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re: Wish I was half the philosopher
gbaikie — (archived)

"I was born and raised in this country, but I can see it through different cultural eyes and from a different perspective. Fascism is possible here, it lies just below the surface, ready to leap forth whenever the system is under stress, when it is threatened or afraid."

The way I see it, America probably has another 100 years before Fascism is a real threat. But with Europe it could happen tomorrow.

"Most scholars agree that a "fascist regime" is foremost an authoritarian form of government, although not all authoritarian regimes are fascist. Authoritarianism is thus a defining characteristic, but most scholars will say that more distinguishing traits are needed to make an authoritarian regime fascist. It is common practice to define a fascist government as a "right-wing dictatorship", but this merely replaces one vague term with another, since there is no universal definition of "right-wing". There is a small but significant group of conservative and libertarian scholars and political commentators who see fascism rooted in collectivism and left-wing political ideas."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Definitions_of_fascism

I would say that most effective glue that gives power to fascism is collectivism. And that what characterizes fascism are state molopolies. Europe has no shortage of state molopolies and places a high value on collectivism- so it's half way there and only need something to trigger it.
And Europe has no shortage of triggers. The process of forming of the EU itself could even play a role in this. But the main problem is the lack of free markets and it's demography. And even if Europe was as resistance as America is against fascism, Europe has unstable regions surrounding it- Russia, middle east, and perhaps worse of all, Africa.
Europe will be lucky to get through this century without a serious bout of fascism.

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