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→Fascism vs. Populism: new section
::The main concern is not to confuse or group the American Nazi party with the [[America First]] movement. The American Nazi party is more aligned with Father [[Charles Coughlin]] or [[Huey Long]] as extreme outsiders with anti-British, anti-international banker, socialist, and nationalist views. The America First Committee should not be impugned in any light as fascist. [[User:RobSmith|RobS]]<sup>[[User talk:RobSmith|''Deep Six the Deep State!'']]</sup> 21:42, 7 April 2018 (EDT)
::The main concern is not to confuse or group the American Nazi party with the [[America First]] movement. The American Nazi party is more aligned with Father [[Charles Coughlin]] or [[Huey Long]] as extreme outsiders with anti-British, anti-international banker, socialist, and nationalist views. The America First Committee should not be impugned in any light as fascist. [[User:RobSmith|RobS]]<sup>[[User talk:RobSmith|''Deep Six the Deep State!'']]</sup> 21:42, 7 April 2018 (EDT)
:::Fair enough. I'll see where I can place them. It will be difficult trying to avoid America First being grouped with them, since the two sources I provided earlier seemed to have strongly worded insinuations that they're one and the same. I do know that Jonah Goldberg's Liberal Fascism book does in fact allude to the Madison Square Garden Rally and implies that was the result of the New Deal, though. [[User:Pokeria1|Pokeria1]] ([[User talk:Pokeria1|talk]]) 11:24, 8 April 2018 (EDT)
:::Fair enough. I'll see where I can place them. It will be difficult trying to avoid America First being grouped with them, since the two sources I provided earlier seemed to have strongly worded insinuations that they're one and the same. I do know that Jonah Goldberg's Liberal Fascism book does in fact allude to the Madison Square Garden Rally and implies that was the result of the New Deal, though. [[User:Pokeria1|Pokeria1]] ([[User talk:Pokeria1|talk]]) 11:24, 8 April 2018 (EDT)
== Fascism vs. Populism ==
One of the most common tactics that the left uses when attacking right-wing populism is comparing it with Fascism. That comparison is highly flawed, as right-wing populism and Fascism have completely different origins:
:*Right-wing populism is rooted in the centuries-old debates between affirmative action and residency, and between free trade and protectionism. Since the late 18th century, it has repeatedly come and gone in different strains with varying degrees of intolerance for immigration and free trade (the current strain appears to be the most tolerant, ironically). Its fundamental premise is that the elites are straying from the country's cultural traditions, and that this trend needs to be reversed. This premise is compatible with democracy, and is compatible with both the "negative rights"/individualist worldview of Anglo-Saxon conservatives and the "positive rights"/statist worldview of continental European conservatives.
:*Fascism on the other hand was rooted in the extreme economic, political, and social turmoil started by the First World War and exacerbated by the Great Depression. Its fundamental premise is that the country's cultural traditions have become corrupted beyond the possibility of redemption, and that the only thing they have left to offer to the people are Pestilence, War, Famine, and Death. Therefore, the elite must be overthrown entirely and replaced with a regime that does away with the old tradition and replaces it with a new one that is hell-bent on putting other countries in their place at all costs, even if it means starting a war with the whole rest of the world. This premise is disturbingly similar to that of Communism. Indeed, many Fascists were former Communists who rejected class warfare in favor of racial warfare after being consumed with raw hatred for other races due to their experiences during both the war and the Depression. They saw the world from a Social Darwinist point of view: the other races are always out to conquer and destroy you, so you must return the favor. Like Communism, Fascism is not compatible with democracy, nor is it compatible with the "negative rights"/individualist worldview of Anglo-Saxon conservatives. As for the "positive rights"/statist worldview of continental European conservatives, there was a love-hate relationship. While Fascism and continental European conservatives shared a common ground over (1) skepticism for capitalism and individualism, and (2) opposition to Communism, they were often at odds over cultural traditions. While conservatives believed the elites were responsible for the degeneration of culture, Fascists believed it was the other way around. While conservatives wanted to preserve tradition, Fascists wanted to destroy it. These tensions on occasion led to violence, as demonstrated by the July 20 plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler, which was led by a conservative Catholic who initially supported Fascism but later came to despise it on religious principle.
That being said, is Fascism likely to make a serious comeback due to the current wave of right-wing populism? No. The conditions that made the rise of Fascism possible do not exist today. The West is suffering, but nearly to the same extent that it was during the war and the Depression. Almost nobody on the right-wing populist side of the aisle is ranting about how the elites are responsible for the deaths of millions of their own people, the complete destruction of their countries' economies and infrastructure, and/or the massive displacement caused by forced territorial concessions (Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is a major exception, although his ideology more closely resembles Fascism than right-wing populism anyway). The only way Fascism will ever make a serious comeback is if the West gets caught up in a war on a scale similar to the First World War, resulting in a whole generation developing a militant mindset that makes it incapable of embracing any ideology that isn't overtly radical and/or homicidal.
Will that happen in the future? I hope not, but right now I'm not optimistic. Tensions are growing between Western Europe and Eastern Europe over the former region's increasingly blatant attempts to subjugate the latter region through the European Union. Tensions are growing in the Balkans due to the rise of Erdoğan's Turkey. Tensions are growing in Eastern Europe due to the crisis in Ukraine. Russia, Germany, France, and Turkey are all presenting blatant challenges to American hegemony over both Europe and the Middle East. Not only is a war between NATO and Russia possible, but now so is an intra-NATO war. More details on the latter [https://www.conservapedia.com/Essay:_Is_Donald_Trump%27s_NATO_policy_good_for_American_national_intersts%3F here]. There is good reason to believe that the West is on its way to repeat the mistakes of 1914. It's not too late to step back from the abyss, but time may be running out. I pray that President Trump does us a favor and prevents such a war. He would essentially go down in history as the man who prevented the return of Fascism, although the left probably will try to find a way to keep that out of the books...--[[User:Geopolitician|Geopolitician]] ([[User talk:Geopolitician|talk]]) 13:15, 31 August 2018 (EDT)