Mussolini gets to define fascism, since he coined the term: "the merger of state and corporate power.โ
Which is socialism.
"Corporate" here does not mean industrial, it means any collective: "'All within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state."
Which is totalitarianism.
It is not, however, international, nor is it based on class warfare. It is not Marxist.
It is nationalist, appealing to patriotism and national tradition (ironically) in order to overturn all national traditions and radically remake society.
It is not "Rightwing" in any meaningful sense of the term: it is neither pro-Monarchist nor pro-Republican.
So, given Mussolini's definition, fascism is national socialist totalitarianism.
Hitler's German Worker's Party was also National Socialist, aka Nazi. So to call Nazis "fascist" is technically correct.
Flying cars is hilarious when this country cant make a can opener that doesnt break in a year, and its citizens are too stupid to know can openers shouldn't break within a year.
Letโs be fair about one thing.
This is not uniquely American.
Political systems everywhere tend to serve the people with the most access to them. Thatโs a human problem, not an American one.
What is specifically American, and specifically worth examining, is the ideological infrastructure built around it.
Most countries with corrupt systems donโt simultaneously position themselves as the global standard for democratic governance.
Most countries with captured regulatory agencies donโt fund "democracy promotion" programs in other countries.
Most countries whose political systems run on corporate money donโt lecture the world about "free and fair elections."
The gap between the self-description and the reality isnโt the corruption.
The corruption is ordinary.
The gap is the specific thing.
The gap is what allows a system this legibly compromised to export its model, judge other countriesโ systems against it, and experience no apparent awareness of the contradiction.
Thatโs not cynicism.
Thatโs just asking the description to match the evidence.
BREAKING: Thomas Massieโs resolution to impeach Pete Hegseth fails in the House 211-204, after 11 Democrats failed to show up for the vote.
If those 11 Democrats had showed up, Hegseth would have been impeached 215-211.