Fascism and Marxism are very, very similar ideologies. This idea that they’re polar opposites is literally nothing more than Soviet propaganda. The founder of Fascism, Benito Mussolini, was a full blown Marxist for a good chunk of his life. He was a socialist advocate who wanted to overthrow European monarchies and establish socialism. He was originally anti-war like a lot of the other socialists at the time, but he came to the realization that war could bring about the social climate necessary for the socialist revolution to spread all over Europe. When he told this to his socialist party members, they kicked him out, and that’s when he created Fascism as his own alternative to the socialist movements at the time.
The reality is that Marx and Engels were both notorious authoritarians that were pro-violence, pro-oppression, and pro-underhanded tactics as long as they were in the name of the revolution. Marx and Engels are actually well documented on just how much they mocked, criticized, and insulted peaceful socialists during their times. They thought they were naive fools. The Marxist doctrine explicitly lays out three steps:
Violent overthrow of capitalism to clean the slate and start a new societal fabric
Dictatorship of the proletariat, aka, an authoritarian socialist state that rules with an iron fist on behalf of the workers to bring about the changes necessary to achieve communism
Actually achieving communism
As it turns out since utopias are just fantasies, they can’t actually be achieved, and so most Marxist states get stuck at step two. Marxism is an ideology that is inherently violent, oppressive, authoritarian, hateful, and flawed. All those Marxist regimes were in fact Marxist. Mao Zedong for example followed Marx down to the letter. He did EVERYTHING he prescribed, and the results speak for themselves. This is just what Marxism is, this is what it always has been, and this is what always will be. It is a bad ideology in both theory and practice, and it is time to close the casket on this failed murderous ideology and move on to something else.
Not sure what you are basing any of this on. Marxism centres around class conflict and control over the means of production. Fascism centers around nationalism and militarism. Fascism also includes a belief in natural hierarchies which is quite the opposite to most Marxist ideologies.
The Soviet propaganda (Current day Russia actually uses a similar idea) is that anyone who opposes them are Nazies. The USSR had their own ideology cooked up by mostly Stalin, that where the vanguard party business comes from. Initially Stalin and Hitler were not in opposition at all, only when Hitler betrayed their treaty did they become opposing forces.
Initially yes, Marx wrote that achieving socialism requires a violent overthrow of the current system but in later writings he make mention of gradual reform also bring effective. Though he did favour revolution.
Dictatorship of the proletariat is a really badly chosen term but what it means is how society is structured in terms of power. The current system would be a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie in Marxist language, it just means who controls the means of production.
Mao Zedong followed Marxism-Leninism, the ideology cooked up by Stalin. Stalin twisted Marxist writing to end up with nationalism, militarism, imperialism, an enemy in the form of an other and quite a few other fascist principles. The guy was a fascist hiding behind socialist aesthetics in short.
I would agree that Stalin’s idea of Marxism is quite awful but there are like a hundred ideologies that have roots in the writings of Marx which are better than the current capitalist system that is leeching off the working class to enrich a few individuals that do not contribute much to society.
Fascism and Marxism are very, very similar ideologies. This idea that they’re polar opposites is literally nothing more than Soviet propaganda. The founder of Fascism, Benito Mussolini, was a full blown Marxist for a good chunk of his life. He was a socialist advocate who wanted to overthrow European monarchies and establish socialism. He was originally anti-war like a lot of the other socialists at the time, but he came to the realization that war could bring about the social climate necessary for the socialist revolution to spread all over Europe. When he told this to his socialist party members, they kicked him out, and that’s when he created Fascism as his own alternative to the socialist movements at the time.
The reality is that Marx and Engels were both notorious authoritarians that were pro-violence, pro-oppression, and pro-underhanded tactics as long as they were in the name of the revolution. Marx and Engels are actually well documented on just how much they mocked, criticized, and insulted peaceful socialists during their times. They thought they were naive fools. The Marxist doctrine explicitly lays out three steps:
As it turns out since utopias are just fantasies, they can’t actually be achieved, and so most Marxist states get stuck at step two. Marxism is an ideology that is inherently violent, oppressive, authoritarian, hateful, and flawed. All those Marxist regimes were in fact Marxist. Mao Zedong for example followed Marx down to the letter. He did EVERYTHING he prescribed, and the results speak for themselves. This is just what Marxism is, this is what it always has been, and this is what always will be. It is a bad ideology in both theory and practice, and it is time to close the casket on this failed murderous ideology and move on to something else.
Not sure what you are basing any of this on. Marxism centres around class conflict and control over the means of production. Fascism centers around nationalism and militarism. Fascism also includes a belief in natural hierarchies which is quite the opposite to most Marxist ideologies.
The Soviet propaganda (Current day Russia actually uses a similar idea) is that anyone who opposes them are Nazies. The USSR had their own ideology cooked up by mostly Stalin, that where the vanguard party business comes from. Initially Stalin and Hitler were not in opposition at all, only when Hitler betrayed their treaty did they become opposing forces.
Initially yes, Marx wrote that achieving socialism requires a violent overthrow of the current system but in later writings he make mention of gradual reform also bring effective. Though he did favour revolution.
Dictatorship of the proletariat is a really badly chosen term but what it means is how society is structured in terms of power. The current system would be a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie in Marxist language, it just means who controls the means of production.
Mao Zedong followed Marxism-Leninism, the ideology cooked up by Stalin. Stalin twisted Marxist writing to end up with nationalism, militarism, imperialism, an enemy in the form of an other and quite a few other fascist principles. The guy was a fascist hiding behind socialist aesthetics in short.
I would agree that Stalin’s idea of Marxism is quite awful but there are like a hundred ideologies that have roots in the writings of Marx which are better than the current capitalist system that is leeching off the working class to enrich a few individuals that do not contribute much to society.