Fascism: What it is and its Dangers

September 2, 1945. Japan surrenders to the allied forces after the second atomic bombing of Nagasaki, marking the end of World War II and the Axis Powers, and, some would say, fascism.

With Mussolini, the founder of fascism, hanged in the streets of Italy and Hitler gone months before Japan’s surrender, it would seem reasonable to think that the parasite of fascism had been stomped out of the world.

That is not the case. Fascism is just as powerful than ever.

Fascism is a word that gets thrown around quite frequently by people all over the political spectrum. Thus, it is useful to define what fascism is, or rather, it would be easiest to first understand what fascism is not.

There are generally two things that people mistake fascism for, the first of which is that it is a form of government. Monarchy is a form of government. A republic is a form of government. Fascism is not. Fascism has manifested itself in many forms of government. In fact, it is very possible for fascism to manifest in Western democracies — in fact, it was the fragile nature of democracy in Italy and Germany that allowed for the rise of fascism in the first place. While it does tend to take the form of autocratic dictatorships, this alone is not a sufficient condition for fascism.

The second thing that most people tend to confuse fascism for is an ideology. An ideology would imply a set of beliefs. Liberalism is an ideology because it believes specifically in notions such as consent of the governed and individual liberties. Marxism-Leninism is an ideology because of its detailed beliefs in revolution to overthrow capitalism. Fascism is far too incoherent to be considered a set of beliefs. Although fascists have common beliefs — ultranationalism, the preservation of extreme hierarchies, and opposition to socialism and communism — these beliefs on their own are not enough to characterize someone as fascist. Ultimately, fascism is not a checklist of ideological dogmas that one is able to use to evaluate how fascist someone is or is not.

So then, what is fascism? It is best understood as a movement. Specifically, it is a movement to preserve a society based on the supremacy of the nation. Socially, fascism calls for the exaltation of the nation above the individual and seeks to preserve the nation’s values through a belief in the supremacy of an in-group, most often a specific race. In that sense, it is by nature, a socially ultraconservative and far-right movement. Economically, it is the merging of state and private power in order to form one entity that seeks to preserve class society above all else. Mussolini puts it best: “you want to know

 Fascism is a word thrown around by many people on all aisles of the political spectrum, yet few use the term correctly.

what fascism is like? It is like your New Deal!” While socialism destroys class society, fascism preserves it. While it is not capitalism, it does allow for private property to work in service of the nation, which is seen in the fact that many famous companies, such as Volkswagen and Fanta, have roots in Nazi Germany. Really, fascism is the weaponization of finance capital itself to allow for a society to continue in its class structure.

In the United States alone, we have seen in the past decade or so just how powerful fascism can be in popular movements. From the 2017 Charlottesville “Unite the Right,” during which a counter-protestor was killed, to multiple men seen with shirts saying “6 million wasn’t enough”

during the capitol riot of January 6, 2021, it is easy to see how open fascists can display their bigotry without any real consequences. Even as recently as September 5, neo-Nazis were seen waving Swastika and DeSantis 2024 flags outside of Disney World.

On the global stage, the recently-elected Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has affiliations with a party that was once openly fascist. The far-right Vox party in Spain also has the possibility of breaking a nearly 50-year long stigma on neo-Nazism in the country. Even in the Ukrainian military, the Azov Battalion has historically had neo-Nazi ties, with many soldiers sporting fascist symbols during the war against Russia.

Looking at these examples, it is difficult to deny the prevalence of fascist groups (or at the very least, far-right groups vulnerable to becoming fascist) at the forefront of global politics. Now, with the world struggling with post-industrialism and slowly declining standards of living, it is frightening to see just how easily fascism can become prominent on the global stage. As the late George Carlin once said, “Germany lost the second World War, fascism won it.” In a time where far-right and fascist movements are just as powerful as ever, it is up to us to have an understanding of what it is and its dangers so that we may better resist it in future.

Ethan Hong ’26 (he/him) studies in the College of Arts & Sciences, and may be reached out to at e.s.hong@wustl.edu