Name: Liberal fascism
ISBN: 9780767917186

Liberal fascism

A startling new perspective on the theories and practices that define fascist politics. Replacing myths with research, journalist Goldberg reminds us that the original fascists were really on the left. The Nazis were ardent socialists (hence the term "National socialism"). They believed in free health care and guaranteed jobs. They confiscated inherited wealth and spent vast sums on public education. The Nazis declared war on smoking, supported abortion, euthanasia, and gun control. They loathed the free market, provided generous pensions for the elderly, and campus speech codes were all the rage. These striking parallels don't mean that today's liberals are genocidal maniacs, yet it is hard to deny that modern progressivism and classical fascism shared the same intellectual roots. These assertions may sound strange to modern ears, but that is because we have forgotten what fascism is. In this angry, funny, smart, contentious book, Jonah Goldberg turns our preconceptions inside out.--From publisher description.

What Hacker News says

zthrowawayApr 2022

Agreed. In fact the authoritarian tendencies of the left actually go back even further. I recommend reading Liberal Fascism by Jonah Goldberg.

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hindsightbiasJul 2020

PG told me it’s a good thing that there are things I’m afraid to say.

Up until more recently, it seemed the majority of folks on the internets felt they were obligated to let their freak flag fly.

So color me confused.

http://www.paulgraham.com/say.html

Or at least give Jonah Goldberg credit for Liberal Fascism, written over a decade ago.

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fortran77Dec 2019

1. Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left from Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning by Jonah Goldberg

2. The Road to Serfdom by Friedrich A. Hayek

3. Basic Economics: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy by Thomas Sowell

4. An American Life by Ronald Reagan

5. The Rust Programming Language by Steve Kablink

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kronaJan 2018

If you're interested in developing that line of thought, I suggest reading Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning which is well researched and deeply insightful.

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dragonwriterSep 2019

> Hasn't most of the "American Right" distanced themselves from the white-nationalist/neo-nazi organizations as well as the Left?

Maybe, but I was referencing that the notion of a substantive association between Nazis/fascists and socialism (or the left more generally) was never taken seriously by any significant group until the last couple of years, where the American Right decided that their existing pejorative labels were losing their sting and they needed to label everything they disagreed with “fascism” and seriously try to sell the connections; Jonah Goldberg's book Liberal Fascism was a notable point in this trend.

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jkingsberyAug 2019

I'm not sure what you mean by "alt-right..." Usually that means something specific (For a good summary see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHXL00wY3nY). Among the people who have written about how the National Socialists were socialists is Jonah Goldberg (see https://www.amazon.com/Liberal-Fascism-American-Mussolini-Po...), whom you might not like, but is not alt-right, in that he disagrees with the alt-right on almost everything.

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