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An inherent contradiction?

The lead of the article sets out an extremely detailed and very broad definition of fascism, selecting references that support the authors' arguments. Then the next section admits that there is no agreed definition of fascism, and that authoritative (at least, referenced) views of what it is differ to the extent that no broadly agreed definition is possible.

I shall make the radical suggestion that there is no generic or accepted definition of fascism, nor can there be in terms of how the word has entered general usage. The possible exception is the Italian regime of 1922-1943 led by Benito Mussolini which (as I understand it) styled itself Fascism. Other than that, I suggest that all definitions of fascism are essentially descriptions of political and economic systems to which the authors of those definitions are opposed, i.e. expressions of authorial opinion. This is not the purpose of WP.

I do not suggest that all is lost. Authoritarian political systems, for example, can be defined in ways that meet broad agreement, even if individuals disagree whether particular systems are or are not authoritarian. Democracy, Autarky and other politico-economic manifestations can be defined similarly. Fascism can't.

This can be regarded as a plea for humility from WP, i.e. an acceptance that it cannot be the arbiter of a definition that can never achieve more than partisan acceptance. A true definition, I suggest, would be 'a term of abuse for a variety of politico-economic systems, used by parties opposed to them.' You could then go on to include examples. Italian (1922-1943) Fascism would be a separate topic, since there is no causal or other connection. Chrismorey (talk) 13:17, 7 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I would take this more seriously if the next section had not been Etomolgy, which does not discuss anything about no agreed definition. Slatersteven (talk) 13:21, 7 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Mussolini's government identified fascist movements in 39 countries and invited them to a fascist international, at which 13 attended. Certainly people self-identified as fascist beyond Italy. Mussolini had laid out the central tenets of fascism in The Doctrine of Fascism. Americans abuse the term socialist also, that does not mean it is meaningless. TFD (talk) 13:58, 9 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

How is Fascism "opposed to … anarchism"?

Wikipedia literally has an entire article dedicated to National Anarchism, known in popular culture as Anarcho-Fascism, yet it manages to claim that Fascism is "opposed to … anarchism". MicholIsUsed (talk) 13:42, 19 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Anarcho-Fascism is not considered a form of anarchism. TFD (talk) 13:54, 19 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Welcome to Meinong's jungle. Generalrelative (talk) 15:38, 19 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Not far-right nor far-left

Fascism couldn't be considered far left or far right, as it's actually very close to the centre of economical spectre. Some sources indeed deem F. as a far-right ideology, but lacks of any valid argumentation. We just better avoid highlighting it's economical stance in the lede. Chronophobos (talk) 19:19, 6 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Read FAQ. Also this is not a forum. YBSOne (talk) 19:22, 6 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I agree whole heartedly. I actually once edited it to remove the line about right wing. This is a clearly inaccurate, biased line that should be removed. CAVincent readded it when I removed it. His user page is one sentence, "I live in Seattle, Washington." I think that says all you need to know about CAVincent & where his politics are.Johnny Spasm (talk) 09:14, 28 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
"his politics" nor his user page have nothing to do about it. Neither does your opinion not based in sources. You should also read FAQ before editing such contentious topic. YBSOne (talk) 10:14, 28 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I don't see a source for the line 'far right'. As an American with far right beliefs, I take exception with that description. Given the Biden administrations attempt to form the "Disinformation Governance Board" & the suppression of news on social media, I would argue that it is the far left in America that displays more fascist values than the far right.Johnny Spasm (talk) 04:10, 31 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
This is bias based on your personal, disinformed opinion rather than reliable sources. YBSOne (talk) 10:41, 31 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
The inclusion of far-right in the lead sentence has strong consensus behind it. This is discussed in the FAQ and in the talk page archives; for example, this RfC resulted in clear consensus for inclusion. It's possible for consensus to change, but that is not at all evident in this discussion. Editing against consensus is disruptive, and I hope users who are doing so, including Johnny Spasm, will stop edit warring and start the important work of
  • gathering sources that dispute "far-right"
  • compiling counterarguments against the sources that do
  • and reading the prior discussions to avoid reusing arguments that have been countered in the past.
I continue to support inclusion of "far-right", and the sources cited at the end of the first paragraph make it clear that this is a widely discussed fact in many of the best available sources. Firefangledfeathers (talk / contribs) 13:22, 31 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Ultra-conservativism in National Socialism

The lede of this article says that Fascism is a 'far-right' ideology. The page soon says that Adolf Hitler is a Fascist. The lede of the far-right politics page says that the 'far-right' tends to be 'radically conservative'. The lede of ultraconservativism says that 'ultraconservativism' refers to 'extreme conservativism' and finnaly the lede of conservativism says it 'seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values.' We can piece this all together to say that, according to Wikipedia, Adolf Hitler (arguably the creator of National Socialism) seeks to 'preserve traditional institutions, customs and values', but since he is said to be an 'ultraconservative', he wants to basically not change anything of traditional institutions, customs or values.

This is directly contradicted not only by evidence of most Nazi-period historians, but also by Wikipedia itself, which says numerous times that Hitler and the National Socialists desired expansion into Eastern Europe in order to conquer living space (Lebensraum) for the survival of the 'Aryan race'; a 'New Order', which rejects the idea of them desiring to 'preserve traditional institutions'; (though some disagree) the National Socialists also rejected Christianity (or at least it being a fundemental part of their ideology) and thus can not be labaled as desiring to '[preserve traditional] customs'. Finally, the National Socialists did promote '[traditional] values' in the sense that they promoted 'traditional' family dynamics, but, importantly, only in 'Aryan' families. Other than that, traditional (Christian) values like 'you shall not murder' were encouraged, once again, only in the 'Aryan' community.

This is why I believe that the 'far-right' part of the lede for Fascism should either be removed or there should be a disclaimer that only some Fascist movements aspire 'ultraconservativism'. MicholIsUsed (talk) 17:57, 9 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The word "conservative" is not used in the lede of this article, and the tension of fascism vs. traditional conservatism is already discussed in the "tenets" section, so I'm not sure what you actually want to be changed. Writ Keeper ⚇♔ 18:38, 9 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Okay, I changed my mistake. I guess the word 'far-right' shouldn’t be used in this article then, since as I explained, there is nothing 'ultraconservative' about National Socialism. MicholIsUsed (talk) 14:09, 10 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

RS say otherwise. Slatersteven (talk) 14:21, 10 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Please use striking and inserting to amend your comment, so that Writ Keeper's reply still makes sense. As for the rest, please see the FAQ. Firefangledfeathers (talk / contribs) 14:14, 10 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
In addition to everything Firefangledfeathers correctly says: "tends to be" is not the same as "equals exactly", so your entire chain of logic falls apart at the first link; "far-right tends to be radically conservative" means it is usually ultraconservative, but does not have to be precisely that. (There are many other problems with your logic, but since this is a talk page for improving the article and not a debating club, I'll leave it at that.) Writ Keeper ⚇♔ 14:19, 10 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

'tends to be' means that it usually is ultrsconservative. So if it isn’t 'ultraconservative', as 'far-right' ideologies 'tend to be', maybe the page shouldn’t state so confidently that Nazism is 'far-right'. And please explain my othee falsehoods as I am trying to improve the page by this discussion. MicholIsUsed (talk) 15:10, 10 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

We go by what RS say, RS say it is a far-right ideology. Slatersteven (talk) 15:16, 10 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

What is RS? MicholIsUsed (talk) 19:09, 10 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Reliable sources. Please re-read the glossary before proceeding. - Sumanuil. (talk to me) 01:32, 11 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Definition

The current definition shows bias. A much better alternative would be the Merriam-Webster #1 [Fascism]https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/fascism-meaning-and-history.

The right v. left issue is not solvable because it is dependent on the definition of extreme right. It is like + or - infinity in mathematics. They can be considered the same point: fascism is then right wing but anarchism is neither right or left. Or, they can be an infinite distance apart: Then anarchism is right wing but fascism is neither right or left.

I suggest that the article discuss this question rather than taking a position.

Clearly fascism is not left wing. There is a distinction between totalitarian and authoritarian. Tyrerj (talk) 05:10, 24 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Please read the notice you had to scroll past to post this. - Sumanuil. (talk to me) 05:30, 24 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The position we take is what most RS say, this is one source. Slatersteven (talk) 10:23, 24 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
This is probably going to come up a few times as John F. Kelly#Donald Trump's comments on Adolf Hitler featured him quoting this article's lead sentence word-for-word. I mean, I can see that it is an ongoing issue but the volume may go up for a few days. Just Step Sideways from this world ..... today 21:14, 24 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Is it time to add more contemporary examples?

I believe it would be quite imprudent to only update this page with examples of people who are only considered fascist in retrospect. Modern populist right-wing surges, spearheaded by the American MAGA movement, meet almost every commonly cited and authoritative definition of fascism.

I honestly believe anything short of adding fascist as a political ideology to the pages of Donald Trump and under the “factions” section of the Republican Party info box’s “ideology” section constitutes neutrality bias. At the very least, there should be discussion about Trump’s role within fascism in the article. Sitbear (talk) 03:27, 26 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

As always, we go by what reliable sources have already reported, not our own opinions. Just Step Sideways from this world ..... today 03:49, 26 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
As with the above, we go by RS, and we need to take into account wp:notnews and wp:primary, this is an election year.So we need to rely on proper analysis, and not political rhetoric. Slatersteven (talk) 10:25, 26 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
This discussion happens a lot but in short the label of fascist where Trump is concerned is disputed. We should only add examples where it's more unambiguous. — Czello (music) 11:53, 26 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
It is certainly disputed, but it is not at all ambiguous. I’ll try to find some reliable sources.Sitbear (talk) 10:47, 27 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
There isn't a credible source that has ever called Donald Trump a fascist.Johnny Spasm (talk) 04:12, 31 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Is his former chief of staff not "credible"? - Sumanuil. (talk to me) 09:31, 31 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
The first sentence of the article calls Fascism right wing. This isn't sourced. I merely posted that I would like to see that sourced, and someone who admits on his own user page that he is a socialist removed it. Simply put, everything on Wikipedia should be sourced, and an accusation like that definitely should be.Johnny Spasm (talk) 09:37, 31 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I would have thought someone with 6,000 edits would be able to read citations by now. The phrase "fascism is placed on the far right-wing within the traditional left–right spectrum" (also in the first paragraph) is cited by references #5-7, the last of which has thirteen reliable sources. Black Kite (talk) 12:29, 31 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
First seven sources, including multiple books are a source. They just contradict your biased opinion. YBSOne (talk) 12:52, 31 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Is this article under 1RR

There's an edit notice for this article saying that the one-revert rule applies. This was enacted in 2009 after this discussion. Current administrative practice is that 1RR can be applied by the community via discussion at a place like WP:AN or by admins who are empowered by community-imposed general sanctions or ArbCom-imposed contentious topics. I don't think any of those apply here, and both EdJohnston and Daniel Case have suggested this current restriction is not enforceable. Should we remove the edit notice? Firefangledfeathers (talk / contribs) 13:30, 31 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

At this point in the world, and especially given the specific nature of the recent disruption (not just from one user), AMPOL could apply. Writ Keeper ⚇♔ 13:32, 31 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Aye, it might be worth not messing with it for a couple of weeks. Black Kite (talk) 13:34, 31 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Instead of not messing with it, could we get an uninvolved admin to take over the restriction explicitly under AP CT? We'd use the standard edit notice template, add a talk page notice, and log it at AELOG. Firefangledfeathers (talk / contribs) 13:35, 31 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Fascism is NOT Far Right

The editor has been pblocked from the article for persistent disruption.

The intro to this article says that it is right wing. I removed that, it was put back. I put a request for citation[citation needed], that was removed. Then I got blocked. The irony is amazing. People are acting like fascists on fascism's page. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Johnny Spasm (talk • contribs)

It is well documented and discussed here in great depth as noted in the red box at the top of this page. Your statement that people here act like fascists is a WP:PA which is unwise, particularly when blocked. O3000, Ret. (talk) 01:19, 1 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
This is extremely tiresome and I suggest we simply come up with a boilerplate response and speedy close all future threads of this nature. "I don't think it is" is not an argument that needs to be repsonded to over and over and over again. Just Step Sideways from this world ..... today 02:43, 1 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
and yet, you have still failed to provide a single evidence to back up your claim. YBSOne (talk) 09:49, 1 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
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