The Rapidly 'Evolving' Political Wings
The evolution of the definition of the word 'Fascism', and how 'right-wing' and 'left-wing' came to the rescue of international Marxism
On August 25, 2022 United States President Joe Biden called American Republicans ‘semi-fascist’. Historically, how did the word ‘Fascism’ become associated with political conservatives? This is a long and complex story that goes back over 90 years, to a time when Fascism was internationally popular, when Time magazine named Adolf Hitler ‘Man of the Year’. It involved dictionary editors defining terms, and media personalities using terms, with an outcome in mind.
In order to determine what President Biden means, we can consult our online dictionary (Merriam-Webster), giving the following definition of ‘Fascism’:
Note that this definition describes a philosophy that subjugates the individual citizen, to the domination of the nation-state. It hardly describes American conservatives, who fight for the right of individual Americans to possess guns, speak their minds without censorship, and have economic autonomy. Fascism sounds, in fact, like the exact opposite of American conservatives.
So where did President Biden come up with the idea of calling American conservatives ‘semi-fascist’? If we look at the modern Wikipedia online user-maintained definition of ‘fascism,’ we get the following:
In this definition of ‘Fascism’, the editor describes Fascism as ‘far-right’ and later describes the ‘left-right spectrum’. Absent those terms, the definition is very similar to the online Merriam Webster dictionary. But, by adding in the term ‘far-right’, or ‘right-wing’ suddenly the meaning of Fascism changes. How and when did these terms get added to the definition of Fascism, such that today, modern Marxists can claim that Fascism is their ‘opposite’?
Here is the definition of Fascism in 1936, as published in the 1937 Webster’s Universal English Dictionary:
Note the definition nowhere mentions the term ‘right-wing’, or ‘far-right’. In fact, the term ‘right-wing’ was not even found in the 1940 Webster’s Universal English Dictionary. In comparison, we can see that German National Socialism (Nazism, or Hitlerism as it was called), did have a dictionary entry in 1936:
In this definition, we clearly see the reference to National Socialism, and as such an implied relation to the Socialism of Karl Marx. As scholars of National Socialism are aware, both Fascism and National Socialism would routinely claim the Socialist inheritance of Karl Marx. But there is no mention of left-wing or right-wing. That would come later.
In the 1960 Webster’s Twentieth Century Dictionary of the English Language, Complete and Unabridged, we see the following definition (pardon the low quality snapshot):
Note that once again, the term ‘right-wing’, 'or ‘far-right’ is nowhere to be found. However, we do finally find a definition of ‘left-winger’:
Note the definition - ‘the radical division, especially of a political party; as, the left wing of the Socialist party.’ Clearly in that time, the concept of political wings generally described a division within any political body, including within a political party. As the definition shows, the concept of ‘left-wing’ and ‘right-wing’ would not be ‘opposite Socialism’, in contrast, the ‘right-wing of the Socialist party’ would declare themselves the true Socialist party.
Somehow over decades, the concept of ‘left-wing’ and ‘right-wing’ shifted, until today some dictionaries consider the term ‘right-wing’ to be the primary definition of Fascism, when in the times when Fascism openly ruled nations, ‘right-wing’ meant merely a near-arbitrary division within a political party.
Interestingly, in the very first Wikipedia entry for ‘left-right politics’ in 2003, the author explicitly mentions the near arbitrary nature of the divisions:
Yet clearly today mainstream dictionaries, media personalities, and President Joe Biden, assign an explicit definition to ‘right-wing’. When and how did this change come to be? We know the why - because absent the definition of wings as intrinsic values in themselves, the definition of Fascism becomes obviously nothing like the American Republican party, while being very similar, to the American Democratic Party.
Here is the current (2022) entry for left-right politics on Wikipedia:
Suddenly today the ‘left-right spectrum’ becomes a System of classifying positions - it has become the ‘dewey decimal system of politics’. We are here, on the opposite side of the library, from those people who are ‘opposite us’; Somewhere between 2003 and 2022 the concept of the left-right political spectrum became intrinsically valued as a linear number line. Its intrinsic valuation allows modern day Democrats to artificially distance themselves from Marxist Fascism, and even falsely claim Republicans to be Fascist. What is the story of this evolution?
- to be continued -
John Wagner , August 30 2022