between Fascisms of the Trump and Ilyin varieties.

Both seem to be obsessed with patriotic and religious themes, both have a powerful anti-intellectual streak and admiration and dependence on violence to achieve political ends. Both seem to be anti-science and impatient with constitutional and legal forms. And both have strong racist and nationalistic components, and an obsession with the potent, virile, brutal Supreme Leader. And although not mentioned in your analysis, both seem to rely heavily on authoritarianism, anti-Semitism, misogyny and homophobia, currents that run deep in both Russian and Redneck culture.

It is also instructive to note Ilyin was anti-Soviet, yet appeals to Putin, a former ruthless apparatchik in the Soviet State Security machine.

I remember when here on the Zone we had a running debate on whether Soviet Communism was inherently fascist in nature. Although it must be conceded that there was probably little practical difference between living in NAZI Germany and Soviet Russia, the philosophical origins of the two were poles apart. The political spectrum is not linear, it is circular, and the poles are purely arbitrary. If you try to get as far as you can from one, you inevitably find yourself approaching the other.

The only real difference is that in fascism you are allowed to own a business, and in Communism you are guaranteed a job. One system offers the illusion of security, the other the illusion of opportunity.