I’ve often said the popular belief that WW2 ended in the victory of “democracy” over fascism is wrong; it was actually a triumph of “soft” maternal fascism over “hard” paternal fascism. But since the fall of Soviet communism, the prevailing Western post WW2 fascism has hardened. Fascism is a system built on three legs: the political, the corporate, and the military/paramilitary. Corporations support politicians and political machines, and the politicians make laws advantageous to their sponsors. They also use the corporations to achieve social controls they are forbidden by their constitutions or practical considerations (such as censorship and surveillance). The cops and/or soldiers enforce the diktats of the politicians and protect corporate interests (which is why tax money is used to fund pursuit and punishment of petty shoplifters), and in turn their forces are increasingly funded and given privileges no other group has (like getting away with rape, robbery, mayhem and even murder). Natty uniforms and ugly racist rhetoric are window-dressing for fascism, not its defining characteristics; the reason these often show up is that they appeal to the kind of undeveloped, morally-primitive mind that make up large enough fractions of the human population to vote the fascists in and support their schemes.
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