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this post was submitted on 16 May 2025
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Mussolini might have said whatever, but I don’t think it’s accurate to say corporations and the wealthy like fascism, as it tends to be horrible for the economy. Mass consumption gets heavily impacted in such regimes. But that also depends on how you define fascism, because I’ve seen a lot of people lately refer to libertarians and even some liberals as fascists and that just doesn’t hold up. Not wanting to shift the balance in order to address systemic issues does not make someone a fascist.
The wealthy like few regulations and open borders for trade, without proper paths to citizenship so they can pay lower wages locally and exploit lower human rights standards abroad.
I agree—fascism, as I see it, is capitalism in a death spiral. Capitalist economies aren't able to offer stability or continuous growth. Once things start hitting the upper end of the bell curve, we will see corporations and the managers of capital (politicians) pulling and pressing all the buttons and levers in a frantic effort to maintain course. This won't work. As a last-ditch effort, fascism is employed by the ruling class as a means to strong-arm against revolution, as workers see wages become incapable of maintaining pace with inflation.
All this is to say: capitalism is deeply flawed. The corporations would prefer a muted underclass over the revolutionary type we can expect in the coming years. And to repress a revolutionary workforce, fascism will be used.
It's pretty accurate to say the wealthy like fascism if you look at how the wealthy keep trying to implement fascism. The Business Plot was an attempted fascist takeover of the United States, and the Trump regime was a successful fascist takeover of the United States. Both were bankrolled by the wealthy.
I'm not interested in defining the word fascist. The word has a definition and if some people use it incorrectly, that is not my concern.
I think when you talk about the "economy" you're not taking into account income inequality. Economic crashes are great for the capitalist class. They get to buy everything at fire sale prices, and pay their workers pennies. Even if they have slightly less "wealth" than they might, they have enormously more power (which locks in more wealth during the "recovery").
No, it absolutely hinges on how you define fascism. Lots of people are calling conservativism and even libertarianism fascism and that is just not accurate, and it hurts more than it helps. If that were the case then humanity has lived under fascism its entire history.
Wealthy people are just people, so there are wealthy Marxists and Anarchists just like there are wealthy Fascists, Monarchists and other designations. If there’s any movement that is a wealthy people movement it is neoliberalism or neoconservatives (same thing different color), which has failed horrendously. And despite its failures they keep pushing it, because it’s the only system that can sustain their wealth long term.
We do so because they keep siding with fascists and promoting their policies. They side with gutting social safety nets and worker/consumer protections.
Replacing the EPA with a market driven EPA is just not going to solve problems; otherwise the market would have before getting to the point of having an EPA.
Fascist want a small government because it will be easier for them to topple. Libertarians are at best naive to ally with them.
The reasons why the wealthy like liberalisation matters, though. The reasom the wralthy want more wealth matters.
Money is power. The wealthy are competing to have the most power. Eventually, that turns to taking control of the state. So, the wealthy will back free trade and deregulation right up until they, personally, are in a position to attempt a coup. After that, regulation and trade barriers work for the particular rich folk who have taken control over the state.
I don’t think history agrees with what you are saying. From what patterns I notice , dictators rise because they become popular with the masses thanks to the exploitation of grievances both real and perceived, and only when it seems inevitable that they will wrest power from the established order do capitalists align with themselves with the fascists in order to protect their interests and their own heads. The wealthy tend to be one of the first targets for any dictator, as they are the ones who have the means to unravel their power.
It's fair. The entire word "libertarian" was created to distance themselves from liberals.
Otherwise these 'libertarians' would have just been liberal and defended liberalism (human rights), and liberal society might have been able to fight off the mammon.
If you aid conservatives/confederates and the corporate cause, it is not unnatural to be associated with them.
Libertarianism is a traditionally left wing philosophy that started in the 1800s. They're also typically pretty big on human rights and equality.
The more modern America-centric "tea party" libertarians fit what you're saying, but they didn't create the term.