Fascism is a political philosophy in which the national leader is a dictator, usually favoring a specific race, such as Mussolini[1] and Hitler did,[2] “in which individual interests would be subordinated to the good of the nation.”[3] Fascism is supported by a centrally controlled socialist/capitalist economy in which the dictator holds the ultimate, sovereign governing power within capitalist companies, overriding any and all other shareholders or leaders. The Third Reich was called the national socialist German Workers’ Party.[4] The fundamental principles laid down for the party contain numerous purely socialist ideas to be implemented in Germany by and under the Third Reich.[5]
The state, the dictator, is the supreme shareholder who can make micro and macro-level decisions that determine the ultimate direction and future of all privately owned entities. Typically, in capitalist free countries, companies control production, but in fascism, this control is not absolute. Shareholder capitalism, as seen in America and most Western societies, which rejects the state as the supreme shareholder, is opposed by fascist leaders. Consequently, there is little difference between fascist capitalism and what Klaus Schwab calls “state capitalism” in communist countries.
Moreover, unlike American patriotism and love of country, genuine fascists do not fight for free speech, equal rights, “Freedom of the press, expression in general, freedom of conscience, personal dignity, [and] intellectual freedom.”[6] “They are like their predecessors, the racial nationalists in Germany, [who] denied equality, scorned toleration, and dismissed the idea of the oneness of humanity.”[7] They do not patriotically support electoral democracy, a republic government, or the rule of constitutional law in which governance ultimately resides in “We the People.” Neither the people nor the news media can relentlessly malign a fascist dictator’s character or regime and remain free or even alive. Fascism subdues personal liberties like those enshrined in the Bill of Rights to the dictator’s choosing, thereby subjugating personal liberties to the fascist dictator. Therefore, patriotism and fascism are mutually exclusive.[8]
[1] “Anti-Semitism was not a major concern of the Italian people in modern Italy until Mussolini introduced it. Mussolini combined anti-Semitism and racism to form the Fascist racial policy.” Italy and the Holocaust Foundation, s.v. “Italian Racial Laws,” accessed January 22, 2025, http://www.italyandtheholocaust.org/italian-racial-laws.aspx.
[2] “In Germany, the Nazis promoted this false notion that glorified the German people as members of the ‘Aryan race.’ At the same time, they denigrated Jews, Black people, and Roma. View this term in the glossary (Gypsies) as ‘non-Aryans.’ Encyclopedia.Ushmm.org, s.v. “Aryans” accessed January 22, 2025, https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/aryan-1.
[3] Robert Soucy, s.v., “Fascism,” December 19, 2024, in Britannica.com, accessed January 21, 2025, https://www.britannica.com/topic/fascism.
[4] Encyclopedia.Ushmm.org, s.v. “Nazi Party Platform,” accessed May 26, 2026, https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/nazi-party-platform.
[5] Encyclopedia.Ushmm.org, s.v. “Nazi Party Platform.”
[6] Exhibitions.Ushmm.org/Propaganda, “The Weapons of Dictatorship: Terror and Propaganda,” accessed February 16, 2025, https://exhibitions.ushmm.org/propaganda/1933-1939-dictatorship/german-responses-to-the-nazi-takeover-of-power.
[7] Frederick M. Schweitzer and Marvin Perry, Antisemitism: Myth and Hate from Antiquity to the Present, 111.
[8] A Republic government is defined as “a state in which the supreme power rests in the body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by representatives chosen directly or indirectly by them.” Dictionary.com, s.v. “republic,” accessed January 22, 2025, https://www.dictionary.com/browse/republic.
