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Fascism is a loaded word that will get completely negated by glib idiocy.

Totalitarian-authoritarian personality is more fitting, because in fact as a personality it can arise in any individual - not just those wearing brown shirts and marching around in jackboots, seeking conformity with a clean ideal.

Totalitarian-authoritarianism is a meme - a kind of virus, which can be just as easily discarded as it can infiltrate a social organ.

Fascism™ ~= Totalitarian-Authoritarianism©

Fascism is a mark of trade of the totalitarian-authoritarian personality, who demands the right to be copied (in order to attain conformal cleanliness).

You can find it in yourself, if you care to look - but you may (or may not) be identifiable as a fascist.

The broader issue is that absolutes are unattainable. It is absolutely impossible to have a clean society, free of the filth of others. We humans depend on filth to perpetuate our species.

Sure, boot out the fascists if you feel that is keeping you un-clean. But in so doing, you will establish your own totalitarian-authoritarian personality. The key is not to resist - it is futile - but rather, instead, replace. The solution to any totalitarian order is simply to build another one, right on top.

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Or crypto fascist; that’ll have them threatening to sock you in the face if Buckley’s any example.
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Or, just identify it as a personality - a facade, a facsimile, a fake being put in place to shield from perceived filth.

Anyone is capable of manifesting this personality. Anyone is also capable, of replacing it with something else. Calling someone a fascist tends to lock them in an immutable argument - calling out their fake personality, drops the shield and it turns to dust.

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It's a fair point that it's become one of those words that doesn't really _mean_ anything anymore in common discourse. Like Marxism. For all intents and purposes, Marxism is basically "anything I don't like that's left of center."

I mean, anyone who claims with any level of seriousness that Democrats are Marxist have _zero_ clue what that means.

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I think the issue is more that there is so much loaded emotion in the image of a 'real fascist' that you're just adding another layer to the totalitarian-authoritarian personality, which is itself utterly fake.

Cut to the bone - point out that it's just a personality they're inventing. It's not really who they are. It's just a cowardly shield they're wearing because they are afraid.

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>Sure, boot out the fascists if you feel that is keeping you un-clean. But in so doing, you will establish your own totalitarian-authoritarian personality. The key is not to resist - it is futile - but rather, instead, replace. The solution to any totalitarian order is simply to build another one, right on top.

Oh, that's what's happening here. The only real fascists are the people opposed to fascism. OK.

My bad, I didn't see the game. Made the mistake of answering in good faith. Carry on.

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