>>> Max Sawicky
> . . .
> Bourgeois ideological blurring
> of the definition of fascism is
> Demogogy 101. . . .
Merry Christmas to you too.
____________
Charles: I don't celebrate Christmas
Despotism is not the same thing as fascism. As William Lear would say, sloppy definitions are not a help to the political project. Mao, who you quoted, did not espouse a fascist ideology. He espoused revolutionary war, which includes, of course, the use of terror by the working classes for their self -liberation.
I mean if you are only talking about ideology, as you say, Mao is not at all an example of fascist ideology, exactly because class dimensions are so critical in defining fascist ideology, and Mao's class ideology is the complete opposite of that of the fascists.
A main problem with the fascists' ideology is that they are arch-demogogues or liars. What they say, their "ideology" is cannot be discussed in the way other ideologies are because the level of their demogogy is such that their words are riddled with gross lies. It is like studying the "ideology" of organized crime. "Ideology" imputes some measure of good faith in the holder of the ideology.
Fascists are political gangsters hired by the monopoly bourgeoisie to fight communism and the working class, using open terrorist rule in derogation of the bourgeois democratic/republican institutions themselves. This is not the preferred form of bourgeois rule, but used in desparation. Fascism is an extreme form of state-monopoly capitalism, the closer alliance between the ruling financial oligarchy and the bourgeois state that came about with the imperialist phase.
The despotisms that have arisen in socialist countries are not politically correct, but it is important to analyze them differently from bourgeois forms of despotism.
All Power to the People,
Charles Brown
Detroit