The “far right movement in Germany and Europe” … obviously ignoring the far-left movements in Russia and China and elsewhere. As people are now saying, how come we don’t treat people waving the sickle and hammer just like we treat people waving the swastika and related symbols? They’re responsible for about the same magnitude of human suffering. That does not make me a right-leaning person. I’m condeming both sides equally.
Also ignoring the fact that the leaders of these “far-right” movements such as Mussolini often started as or were lifelong far-left socialists (there’s lots of scholarly disagreement here, but it’s clear Mussolini always thought he was fighting for the “true” socialism). The notion that someone who is a radical leftist today could be cast as a far-right villain tomorrow has plenty of historical precedent. Many scholars point out that fascism was only right of pure socialism (aka the USSR). Broadly in terms of economic policy and so on these regimes were often still far left of center.
It seems like people characterize these movements as right based on their consequences, when it’s not nearly so clear-cut what their motivations were. It seems like fascist movements have a lot more to do with feelings of disgust. In particular it’s pointed out by scholars how often fascist leaders seem to speak and think in the imagery of bodily infection- the people are a body, the enemy are a parasite who must be destroyed to stop the infection. This seems to be a natural human tendency, rather than a particular political leaning. This means that someone who is far-left in their ideology has no protection whatsoever from becoming a fascist, as the two are in no way exclusive. That’s an important lesson people need to learn.
