Progressive Fascism: What is It?

Many people are just hearing about progressive fascism for the first time, so let's have a quick review of the phenomenon.

To understand liberal fascism, we need to understand some basic logic, using an example provided by Jonah Goldberg, the author of Liberal Fascism.

First, the logic:

A=B

B=C

Therefore, B=D

Perhaps you have seen this before under a different guise:

A=B

B=C

Therefore, A=C

This is not right. If A and B are the same, anything else under A or B (D) must be the same. For example:

Hitler liked puppies.

Liberals like puppies.

Therefore Liberals are Fascists.

The logic is inexorable.

Liberals don't want you to know about their Fascism because they don't know about their Fascism. By denying the historical roots of their party, they fail to understand fruit of its fascist flowering. Goldberg realized that when liberals call conservatives fascist, they are merely using the well-known Hitler technique called "Retroactive adhesion post hoc preventative accusation."* In other words, the only way to stop liberals from calling Goldberg's father a fascist was to call liberals (alias "progressives") fascist in return, only for real and not for made-up. This brilliant stroke of scholarship paved the way for others like Glenn Beck to spread the word that liberals are fascists.

But what is a fascist? According to Liberal Fascism, fascism is telling others what to do. Since liberals love to tell others what to do, of course they are fascist. Anyone who is part of the government and tells others what to do is therefore a fascist. That is why conservatives can't be fascist--they never want to tell anyone else what to do. Whether it's regulation, taxation or congressional oversight, you will never find a conservative telling anyone else what to do.

Some people mistakenly think conservatives want to tell others what they can and can't do in the bedroom, but that is not fascism because God tells conservatives what to tell everyone else to do, and everyone knows that God can't be fascist because he's not a liberal. QED.

But what do liberal fascists want? Goldberg says that fascism is a "progressive social movement," so logically any signs of social progress, such as a decline in unemployment, poverty or oppression, is fascist. Conservative philosopher Edmund Burke, the founder of conservative philosophy, declared:

We fear God, we look up with awe to kings; with affection to parliaments; with duty to magistrates; with reverence to priests; and with respect to nobility. Why? Because when such ideas are brought before our minds, it is natural to be so affected.

Unlike liberals, conservatives want everyone to know his place and stay there. Kings should be looked upon with awe, your government representatives with affection, and your social betters must be treated with great respect. Likewise the elite must insist that the lower orders stay in their place, for progress leads to change and change leads to fascism.

*"whatever my enemy says will be cast forth from him and return, always stuck to him"