I am grateful again to have an opportunity to dispute another leftist writer who objects to my assertion that fascism is a left-wing ideology (“No debate — fascism spawned by the right,” July 30, TribLIVE). As usual the leftist knee-jerk reaction resorts to name calling while ignoring historical facts.
The economist Friedrich Hayek, whose book “The Road to Serfdom” (1944) pointed out that Western democracies after defeating fascism were heading in the fascist direction. Hayek identified fascism as left-wing, related to socialism.
Jonah Goldberg (“Liberal Fascism,” 2007) argued that fascism and communism “are closely related.” A. James Gregor (“Giovanni Gentile: Philosopher of Fascism,” 2008) stated the “fascist movement was not conservative.” Stanley Payne (“A History of Fascism,” 1995) stated “fascism in Italy did not stem from right wing nationalists but the revolutionary left.”
Academia and media propagandized the false concept of fascism being right wing so as to distance the left (and Democrats) from Nazi and Fascist ideology.
In my opinion, a current example of left-wing ideology that mimics Nazi ideology is critical race theory. German Jewish school children were forced into indoctrination of Nordic supremacy and Jewish inferiority during the early Nazi era. Today, school children are forced into indoctrination of white inferiority and Black supremacy by leftist teachers. Clearly fascism belongs on the left.
Dr. Joel I. Last
Greensburg