Thread by @DropofFink

Umberto Eco's 14 Common Features of #Fascism (+a few more)

Famous Italian author Umberto Eco (Name of the Rose) grew up under Mussolini, & certainly knows what fascism looks like

The cult of tradition. “One has only to look at the syllabus of every fascist movement to find the major traditionalist thinkers. The Nazi gnosis was nourished by traditionalist, syncretistic, occult elements.” #Fascism

The rejection of modernism. “The Enlightenment, the Age of Reason, is seen as the beginning of modern depravity. In this sense Ur-Fascism can be defined as irrationalism.” #Fascism

The cult of action for action’s sake. “Action being beautiful in itself, it must be taken before, or without, any previous reflection. Thinking is a form of emasculation.” #fascism

Disagreement is treason. “The critical spirit makes distinctions, and to distinguish is a sign of modernism. In modern culture the scientific community praises disagreement as a way to improve knowledge.” #Fascism #JohnMcCain

Fear of difference. “The first appeal of a fascist or prematurely fascist movement is an appeal against the intruders. Thus Ur-Fascism is racist by definition.” #Fascism #shithole

Appeal to social frustration. “One of the most typical features of the historical fascism was the appeal to a frustrated middle class, a class suffering from an economic crisis or feelings of political humiliation, and frightened by the pressure of lower social groups.” #fascism

The obsession with a plot. “The followers must feel besieged. The easiest way to solve the plot is the appeal to xenophobia.” #fascism

The enemy is both strong and weak. “By a continuous shifting of rhetorical focus, the enemies are at the same time too strong and too weak.” #Fascism

Pacifism is trafficking with the enemy. “For Ur-Fascism there is no struggle for life but, rather, life is lived for struggle.” #Fascism

Contempt for the weak. “Elitism is a typical aspect of any reactionary ideology.” #Fascism

Everybody is educated to become a hero. “In Ur-Fascist ideology, heroism is the norm. This cult of heroism is strictly linked with the cult of death.” #fascism

Machismo and weaponry. “Machismo implies both disdain for women and intolerance and condemnation of nonstandard sexual habits, from chastity to homosexuality.” #fascism

Selective populism. “There is in our future a TV or Internet populism, in which the emotional response of a selected group of citizens can be presented and accepted as the Voice of the People.” #Fascism

Ur-Fascism speaks Newspeak. “All the Nazi or Fascist schoolbooks made use of an impoverished vocabulary, and an elementary syntax, in order to limit the instruments for complex and critical reasoning.” #fascism

Not from Eco (openculture.com/2016/11/umbert… …) but #Fascism is generally considered very pro corporation/anti-worker esp when it comes to political loyalty & favoritism

A primer - Critical Thinking:
Reflection
Analysis
Acquire information
Creativity
Structuring arguments
Decision making
Commitment
Debate
Listen
Be willing to change your stance
Be willing to say "I don't know" or "there is not enough information yet"

#CriticalThinking