Fascist has been used as apejorative orinsult against a wide range of people, political movements, governments, and institutions since the emergence offascism in Europe in the 1920s. Political commentators on boththe left andthe right accused their opponents of being fascists, starting in the years beforeWorld War II. In 1928, theCommunist International labeled theirsocial democratic opponents associal fascists,[1] while the social democrats themselves as well as some parties on the political right accused the Communists of having becomefascist underJoseph Stalin's leadership.[2] In light of theMolotov–Ribbentrop Pact,The New York Times declared on 18 September 1939 that, "Hitlerism is brown communism, Stalinism isred fascism."[3] Later, in 1944, theanti-fascist andsocialist writerGeorge Orwell commented onTribune thatfascism had been rendered almost meaningless by its common use as an insult against various people, and argued that in England the wordfascist had become a synonym forbully.[4]
During theCold War, theSoviet Union was categorized by its formerWorld War II allies astotalitarian alongside fascistNazi Germany to convert pre-World War II anti-fascism into post-waranti-communism, and debates around thecomparison of Nazism and Stalinism intensified.[5] Both sides in the Cold War also used the insultsfascist andfascism against the other. In the Soviet Union, they were used to describeanti-Soviet activism, andEast Germany officially referred to theBerlin Wall as the "Anti-Fascist Protection Wall". Across theEastern Bloc, the termanti-fascist became synonymous with theCommunist state–party line and denoted the struggle againstdissenters and the broaderWestern world.[6][7] In theUnited States, early supporters of an aggressive foreign policy anddomestic anti-communist measures in the 1940s and 1950s labeled the Soviet Union asfascist, and stated that it posed the same threat as theAxis Powers had posed during World War II.[8] Accusations that the enemy wasfascist were used to justify opposition to negotiations and compromise, with the argument that the enemy would always act in a manner similar toAdolf Hitler orNazi Germany in the 1930s.[8]
TheBolshevik movement and later theSoviet Union made frequent use of thefascist insult coming from its conflict with the early German and Italian fascist movements. The label was widely used in press and political language to describe the ideological opponents of the Bolsheviks, such as theWhite movement. Later, from 1928 to the mid-1930s, it was even applied tosocial democracy, which was calledsocial fascism and even regarded by communist parties as the most dangerous form of fascism for a time.[9] In Germany, theCommunist Party of Germany, which had been largely controlled by the Soviet leadership since 1928, used the insultfascism to describe both theSocial Democratic Party (SPD) and theNazi Party (NSDAP). In Soviet usage, the German Nazis were described asfascists until 1939, when theMolotov–Ribbentrop Pact was signed, after whichNazi–Soviet relations started to be presented positively inSoviet propaganda. Meanwhile, accusations that theleaders of the Soviet Union during theStalin era acted asred fascists were commonly stated by bothleft-wing andright-wing critics.[8]
After theGerman invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941,fascist was used in the USSR todescribe virtually any anti-Soviet activity or opinion. In line with theThird Period, fascism was considered the "final phase of crisis ofbourgeoisie", which "in fascism sought refuge" from "inherent contradictions ofcapitalism", and almost every Western capitalist country wasfascist, with theThird Reich being just the "mostreactionary" one.[10][11] The international investigation onKatyn massacre was described as "fascist libel"[12] and theWarsaw Uprising as "illegal and organised by fascists".[13] In Poland during thePolish People's Republic,communist propaganda referred to theHome Army (Polish:Armia Krajowa) as a fascist organization.[14] Polish CommunistSecurity Service (Polish:Służba Bezpieczeństwa) describedTrotskyism,Titoism, andimperialism as "variants of fascism".[15]
This use continued into theCold War era and thedissolution of the Soviet Union. The official Soviet version of theHungarian Revolution of 1956 was described as "Fascist, Hitlerite, reactionary and counter-revolutionary hooligans financed by the imperialist West [which] took advantage of the unrest to stage a counter-revolution".[16] Some rank-and-file Soviet soldiers reportedly believed they were being sent toEast Berlin to fight German fascists.[17] The Soviet-backedGerman Democratic Republic's official name for the Berlin Wall was the Anti-Fascist Protection Rampart (German:Antifaschistischer Schutzwall).[18] After theWarsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, Chinese PremierZhou Enlai denounced the Soviet Union for "fascist politics, great power chauvinism, national egoism andsocial imperialism", comparing the invasion to theVietnam War and theGerman occupation of Czechoslovakia.[19] Duringthe Barricades in January 1991, which followed the May 1990 "On the Restoration of Independence of the Republic of Latvia" independence declaration of theRepublic of Latvia from the Soviet Union, theCommunist Party of the Soviet Union declared that "fascism was reborn in Latvia".[20]
In 2006, theEuropean Court of Human Rights (ECHR) found contrary to the Article 10 (freedom of expression) of the ECHR fining a journalist for calling a right-wing journalist "local neo-fascist", regarding the statement as a value-judgment acceptable in the circumstances.[21]
During theEuromaidan demonstrations in January 2014, the Slavic Anti-Fascist Front was created in Crimea by Russian member of parliamentAleksey Zhuravlyov and CrimeanRussian Unity party leader and futurehead of the Republic of CrimeaSergey Aksyonov to oppose "fascist uprising" in Ukraine.[22][23] After theFebruary 2014 Ukrainian revolution, through theannexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation and the outbreak of thewar in Donbas,Russian nationalists andstate media used the term. They frequently described the Ukrainian government after Euromaidan asfascist orNazi,[24][25] at the same time usingantisemitic canards, such as accusing them of "Jewish influence", and stating that they were spreading "gay propaganda", a trope ofanti-LGBT activism.[26]
In his21 February speech, which started the events leading to theRussian invasion of Ukraine, Russian PresidentVladimir Putin falsely accused Ukraine of being governed byNeo-Nazis who persecute theethnic Russian minority andRussian-speaking Ukrainians.[27][28] Putin's claims about "de-Nazification" have been widely described as absurd.[29] While Ukraine has a far-right fringe, including the neo-Nazi-linkedAzov Battalion andRight Sector,[33] experts have described[34] Putin's rhetoric as greatly exaggerating the influence offar-right groups within Ukraine; there is no widespread support for the ideology in the government, military, or electorate.[35][36][37] Russian far-right organizations also exist, such as theRussian Imperial Movement, long active in Donbas.[41] Ukrainian president Zelenskyy, who is Jewish, rebuked Putin's allegations, stating that his grandfather had served in theSoviet army fighting against the Nazis.[42] TheUnited States Holocaust Memorial Museum andYad Vashem condemned the abuse ofHolocaust history and the use of comparisons with Nazi ideology for propaganda.[43][44]
Several Ukrainian politicians, military leader and members of the Ukrainian civil societyhave also accused the Russian Federation of being a fascist country.[45][46][47]Ukrainian propaganda also comparesVladimir Putin toAdolf Hitler, calling him a "Putler," and Russian troops to theNazis, calling them a mixture of Russians and fascists, "ruscists".[34]
During the 1990s, in the midst of theYugoslav wars, Serbian media oftendisseminated inflammatory statements in order to stigmatize and dehumanize adversaries, with Croatians being denigrated as "Ustasha" (Croatian fascists).[48] In modern Serbia, Dragan J. Vučićević, editor-in-chief of the tabloid and propaganda flagshipInformer, holds the belief that the "vast majority of Croatian nation are Ustaše" and thus ''fascists'' and this notion is sometimes drawn in his tabloid's writing.[49][50] After the EU banned Serbia from importing Russian oil through the CroatianAdriatic Pipeline in October 2022, the Serbian news stationB92 wrote that the sanctions came after: "insisting of ustasha regime fromZagreb and its ustasha prime ministerAndrej Plenković".[51] Serbian politicianAleksandar Vulin has stated that modern-day Croatia is a "follower ofAnte Pavelić's fascist ideology"[52][53][54] and he has described the EU as "the club of countries which had their divisionsunder Stalingrad".[55] In June 2022,Aleksandar Vučić was prevented from entering Croatia to visit theJasenovac Memorial Site by Croatian authorities due to him not announcing his visit through official diplomatic channels which is a common practice. As a response, Serbian ministers labeledAndrej Plenković's government as "ustasha government" with some tabloids calling the Croatian nation fascist. German historianAlexander Korb compared these labels with Putin's labels of Ukraine being fascist as a pretext for his invasion of Ukraine.[56][57][58]
In modern-dayBosnia and Herzegovina, the insult has been used by political opponents ofBosnian Serb leaderMilorad Dodik,[59][60] while Dodik himself has used it as a slur against the High Representative,Christian Schmidt.[61]
It has also been used in the political discourse ofMontenegro.[62][63]
In 1944, the English writer,democratic socialist, and anti-fascistGeorge Orwell wrote about the term's overuse as aninsult, arguing:
It will be seen that, as used, the word 'Fascism' is almost entirely meaningless. In conversation, of course, it is used even more wildly than in print. I have heard it applied to farmers, shopkeepers,Social Credit, corporal punishment, fox-hunting, bull-fighting, the1922 Committee, the1941 Committee,Kipling,Gandhi,Chiang Kai-Shek, homosexuality,Priestley's broadcasts,Youth Hostels,astrology, women, dogs and I do not know what else. ... [T]he people who recklessly fling the word 'Fascist' in every direction attach at any rate an emotional significance to it. By 'Fascism' they mean, roughly speaking, something cruel, unscrupulous, arrogant, obscurantist, anti-liberal and benefit class. Except for the relatively Large number of Fascist sympathizers, almost any person would accept 'bully' as a synonym for 'Fascist'. That is about as near to a definition as this much-abused word has come.[64]
HistorianStanley G. Payne argues that after World War II, fascism assumed a quasi-religious position within Western culture as a form of absolute moral evil. This gives its use as an insult a particularly strong form of social power that any other equivalent term lacks, which Payne argues encourages its overuse as it offers an extremely easy way to stigmatize and assert power over an opponent.[65]
In the United States,fascist is used by both the left-wing and right-wing, and its use in American political discourse is contentious. SeveralU.S. presidencies have been described as fascistic. In 2004,Samantha Power, a lecturer at theJohn F. Kennedy School of Government atHarvard University, reflected Orwell's words from 60 years prior when she stated: "Fascism – unlike communism, socialism, capitalism, or conservatism – is a smear word more often used to brand one's foes than it is a descriptor used to shed light on them."[66]
In the 1980s, the term was used by leftist critics to describe thepresidency of Ronald Reagan. The term was later used in the 2000s to describe thepresidency of George W. Bush by its critics and in the late 2010s to describe the candidacy and presidencies ofDonald Trump. In her 1970 bookBeyond Mere Obedience, radical activist and theologianDorothee Sölle coined the termChristofascist to describefundamentalist Christians.[67][68][69]
In response to multiple authors claiming that the then-presidential candidate Donald Trump was afascist,[70][71][72][73] a 2016 article forVox cited five historians who study fascism, includingRoger Griffin, author ofThe Nature of Fascism, who stated that Trump either does not hold and even is opposed to several political viewpoints that are integral to fascism, including viewing violence as an inherent good and an inherent rejection of or opposition to a democratic system.[74]
A growing number of scholarshave posited that the political style of Trump resembles that of fascist leaders, beginning with his election campaign in 2016,[75][76] continuing over the course of his presidency as he appeared to courtfar-right extremists,[77][78][79][80] including hisfailed efforts to overturn the2020 United States presidential election results after losing toJoe Biden,[81] and culminating in the2021 United States Capitol attack.[82] As these events have unfolded, some commentators who had initially resisted applying the label to Trump came out in favor of it, including conservative legal scholarSteven G. Calabresi[83] and conservative commentatorMichael Gerson.[84] After the attack on the Capitol, the historian of fascismRobert O. Paxton went so far as to state that Trump is a fascist, despite his earlier objection to using the term in this way.[85] Other historians of fascism such asRichard J. Evans,[86] Griffin, andStanley Payne continue to disagree that fascism is an appropriate term to describeTrump's politics.[82]
Leading up to the2024 presidential election, several political figures have described Trump as a fascist, includingJohn F. Kelly,Mark Milley,Joe Biden,Tim Walz, andKamala Harris.[87][88][89][90][91][92] Following theattempted assassination of Donald Trump in Pennsylvania, Republican vice presidential nomineeJD Vance wrote that "[t]he central premise of theBiden campaign is that President Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. That rhetoric led directly to President Trump's attempted assassination".[93] He also stated that Kelly and Milley are "disgruntled former employees".[94]
In theAmerican right wing,fascist is frequently used as an insult to imply thatNazism, and by extensionfascism, was asocialist andleft-wing ideology, which is contrary to the consensus among scholars of fascism.[5] According to theHistory News Network, this belief that fascism is left-wing "has become widely accepted conventional wisdom among American conservatives, and has played a significant role in the national discourse".[93] According to cultural critic Noah Berlatsky writing forNBC News, in an effort to erase leftist victims of Nazi violence, "they've actually inverted the truth, implying that Nazis themselves were leftists", and "are part of a history of far-right disavowal,projection and escalation intended to provide a rationale for retaliation".[95]
An example of this belief is conservative columnistJonah Goldberg's bookLiberal Fascism, which depictsmodern liberalism andprogressivism in the United States as the children of fascism. Writing forThe Washington Post, historian Ronald J. Granieri stated that this "has become asilver bullet for voices on the right likeDinesh D'Souza andCandace Owens: Not only is the reviled left, embodied in 2020 by figures likeSanders,Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez andElizabeth Warren, a dangerous descendant of the Nazis, but anyone who opposes it can't possibly have ties to the Nazis' odious ideas. There is only one problem: This argument is untrue."[5] Other examples include statements byRepublican RepresentativeMarjorie Taylor Greene, who hascomparedmask mandates during theCOVID-19 pandemic toNazi Germany andthe Holocaust.[95]
InChile, the insultfacho pobre ('poor fascist' or 'low-class fascist') is used against people of perceived working class status with right-leaning views, is the equivalent toclass traitor orlumpenproletariat, and it has been the subject of significant analysis, including by figures such as the sociologistAlberto Mayol and political commentatorCarlos Peña González.[96][97] The origin of the insult can possibly be traced back to the massive use in Chile of social networks and their use in political discussions, but was popularized in the aftermath of the2017 Chilean general election, where right-wingSebastián Piñera won the presidency with a strong working class voter base.[98] Peña González calls the essence of the insult "the worst of the paternalisms: the belief that ordinary people ... do not know what they want and betray their true interest at the time of choice",[98] while writerOscar Contardo states that the insult is a sort of "left-wingclassism" (Spanish:roteo de izquierda) and implies that "certain ideas can only be defended by the priviledged class".[96]
In 2019, left-wing deputy and PresidentGabriel Boric publicly criticized the phrasefacho pobre as belonging to an"elitist left", and warned that its use may lead to political isolation.[99]
During theGaza war, the state ofIsrael has been called fascist:Nicaragua broke relations with Israel on October 11, 2024, calling the Israeli government "fascist" and "genocidal".[100] Israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu calledPalestinian-Sunni Islamist organizationHamas the "new Nazis".[101] On 27 November 2023, Israel's Finance MinisterBezalel Smotrich said that "there are 2 million Nazis" in theWest Bank "who hate us, exactly as do the Nazis of Hamas-ISIS in Gaza".[102] Former Israeli Prime MinisterNaftali Bennett also made comparisons between the Nazis and Hamas.[103]
Israeli historianOmer Bartov rebuked the analogy asHolocaust trivialization andweaponization of antisemitism condemning it as adehumanizinganti-Palestinian remark as it implies "therefore you don't talk with Nazis, you kill Nazis".[104]
Certain key words would be used over and over again to stir up a defensive reaction among the Serbian citizens who would support the government's plan to create a State for all Serbs. For example, the terms "Ustasha fascists" "and cut-throats" were used to stigmatise the Croats and "Islamic ustasha" and "jihad fighters" to describe Bosnian Muslims pejoratively... Through reports and commentaries intervowen with images, television sought to foster inter-ethnic and religious hatred towards the Cahtolic Croatian community: general opinion portrayed them as inhuman - thereby making their humiliation, destruction and hreasier and more legitimate.
Na insistiranje ustaškog režima u Hrvatskoj na čelu sa premijerom te zemlje Andrejem Plenkovićem, taj paket obuhvatiće i Srbiju jer preko Janafa neće moći više da uvozi rusku naftu.
... shall we say this, represent this, live this, without seeming to endorse the kind ofchristomonism (Dorothee Solle called it 'Christofascism'! ...[permanent dead link]
... of establishing a dubious moral superiority to justify organized violence on a massive scale, a perversion of Christianity she called Christofascism. ...
