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31 points

I’m telling you that authoritarianism is a useless word. It’s used as a pejorative against any government that the wielder doesn’t like, and it misses all the actual problems of the regime being criticized. Authority is not by itself a bad thing, you have to look at how and why it is wielded. Is the problem with fascism that there is an authority? Or is it all the fascism?

Seriously you could argue that any country that has ever existed is authoritarian, the proper functioning of a state requires concentration of authority. It’s incredibly silly to just throw the term at whatever you don’t like. Don’t conflate authority with whatever actual problems a political ideology might have. You just end up whitewashing them.

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-12 points

Every country is a little authoritarian, and in equal measure fascist. The authority that enforces the hierarchy is the spiritual ignorance that gives rise to all of the social evils of this world. Your personal feelings about the word are totally irrelevant.

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23 points

Every country is a little authoritarian, and in equal measure fascist. The authority that enforces the hierarchy is the spiritual ignorance that gives rise to all of the social evils of this world.

This is pure idealistic nonsense.

Your personal feelings about the word are totally irrelevant.

Did you bother to read On Authority? It’s not my personal feelings, but rather actual Marxist political philosophy. It’s bizarre for you to dismiss it as irrelevant while simultaneously insisting that your own bizarre word salad is fact.

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-10 points

It’s not idealism. It’s the nature of authority [the power or right to give orders, make decisions, and enforce obedience]. Every government assumes the authority to enforce its laws. Every country fails to represent fringe populations. The measure at which a country uses its authority to use violence to silence, eliminate, control, or otherwise fail to represent the fringe is it’s degree of fascism.

When I said “Your personal feelings” I was referring to your opinion that fascism is a white supremacist term, which isn’t based in fact at all.

Now how will you twist my words?

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Authority can be used to oppress people and to build hospitals, and it is really wrong to pretend that these uses are equivalent.

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-16 points

Hospitals built by authority serve authority.

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Shit Reactionaries Say

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