# What the hell is so attractive about fascism? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 3, 2024, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-so-attractive-about-fascism/1003701 "2024-07-03T23:56:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2024, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-so-attractive-about-fascism/1003701/81 "2024-07-08T16:16:58Z")
Well yeah. Nobody is arguing that what they want is realistic or sustainable. But it’s definitely painful and frustrating for them, and right wing politicians can rather easily tap into and harness that pain and frustration via fascistic rhetoric and policies. It promises a disruption to the status quo that isn’t working for them, and the image of a strong leader who’ll bulldoze obstacles and enemies is highly appealing when you want disruption. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2024, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-so-attractive-about-fascism/1003701/82 "2024-07-08T16:29:15Z")
> [@Dropo](#): > > For non-fascists, the only thing that could even remotely be “attractive” about fascism are the uniforms. For those who aspire to be fascists, footwear especially is important given the high priority ascribed to boot-licking. You may want to check out the series “The New Look” on AppleTV about fashion designers Christian Dior and Coco Chanel in Nazi-occupied France during WWII (where I assume they battled Hugo Boss and the Nazis. I haven’t seen it myself). ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2024, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-so-attractive-about-fascism/1003701/83 "2024-07-08T20:53:13Z")
The problem I have with the “self reliance” idea is how that connects to an attraction to strongmen. It’s not doing it for yourself: it’s having big strong guy fix everything for you. As Beau of the Fifth Column points out, rural people tend to be very anti-authoritarian, very distrustful of the state. And yet those are the people who someone gravitate towards more authoritarian candidates, including fascist ones. If you are mean enough, if you hurt the people you don’t like enough, then that somehow makes them _more_ trustworthy. Their obvious selfishness and desire for more and more power should make them more suspicious. Claiming that the guy in charge is weak should logically be a boon to them, because that means they have less power to oppress them. But the same people who want the government to do less and leave them alone also want the guy in charge to be very power hungry. That’s what doesn’t make sense about the appeal. ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2024, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-so-attractive-about-fascism/1003701/84 "2024-07-08T20:57:38Z")
> [@bump](#): > > But it’s definitely painful and frustrating for them, and right wing politicians can rather easily tap into and harness that pain and frustration via fascistic rhetoric and policies. It promises a disruption to the status quo that isn’t working for them, and the image of a strong leader who’ll bulldoze obstacles and enemies is highly appealing when you want disruption. Yep. I think there’s a subset of this cohort that believes the Republican lies, that they’ll bring back coal, reopen the factories, bring back the jobs the went offshore, etc. No evidence for this, but you need some comfort from the despair. But I think there’s another subset who doesn’t believe, doesn’t believe anything will get better, so let the whole place burn down. They vote for the bomb throwers. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2024, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-so-attractive-about-fascism/1003701/85 "2024-07-09T01:33:56Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Claiming that the guy in charge is weak should logically be a boon to them, because that means they have less power to oppress them. > > But the same people who want the government to do less and leave them alone also want the guy in charge to be very power hungry. That’s what doesn’t make sense about the appeal. It’s the idea that if he’s busy hurting the people you don’t like, he’s not hurting _you_, and in fact is working on your behalf. That’s the logic, I think. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2024, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-so-attractive-about-fascism/1003701/86 "2024-07-09T11:38:08Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > A lot of what’s going on is that rural and small town America is dying economically. These people were raised from birth to want to live only near their ancestors and never want to leave that county. > They don’t want a handout. > > They want living in a nothing’s happening dead end town or rural county to be a viable lifestyle with similar economic benefits to life in a city. > . > . > . > They can’t move to wherever the jobs are because their psychological attachment to their grandfather’s plot of land and their lifetime neighbors is stronger than their pangs of economic need. > > This economic disconnect will only get worse as the cities continue to accelerate away from the depopulating hinterlands. And the cultural disconnect will become only wider as well. > > These folks desperately want there to be a solution that doesn’t feel like a handout, doesn’t force them to change their behaviors and self-reliant mindset, AND leaves them free to live in granddad’s house with grandad’s neighbor’s family downline still living next door. What’s the expression? Oh yeah: people in hell want ice water. **[Economic migration](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_migrant)**, on international and intranational scales, has been the way of the world for centuries now. My parents didn’t live near their siblings or parents when they were raising me and my siblings, and now we (my siblings and I) are similarly spread across the US. Might have been nice to live in the same neighborhood, or even the same suburb, or even the same metro area, but not if we couldn’t find jobs that matched our education and interests - such is life. But it never occurred to us to be bitter toward people who were able to live close to extended family while employed in their preferred line of work, or to pursue fascism as a means to restore an imagined “good old days” in which we could have everything we wanted without any compromises or sacrifices whatsoever. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2024, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-so-attractive-about-fascism/1003701/87 "2024-07-09T12:04:24Z")
You know that. I know that. But to them that is all confirmation of what they’ve been propagandized, that the system favors rootless materialism that holds traditional ways of life in low value. (The cultural influencers in question go back not centuries but millennia – it’s the Bible with a pastoralist hill people being held up as the righteous light upon nations while the great centers of civilization, like Babylon, are portrayed as the seats of wickedness.) They are _vulnerable_ to the siren song and some of them don’t even know it is because they’ve been primed for it from the cradle. And maybe it would “never occur” to us to react like them, but who knows what siren song WE could be a good target for. At least we know to be on guard. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2024, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-so-attractive-about-fascism/1003701/88 "2024-07-09T12:18:57Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > You know that. I know that. But to them that is all confirmation of what they’ve been propagandized, that the system favors rootless materialism that holds traditional ways of life in low value. It’s not that the “system” used to place a high value on traditional ways of life; it’s just that traditional ways of life were _allowed_ to endure because of the slow pace of technological change prior to the industrial revolution. If you want the system to specifically value traditional ways of life, you have to suppress everything non-traditional. You can do it like the Amish, with a culture that actively shuns you if you choose not to live like your parents before you - or you can do it like Pol Pot, by killing anyone with a college education, anyone who wears glasses, anyone who owns a business. Do it rigorously enough, and you won’t be mining coal or farming with heavy equipment; you’ll be plowing your fields with a team of oxen. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2024, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-so-attractive-about-fascism/1003701/89 "2024-07-09T12:24:51Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > It’s not that the “system” used to place a high value on traditional ways of life; it’s just that traditional ways of life were _allowed_ to endure because of the slow pace of technological change prior to the industrial revolution. Again, you and I know that. But we have the luxury, or privilege, of having learned and internalized it. Many haven’t. To them it’s a barrage of “change the way you live!” and the fear that their grandchildren will become _ **aliens** _ to them for all intents and purposes and that “what they are” will perish. Hence the attractiveness of the notion of some way to make sure that Who We Are does not perish… “even if it kills ya”. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2024, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-so-attractive-about-fascism/1003701/90 "2024-07-09T12:51:07Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > Again, you and I know that. But we have the luxury, or privilege, of having learned and internalized it. > > Many haven’t. To them it’s a barrage of “change the way you live!” and the fear that their grandchildren will become _ **aliens** _ to them for all intents and purposes and that “what they are” will perish. > > Hence the attractiveness of the notion of some way to make sure that Who We Are does not perish… “even if it kills ya”. Yep, I suppose that does go a long way toward explaining fascist/anti-intellectual purges throughout history. ---
**Author:** ![Cmyers1980](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyers1980/32/11814_2.png) [@Cmyers1980](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cmyers1980)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2024, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-so-attractive-about-fascism/1003701/91 "2024-07-09T13:01:25Z")
Why does anyone ally themselves with an evil ideology? They don’t see it as evil, they don’t know how evil it is or they think it’s better than the alternative. Human beings are fundamentally the same today as they were thousands of years ago and we’re closer to apes than angels so it shouldn’t be too surprising. ---
**Author:** ![OldOlds](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a3d4f5/32.png) [@OldOlds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldOlds)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2024, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-so-attractive-about-fascism/1003701/92 "2024-07-09T13:09:49Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > But you see, when we point out that they **do** benefit from redistributive policies, it sounds to them like we’re rubbing it in their face that they do get a handout, In my experience they simply deny it- literally call it fake news. > [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > Trump/republicans have never, ever delivered on this “promise.” Not even close. In fact, they have made it worse than the dems ever would have. As I’ve pointed out before, I think many here at the Dope are in their own bubble. Head on over to one of the Trumpy sites and you’ll see endless posts about how much better everything was under Trump. The border was closed. Gas was $2/gallon. No wars. And I’m not making any of that up. We all know we live in a post-truth world. There are websites that will tell you what you want to hear, all you need to do is choose to believe it. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2024, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-so-attractive-about-fascism/1003701/93 "2024-07-09T16:47:44Z")
Lots of good responses to this topic, I can’t say that anyone is incorrect. My two cents is that it all comes down to resentment and bigotry. People feel that they aren’t getting their fair share of the pie, however they define it. They don’t like the fact that they’re working hard and not seeing as much fruit of their labors as they think they deserve- they’d get more money if they didn’t have to compete with women and minorities in the workplace, they’d pay lower taxes if the government wasn’t providing limitless services to immigrants, they’d be more comfortable in their own religion and their own sexuality if there weren’t other choices that other people were making. Things aren’t perfect and it’s all “their” fault. There are plenty of “theirs” to point fingers at- people with different color skin, different faiths, different preferences, and so on. The fact that these others exist and are able do so freely and thus continually remind them that their way is not the only way pisses them off. They develop hatred for these people for taking a slice of the pie and for not being cut from the same cloth. What good is freedom if “other” people have it too? So they embrace strongmen that tell them that they are perfect and their troubles and shortcomings can be traced to someone else, and it’s the existence of these others that threatens their way of life. Faced with the choice of having the freedom to be different and of ridding the world of the “others”, they’ll enthusiastically choose fascism- so long as it’s oppressing the correct people of course. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2024, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-so-attractive-about-fascism/1003701/94 "2024-07-09T18:44:10Z")
Going back to basics, humans are both highly migratory and inquisitive, but also territorial and tribalistict. So of course there’s going to be conflict. Resolving this conflict can be via old-fashioned primate behavior based on aggression and deception (both hallmarks of Fascism), or by working it out with something everyone can live with. Posters to this thread point to the rural/urban divide. But British Fascism was an urban affair both with Oswald Mosely’s 1930s corner-boys and the fascistic 1980s football hooligans. My family lived in rural America during the Great Depression. No Fascist yearnings then: they welcomed big government aid like manna from heaven. The “we wuz robbed” motivation, harkening to a mythical, thwarted past is applied to post-WWI Germany, but doesn’t always work. Two WWI victors and two neutrals (Spain and Portugal) fell for it too. One loser, Turkey, didn’t buy into all the claptrap, but instead went in for racism and authoritarianism on a purely pragmatic basis, as did their former Arab colonies. This suggests there’s a lot of PR involved, and not inevitable social dynamics. That PR relies on the mean monkey basics. There’s not a lot of useful philosophy in fascism. At least Communism had its germ in Hegel, via Marx and then Lenin. Fascism is not cerebral, but simpleminded and flashy. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2024, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-so-attractive-about-fascism/1003701/95 "2024-07-09T18:50:45Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > That PR relies on the mean monkey basics. There’s not a lot of useful philosophy in fascism. At least Communism had its germ in Hegel, via Marx and then Lenin. Fascism is not cerebral, but simpleminded and flashy. Although it was only a minor element and not the basis of its popularity in Germany, Nazism seemed to have a degree of flat-out mysticism. To the point that the Nazis figure prominently in the lore of crackpots like hollow-earthers, the nuttier fringe of UFO believers, and para-Satanists. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2024, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-so-attractive-about-fascism/1003701/96 "2024-07-09T18:57:55Z")
True, and the roots of Nazism (separate from Fascism) were in the same 19th C. Woo that gave us Mormonism, Madam Blavatsky Theophism, Metaphysics, Conan Doyle holding seances, etc. Combine that with German reunification and industrialization and you get some dangerous shit. ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2024, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-so-attractive-about-fascism/1003701/97 "2024-07-09T21:37:11Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > German reunification I think yoiu mean unification, right? And to answer the title of the OP: It works. For a while. And for a given value of ‘works.’ The following will be all anecdotal. In the 90’s I lived in Spain with a Spanish GF. She was 17 when Franco died and had very clear memories on what it was like living under fascist rule. Her family was on the republican (i.e. losing) side of the cicil war and what little they owned was confiscated in the aftermath. We talked about it and about her thoiughts on Franco. Did she hate him? Well yes. In an abstract way. Because that ws the way she was brought up. But in her everyday life - no, not really. Spain was really, really poor, which is - IMO - the main reason it (and to an extent Italy) was the first country in Europe to experience true mass tourism.1 Plane after plane arrived to the Islands and the coastal resorts becuae it was dirt cheap. Great climate, and cheap booze went a long way. And it was so safe too, hardly any crime… And that was the thing she remembered, very little crime. It felt safe. That safety was provide by Guardia Civil who simply vanished everything undesirable from pick-pockets and up. Nothing in court. And even if they were poor, as compared to the _guiris,_2 everyone, I stress that _everyone_ had a job. And owned their home (because people with mortgages are not likely to take to the street. Seriously). When I say that everyone had a job, I mean men. Women didn’t have jobs. They raised babies. In fact, they couldn’t even leave the country oin their own. They could only travel with a _pater familias_ who got the woman’s name in his passport. So: A roof over your head, a job - low paying but enough to feed the family and pay the mortgage - and low crime rates. That was quite enough and lasted 36 years. Because the oppression was not overt. I get the impression that a lot of Americans in this thread see fascism as something like a mix of the Nuremberg rally and _Kristallnacht_. It might be. But there are +350 million of you in the third largest country in the world. I’d venture that “soft” fascism, as Franco did, would work better for the presumptive dictator to remain in control. Even Putin holds “elections” and provide the masses with bread and circuses. Obv. Agent Orange isn’t smart enough, but the architects behind project 2025 are. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/NpLpOtFNFWg/maxresdefault.jpg "Aftermath") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpLpOtFNFWg) 1 Spain had 85 mkillion tourists in 2023, behind France (100M). But Spain’s population is about 2/3 of France. 2 Gringos, sort of. But in Spain. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2024, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-so-attractive-about-fascism/1003701/98 "2024-07-11T11:41:44Z")
By coincidence, here’s a new article about resistance to change in a small town. It’s not about fascism at all, but it does speak directly to the “sitting out in the sticks clinging to the old way of life” mentality that’s come up a few times in the thread. > **[A Brand-New Electric Bus, No Charge. (That Was One Problem.)](https://www.yahoo.com/news/brand-electric-bus-no-charge-114102258.html)** > > WYMORE, Neb. — The matter before the school board was straightforward. The tiny school district in Wymore, Nebraska, needed a new school bus to replace one so old and beat-up that it was used only to ferry the football team back and forth to the... They’re all worked up because … the school got an electric bus. An electric bus. Sure, they may raise a few valid concerns here and there, as they examine their new conveyance. But instead of looking at it as an opportunity to grow and learn and adapt, the reaction is consistently “this looks hard and difficult, let’s just go back.” Folks like this aren’t really doing a lot to counter the “stubborn yokels” stereotype. And it’s not a great leap to think they’d be attracted to a leader who promises to keep the change at bay. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2024, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-so-attractive-about-fascism/1003701/99 "2024-07-11T11:49:56Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > Folks like this aren’t really doing a lot to counter the “stubborn yokels” stereotype. Especially when it’s reported by “Yahoo News” 😉 ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2024, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-so-attractive-about-fascism/1003701/100 "2024-07-11T12:08:38Z")
An Electric Bus is what you get when you cross The Electric Company with The Magic School Bus. Or maybe The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test with The Magic Bus > **[The Electric Company](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Electric_Company)** > > The Electric Company is an American educational children's television series produced by the Children's Television Workshop (CTW, now known as Sesame Workshop). It was co-created by Paul Dooley, Joan Ganz Cooney, and Lloyd Morrisett. The series aired on PBS for 780 episodes over the course of its six seasons from October 25, 1971, to April 15, 1977. The program continued in reruns until October 4, 1985. The Electric Company later reran on Noggin, a channel co-founded by the CTW, from 1999 to 2... > **[The Magic School Bus (book series)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magic_School_Bus_(book_series))** > > The Magic School Bus is a series of children's books about science, written by Joanna Cole and illustrated by Bruce Degen. Designed for ages 6-9, they feature the antics of Ms. Valerie Felicity Frizzle and her class, who board a sentient anthropomorphic Type A school bus which takes them on field trips to impossible locations, including the solar system, clouds, the past, and the human body. The books are written in the first person from the point of view of an unnamed student in "the Friz's" cl... > **[The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Electric_Kool-Aid_Acid_Test)** > > The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test is a 1968 nonfiction book by Tom Wolfe written in the New Journalism literary style. By 1970, this style began to be referred to as Gonzo Journalism, a term coined for the work of Hunter S. Thompson. The book presents a firsthand account of the experiences of Ken Kesey and a group of psychedelic enthusiasts, known as the Merry Pranksters, who traveled across the United States in a colorfully-painted school bus they called Furthur. Kesey and the Pranksters b Wolfe... > **[Furthur (bus)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Furthur_(bus))** > > Furthur is a 1939 International Harvester school bus purchased by author Ken Kesey in 1964 to carry his "Merry Band of Pranksters" cross-country, filming their counterculture adventures as they went. The bus featured prominently in Tom Wolfe's 1968 book The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test but, due to the chaos of the trip and editing difficulties, footage of the journey was not released as a film until the 2011 documentary Magic Trip. > Kesey traveled to New York City in November 1963 with his wife Fa... > **[Magic Bus (song)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Bus_(song))** > > "Magic Bus" is a song recorded by British rock band the Who. It was written by their guitarist Pete Townshend during the time that their debut album My Generation was being recorded in 1965. However, it was not recorded until 1968, when it was released as a single on 27 July 1968 in the United States and Canada, followed by its release in the United Kingdom on 11 October 1968. It has become one of the band's most popular songs and has been a concert staple, although when released, the record o Th... [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-so-attractive-about-fascism/1003701.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-so-attractive-about-fascism/1003701.md?page=6)