Since I know no one is going to read my thread "When Fascism comes to America..." I'll just make a slightly different one that has the same message, but MUCH less words. There's a book out there called "Liberal Fascism" by Jonah Goldberg. It's sort of revisionist history, but not the bullshit kind of revisionist history where a vague NWO group has been pulling strings for the last 3 millenia or something. Nope. It's just a dull (i've never really enjoyed reading history textbooks, and this 90% of this book sure does read like one), but very interesting book where Jonah points out the flaws of Liberals calling Conservatives Fascists, when it's really quite the other way around. It's like 400 pages, so... kind of a hefty book, but not as unbearably long as, say, Atlas Shrugged or something. I highly recommend this book. It will truly change your whole perspective on things. I'm not saying it'll change you from being a liberal to conservative. It won't, not even a little. It'll just make you realize how truly "fascist" liberalism is. It's not conservative propaganda, it's just... non-liberal literature. Hell, it's not even anti-liberal, it just goes back and shows how so intertwined fascism and liberalism is (which I guess is technically anti-liberal, but it really isn't.)
Good book. Bit of a tough one to sit through, but that's because I don't really like the guys style. The info's good though
Goldberg's book has been disputed by many experts in the field of historical fascism. He makes assertions such as "Hitler supported abortion, Liberals support abortion, therefore Liberals are fascist." but he conveniently omits such things as "Republicans believe in breaking up labor unions, Hitler actively broke up labor unions..." It's not so much as revisionist history as selectivist history. He draws parallels, many times straining credulity to achieve connections, but he fails to make other much easier connections when they don't fit his main assertion of the book. Fascism is fascism. Liberalism is liberalism. Conservatism is conservatism. Fascism shares some characteristic with Liberalism and it shares some characteristics with Conservatism. But that doesn't mean that is either Conservatism or Liberalism. A bird shares some characteristics with a butterfly, it also shares some characteristics with a lizard. But that doesn't mean that a bird is either a butterfly or a lizard. It is what it is. It feels good to compare someone you disagree with to someone that most people universally disagree with, but that doesn't make it the truth.
I'm with Sir Elliot on this one. You definitely haven't read the book because he informs the reader several times that he is NOT calling liberals fascists, or that if you support the environment or socialized medicine you are a crypto-nazi. He very rarely draws those conclusions in his book, he simply explains with historical accuracy that certain fascist policies implemented by historical figures are strikingly similar to certain liberal policies being implemented and/or supported today, and that many liberal policies would be considered fascist and many fascist policies considered liberal by modern standards. It's really just a history book. He also states specifically in his book that it is important to "distinguish between the symptoms and the disease", so your bit about birds and lizards also informs me that you haven't read the book personally. Edit: Also, I don't recall Goldberg ever talking about Hitler and abortion, either. Although I may be mistaken, that simply tells me yet again that you didn't read the book. Edit #2: Actually, after reading this book, I feel like if the Holocaust had never happened (this another point Goldberg talks about in his book), liberals and progressives would be just as willing to tie themselves to Nazi's and fascists as they were in the 1930's. H.G. Wells, one of the greatest influences on the progressive mind in the 20th century, told the Young Liberals at Oxford in a speech in July 1932 that Progressives must become "liberal fascists" and "enlightened Nazis". So, do you still believe liberals universally disagree with nazism? I'm not saying they support the Holocaust (no one does), but they definitely agree on several issues.