I watched Tucker Carlson on Fox News yesterday explaining that the veto of Arizona bill 1062 amounts to supporting fascism:
CARLSON: Well it’s pretty simple. I mean, if you want to have a gay wedding, fine, go ahead. If I don’t want to bake you a cake for your gay wedding, that’s okay too. Or should be. That’s called tolerance. But when you try and force me to bake a cake for your gay wedding and threaten me with prison if I don’t, that’s called fascism.
As a reminder, 1062 allows businesses in Arizona to refuse service to gay couples. In fact, it’s already legal for businesses to discriminate against gay people in Arizona, since sexual orientation is not a protected category under state law.
I’m not here to debate the pros and cons of 1062, but I do take issues with Carlson’s understanding of “fascism.” I’m not sure what definition he’s using, but it’s not the same one that political scientists have used for decades.
So, in the interest of public service and to help out Tucker Carlson, I’m re-posting the link to a segment I did two years ago.
Fascist, Marxist, Socialist: The Misuse of Political Terms
You can take a listen to the whole segment there, and I’m including a transcript below as well. Never misuse “fascist” again.
You’re welcome.
In a season of high politics and low poll numbers, there’s a lot of heated talk… even more so in an age when the parties are so divided, even within themselves. Accusations and allegations fly, people sometimes play fast and loose with the language, and there’s something I’ve noticed about the name-calling going on. Maybe you can spot it…. take a listen…
[Sound of people using words like fascist, socialist, etc.]
If you guessed “incorrect use of political and economic terms, give yourself 5 points.” It drives me crazy! Both sides, all sides… so ready to use words like socialist or fascist, but never accurately. It got me wondering, do most Americans know what these things are?
“You keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means”
Give me a couple minutes of your time, and I can clear this all up for you. Call it the beginner’s guide to isms…
So let’s start with the guy that, in some sense, started it all. Our good friend Karl Marx. Its easy to identify a Marxist, that’s someone who believes in the philosophical or political ideas outlined by Karl Marx, basically the notion that class struggle is at the heart of social change in the civilized world. Less easy to tell you what Marxism is, since Karl changed his mind all the time, and he didn’t write about any one kind of political or economic system. So if you’re planning to call someone a Marxist any time soon, be sure you’re clear on whether he or she is a Western Marxist, a Structural Marxist, a Neo-Marxist, or maybe even part of the Frankfurt School. Or better yet…. maybe you should choose a different insult.
Now, when you study Marxism, you’re going to end up reading about perhaps the most popular insult in politics today – Socialists. Marx thought that socialism was one of the stages of society, what happens after the working class staged a revolution against the capitalists. But that’s not how it’s turned out in real life. Socialism is an economic system in which popularly elected councils decide how the economy should be run. And the workers own the means of production, but individuals own the products. To make it simpler, the state owns the auto plant, but an individual can own their own car.
The fact is, most first world nations use some socialist ideas. Our military is collective, so are our highways, and as Ron Paul points out, so are many other things…
Communist is another popular term bandied about in the halls of Congress and at campaign stops. Marx believed communism is what comes after socialism, and these two isms are similar, with some pretty important differences. Communism is more than economics. In communism, there are no classes, there is no religion. And instead of a popularly elected council, you have a single authoritarian party making all the decisions. And no personal property either. To go back to that earlier example, the people own the plant AND the cars in communism, and the ruling party decides how best to use them for the good of society.
We in America use a political system called democracy (that’s another ism, but I think most people get it already), with an economy that’s partly socialist and partly capitalist. Somehow, in the hands of an angry idealogue, both of those things can become derisive. So let’s quickly refresh our memories on what capitalism is. It does not mean robber barons running roughshod over the poor or the exploitation of the many for the benefit of the few. No, capitalism simply refers to an economic system in which some people own and control the means of production and the profits derived from it and a political system that encourages that.
And now we get to the big, bad ism. The granddaddy of political insults. That’s right… fascism.
Fascism is a system of government that’s dictatorial, with centralized, state control of private businesses. It’s repressive, nationalist, and usually violent. The first fascist government was Mussolini’s Italy, but the ultimate fascist, el numero uno, was Hitler, and calling someone a Nazi, or painting a little black mustache on their picture is the most convenient and most inappropriate insult used by both conservatives and liberals. No matter how much you hate something, your dislike doesn’t make it fascist.
So there, you have it. The beginner’s guide to modern isms. Now that you know, you’ll never call someone a communist again without good cause, right? Because that would be absurdism. Although I’m sure it’s inevitable… even if that’s fatalistic.