"One of the prevailing myths about Fascism is that it arose out of some fundamental opposition to Communism. In fact this was never true; Fascism was a Marxist heresy from the day Mussolini seized it, differing from Marxism not mainly in its aims but in the means by which they were to be achieved." #QotD

"Mussolini was a revolutionary Socialist organiser ... responding to one of the early failures of Marxism. In Marxian 'scientific socialism,' universal revolution was a process that would follow mechanically from the capitalist immiseration of the proletariat. But by the second decade of the new century it was becoming clear that most national proletariats were unwilling [and still aren't] to play their appointed role in the theory, tending instead to be among the most patriotic and nationalist elements of their societies. Class warfare as the engine of international socialism had failed, creating a doctrinal crisis in communist/socialist circles.
    "[Theorists like George] Sorel responded by writing a new theory of political motivation ... which proposed that instead instead of fighting popular sentiments like patriotism and nationalist mythology, socialists and communists should embrace them as tools to build and perfect socialism...
    "I’ve covered this history in detail because it explodes one of the prevailing myths about Fascism – that it arose out of some fundamental opposition to Communism. In fact this was never true; Fascism was a Marxist heresy from the day [Sorel and] Mussolini seized it, differing from Marxism not mainly in its aims but in the means by which they were to be achieved."
          ~ Eric Raymond, from his post 'Spotting the wild Fascist'
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