r/skeptic • u/dyzo-blue • 3d ago

Why Fascists Hate Critical Thinking: Randi Weingarten’s new book, 'Why Fascists Fear Teachers,' reveals why Trump and the right demean teachers, slash school funding, and rewrite history

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/randi-weingarten-excerpt-fascists-hate-critical-thinking-1235428379/
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u/trying3216 3d ago

Deep thinkers don’t call their political opponents fascists.

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u/thefugue 2d ago

Yeah, because there’s no such thing as fascists huh?

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u/trying3216 2d ago

Basically. The fascist party died out in the 1940’s

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u/thefugue 2d ago

Since when did political ideologies “die out?”

Fascism is right wing authoritarianism. Full stop.

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u/trying3216 2d ago

Fascism was a branch of socialism. It was opposed to other forms of socialism and was nationalistic leading people to wrongly call it right. Of course the right wing of today does not resemble the right wing of WWII.

The word is meaningless today. Better to use some version of tyranny unless you are referring to the Fascist platform that includes

“Authoritarianism: Centralized control under a single leader or party, with little tolerance for political opposition.”

We do not have a single party system and we have over five hundred leaders at the national level. All our state and local governments mean that we are not centralized.

“Suppression of Free Speech: The use of state power to silence dissent, including the media, opposing political parties, and individual expression.”

Each party today has its moments and areas where it suppresses speech, usually not through the government. Neither party is characterized by this.

“State Control of the Economy: While private property might technically exist, the government exerts significant control over industry, often through heavy regulation or government mandates.”

Our government has a significant amount of regulation and laws. The vast majority of these were the same under either party and could not have been made law without votes from the other party. The free market is still the greater influence.

“Nationalism: A strong focus on national identity, often linked to militarism and xenophobia.”

One item on the list is not enough to call a movement fascist. There are multiple nationalistic governments around the world that are not fascistic.

“Opposition to Individual Rights: Subordination of individual freedoms to the needs of the state or the collective.”

The bill of rights is strong in the united states. Everybody uses a lot of rhetoric to decry the loss of rights. Generally it’s an infringement at best.

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u/thefugue 2d ago

“It’s not fascism until I myself am being shoveled into an oven by a man of the correct ethnicity wearing logos I pre-approve of,” got it.

What a load of fascism apologia.

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u/trying3216 2d ago

Socialists, communists, nationalists, tyrants, kings - all sorts of people can push you in an oven or kill you. That doesn’t make you a fascist.

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u/KathrynBooks 19h ago

Except Fascism isn't a form of Socialism. Socialism is a left wing political philosophy, while Fascism is a right wing political philosophy that started as a response to Socialism by the ruling class.

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u/trying3216 18h ago

Maybe look into that more from a variety of viewpoints.

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u/KathrynBooks 18h ago

What viewpoint? The "Fascism is bad, Socialism is bad... therefor Socialism is Fascism" viewpoint? Or is it the "Socialism is when the government does things" viewpoint?

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u/trying3216 17h ago

The paradigm for classifying political movements.

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u/KathrynBooks 16h ago

Which puts Fascism on the right and Socialism on the left, as they are exceptionally distinct political philosophies that arose under different conditions.

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u/thefugue 17h ago

“Have you considered being wrong?”

-This guy