Jonny Wright asked to delete his first message, but you seem to have deleted mine. I didn’t think it was that offensive.

By: Cicero

Cicero — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 17:51:36 +0000

Well I would tend to agree: after all Mussolini had been a leading Socialist journalist, even as late as 1917, only five years before he came to power. As for Hitler, well the clue might be in the name: National Socialist.

That being said, I am noe too keen on being named right wing or left wing. I am an anti authoritarian Liberal.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 17:45:21 +0000

“Of course, if we take the political compass…”

Political Compass is actually a very cheap copy of the original two-dimensional political test, World’s Smallest Political Quiz, but Political Compass is made by people who aren’t actually understanging what they are measuring. Therefore they have also incorporated elements from The F Scale which is supposed to measure how authoritarian personality a person has by asking questions about whether one believes in astrology or not and about one’s taste in arts, but which isn’t really scientific, either.

Beside the original World’s Smallest Political Quiz I could recommend two variations of it, World’s Enhanced Precision Political Quiz and Politopia Quiz. (Unfortunately all of these three tests are using American political vocabulary.)