11 Comments
Jun 17, 2023Liked by Elena Louisa Lange

I can't comment on the book but by the talk on the book it seems to present a pat and simplistic few of the past. We all know the fascists in the 20th and 21 century were and are the victors. But more to the point Anglo American capilal was the victor. This has had a profoundly negative effect on human society.

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The book analyses the concrete historical fascist movements and their intellectual investment in the socialist tradition. It provides ample evidence for its claims (which of course I cannot report on detail). What do you think makes it "simplistic"?

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Jun 18, 2023Liked by Elena Louisa Lange

Perhaps simplistic was the wrong word. Fascism inaugurated the age the all powerfull modern state . It did subsume ideas originally from the left .For example the proletariate became the masses. It mimiced the left with its revolutionary aspirations and its anti -capitalistic rhetoric.The "left '' in turn took on many of its ideas (the welfare state ect).Fascism is a theory of government under international capitalism. Bordgia (italian communist) after the war saw anti fascism as a greater threat than fascism itself. I will try to read the book sometime ,i am sure i would learn a lot from it.

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I'd be curious to hear what you make of it!

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Jun 20, 2023Liked by Elena Louisa Lange

I have that book on my shelf; I read it in 2008. I recall it being useful at the time in demonstrating how many liberal ideas are imposed on the masses, and are not organic developments. I will listen to the episode.

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Jun 18, 2023Liked by Elena Louisa Lange

It has been a while since I checked in with the Marxist anti-left current, which I thought might be going somewhere interesting... but if where you landed was, ejecting Marxism and re-baking the most shoddy of conservative thinking (i.e. actually fascism = socialism = liberalism, what a genius!) then, I guess that it must have run its course! I mean this book was a joke when it came out: it hit the best-seller lists for a few weeks, playing well *with conservatives* battling in the culture wars of the day, but serious scholars of all stripes laughed it off. I'm surprised you didn't too.

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Wow! Argument-free thinking has really made its rounds.

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Great. Looking forward to pt 2

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thank you, Pat.

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RemovedJun 17, 2023Liked by Elena Louisa Lange
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Jun 18, 2023Liked by Elena Louisa Lange

so goldberg isn't hygienic enough, huh? will make sure i sanitize my hands after reading the book...

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Thank you, John. Yes indeed, Goldberg was an editor for National Review. Much has changed in the past 15 years.

If you have no further arguments, you‘re free to leave.

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