Award-winning online journalist David Neiwert has published a lengthy series of essays touching on a topic intending to start what may the most important--if the most improbable--conversation to be had in the contemporary West: Is Fascism a real and growing force in the United States of America?
Neiwert's series of essays touch on a comprehensive and cohesive number of relevant points, but the most profound might be his jab against those--mostly on the left--who have abused the term "fascism," caused its meaning to be eroded into a more simple synonym of "totalitarian" or even "bad," and rendered earnest inqury into the rise of American corporatism/fascism essentially untenable.
"Fascism" has come to be a nearly useless term in the past 30 years or so. In many respects, leftists are most responsible for this degradation; it became so common to lob the word at just about anyone conservative or corporatist in the 1960s and 1970s that its original meaning -- describing a very distinct political style, if not quite philosophy -- became utterly muddled, at least in the public lexicon….
At the same time, it’s important for Americans of all stripes – liberal or conservative –have a clear view of what fascism is, because it is not an extinct political force, and it is above all anti-democratic and anti-American in spirit. This essay is in some regards a plea, particularly to those on the left who have used the term willy nilly to score shrill partisan political points to cease abusing the word ‘fascism,’ learn what it means, and apply it only when it’s appropriate.
Indeed, the rise of fascism in America needs to be openly discussed--pheonomenologically, rather than as a conscious movement (there clearly is no Fascist Party). This can't be done if the lexical toolbox has been emptied by overzealous and counterproductive past politicization of language.
Neiwert's essays are neither perfect nor exactly what you or I would have written, but they are both detailed and broad enough to serve as a good launching pad for a real concerted inquiry into the nature and course of American corporatism.
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