Pseudo-intellectual Glen Beck tries to equate progressive thought to fascism

 
Glen Beck, the intellectual bantamweight of Fox news,  tries to compare American progressive thought to Italian fascism. As usual this right wing buffoon gets it wrong.

According to Wikipedia, Progressivism is a political and social term for ideologies and movements favoring or advocating changes or reform, usually in an egalitarian direction for economic policies (public management) and liberal direction for social policies.

Progressivism is often viewed in opposition to conservative ideologies. In the United States, the term progressivism emerged in the late 19th century into the 20th century in reference to vast changes brought by industrialization: an alternative to both the traditional conservative response to social and economic issues and to the various more radical streams of socialism and anarchism which opposed them.

Political parties, such as the Progressive Party, organized at the start of the 20th century, and progressivism made great strides under American presidents Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Lyndon Baines Johnson.

Fascism is a political ideology that seeks to combine radical and authoritarian nationalism with a corporatist economic system,and which is usually considered to be on the far right of the traditional left-right political spectrum. Fascists advocate the creation of a single-party state,with the belief that the majority is unsuited to govern itself through democracy.

Fascist governments forbid and suppress openness and opposition to the fascist state and the fascist movement. Fascism opposes class conflict, blames capitalism and liberal democracies for its creation and communists for exploiting the concept.

Fascism fashioned itself as the "complete opposite of Marxian socialism" by rejecting the economic and material conception of history, the fundamental belief of fascism being that human beings are motivated by glory and heroism rather than economic motives, in contrast to the worldview of capitalism and socialism.

Rightardia looks at it this way. Fascism and Communism are both political extremes. Both are totalitarian and collectivist. Both usually have oligarchies headed by a dictator.

Capitalism is the economic system preferred by fascists and socialism is the economic system preferred by communists.

Neither extreme system has been successful. Fascism governments--mainly Germany and Italy--were defeated in World War 2. The communist government of the Soviet Union eventually failed because its economics never worked. We have two emerging Asian counties left today that represent two different government approaches. On one hand we have India that prefers a free enterprise economic model and China that has a mixed model with centralized planning.

We could call Beck's effort to describe progressive thought as fascist as disinformation.  Or we could call it a bold faced 'pants of fire' lie.

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