# How do you define fascism. Who is a fascist. And how do you identify. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 15, 2019, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-define-fascism-who-is-a-fascist-and-how-do-you-identify/837111 "2019-07-15T04:40:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2019, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-define-fascism-who-is-a-fascist-and-how-do-you-identify/837111/81 "2019-07-19T11:37:55Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > As it stands now, the red areas are financially dependent on the blue areas. Urban areas pay more in taxes than they get in benefits while blue states do the same thing. Its the opposite for rural counties and red states. > > So as long as the blue counties and blue states keep paying the bills for the red states, they’re going to keep doing fine. If they were cut off from the financial funds, then they’d collapse. > > Hillary Clinton only won 500 or so counties in 2016, while Trump won 2500. But the counties Hillary won tended to be urban, Trump rural. So the counties Hillary won made up something like 2/3 of the US GDP, while the other 1/3 was in Trump counties. > > If the US were broken down into blue vs red counties, their respective GDPs would be about 12 trillion vs 6 trillion respectively. If the red counties had to pay their own bills, they’d collapse. > > [Another Clinton-Trump divide: High-output America vs low-output America | Brookings](https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2016/11/29/another-clinton-trump-divide-high-output-america-vs-low-output-america/) Exactly my point, fascism always collapses eventually, in no small part because it attracts people least capable of self-governance. The question isn’t whether Trump and the GOP are fascistic, they obviously are. The question is what do we do about it and what will America look like when it inevitably ends? Will we once again let the losers write history like we did after the civil war, or will we finally ask ourselves the existential question of America: “is it possible to have a democracy when almost half the people in your country do not value it and are hostile to the rule of law?” If the answer is no, then maybe it would be better to cut our losses with red state America, we’ve been trying to drag them along for over 200 years, maybe that’s long enough. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2019, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-define-fascism-who-is-a-fascist-and-how-do-you-identify/837111/82 "2019-07-19T14:35:15Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > Here’s the thing…there are people on this board who would call that drunk a Nazi and masturbate themselves to sleep fantasizing about punching him. You are free, and correct, to consider Spencer a loathesome bigot. I, however, don’t like to dilute the word “Nazi.” Nazis, to me, remain people who self-identify as Nazis. As I have noted, they are IME people from the bottom of the socio-economic foodchain. If they were brown people who belonged to violent gangs, I expect you would say they needed help. But, I know, it’s fun to have fantasies of righteous assbeatings delivered upon those Hitler-heiling douchebags. you don’t have to wear the uniform. if he doesn’t want people to think he’s a duck, he needs to stop quacking like one. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2019, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-define-fascism-who-is-a-fascist-and-how-do-you-identify/837111/83 "2019-07-19T15:04:51Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > You were a screw. A screw? Did you learn your prison lingo from drive-in movies? I was a hack. > [@Scumpup](#): > > when I look at someone who is the product of poverty, ignorance, and anger, I don’t think his skin color is what matters most. Nothing you’ve ever posted supports this. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2019, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-define-fascism-who-is-a-fascist-and-how-do-you-identify/837111/84 "2019-07-19T15:31:27Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > Here’s the thing…there are people on this board who would call that drunk a Nazi and masturbate themselves to sleep fantasizing about punching him. You are free, and correct, to consider Spencer a loathesome bigot. I, however, don’t like to dilute the word “Nazi.” Nazis, to me, remain people who self-identify as Nazis. As I have noted, they are IME people from the bottom of the socio-economic foodchain. If they were brown people who belonged to violent gangs, I expect you would say they needed help. But, I know, it’s fun to have fantasies of righteous assbeatings delivered upon those Hitler-heiling douchebags. Really? Who claims MS-13 gangs in Honduras need our help and sympathy? The societies in which they thrive need help. If people had better options, they’d be less likely to join gangs. Those things are true. But if you are currently a violent gang member, what you need is to go to prison for a period of time that fits the crime you committed. Nazi-ism is an ideology we understand very well and we know where it leads. We have every reason to discourage its proliferation in society. That may include a righteous ass-beating as warranted. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2019, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-define-fascism-who-is-a-fascist-and-how-do-you-identify/837111/85 "2019-07-19T18:27:24Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > Nazi-ism is an ideology we understand very well and we know where it leads. We have every reason to discourage its proliferation in society. That may include a righteous ass-beating as warranted. Considering how the first round of Nazis ended up, we’re doing the current Nazis a favor by getting them out. Hitler himself would have been better off in the long run if somebody had punched him in the face in 1920. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-define-fascism-who-is-a-fascist-and-how-do-you-identify/837111.md?page=4)