Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you welcome to stuff you should know
Speaker 1: from House Stuff Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to
Speaker 1: the podcast. I'm Josh Clark fascist. Josh Clark fascist. That's
Speaker 1: exactly what I was gonna say, too. I was gonna say,
Speaker 1: Chuck Er always called me a fascist pig. I'm not
Speaker 1: true business anyway. That's Charles W. Chuck Bryant. Hello, we're
Speaker 1: doing a podcast on fascism today. Yes, and as I
Speaker 1: was saying, Chuck's always calling me a fascist pig, but
Speaker 1: I don't know that that's necessarily accurate. After I read
Speaker 1: this article how fascism works, Well, you should stop giving
Speaker 1: speeches from your balcony above at Land in my hand,
Speaker 1: partying my hair to my side a little bit, take
Speaker 1: down all the posters of you all over the place.
Speaker 1: Never so, Chuck, Yes, you want to talk about fascism,
Speaker 1: let's do it. Okay, So did you know I was
Speaker 1: surprised to find this out. Bnino Mussolini was the guy
Speaker 1: who actually created pretty much created fascism. He definitely coined
Speaker 1: the term and uh, this concept of fascism was drawn
Speaker 1: upon from ancient Roman techniques, military techniques. Sure, Machiavelli, of course. Um.
Speaker 1: And I was surprised to find this out because, you know,
Speaker 1: he ended up strung up by his ankles with his
Speaker 1: throat slit, people kicking him in the head. He'd fall
Speaker 1: down after he was dead and they'd string him back up.
Speaker 1: It didn't work, he no, it didn't. And really he
Speaker 1: was kind of Hitler's lackey. Really. Sure, I was surprised
Speaker 1: to find that he was the guy who started fascism,
Speaker 1: but by god he did. Apparently he was a socialist
Speaker 1: until he got ahold of Nitzsche and then he was like,
Speaker 1: WHOA has screwed a lot of stuff up in this
Speaker 1: world show. I like him personally, but you got to
Speaker 1: take the guy with the grain of salt, you know.
Speaker 1: So as far back as n uh Mussolini was starting
Speaker 1: to ruminate on fascism, right, yeah, And what is it, chuck?
Speaker 1: What people throw this word around like it's it's awesome
Speaker 1: or um sweet or l O L? Have you noticed
Speaker 1: people use l O L to a ridiculous degree these days?
Speaker 1: But I do know that fascism is I think I
Speaker 1: can't remember who it was, But someone said it's the
Speaker 1: most misused word of our times. Yeah, and I believe
Speaker 1: it or um incredible, right, but you hear me know,
Speaker 1: Bush is a fascist, Obamba is a fascist. Nancy Pelosi
Speaker 1: is a fascist. Dick Cheney's a fascist. None of them
Speaker 1: are fascist. All right, We're not going to debate that here.
Speaker 1: I thought that was a nice sprinkling of liberals and
Speaker 1: conservatives in there that I should throw in a Tea
Speaker 1: Party member to cover all my basis. Um Josha comes
Speaker 1: from the word fast skule, Italian meaning bundle. You're not
Speaker 1: gonna say it was an accent and fast skill nice.
Speaker 1: Then Previously the Latin fascus or fascists, I take it
Speaker 1: as fasis and that is a bundle of sticks tied
Speaker 1: to a single axe. And that kind of says it
Speaker 1: all it is. It's pretty much a again, Mussolini has
Speaker 1: a master stroke. This is uh, this is a perfect
Speaker 1: um descriptor of what fascism is. The state is the
Speaker 1: axe which can yeah, and the people are the bundle
Speaker 1: of sticks that support the head or break depending. Fascism
Speaker 1: has a tendency to push people at the breaking point,
Speaker 1: doesn't it. Although fascism also kind of brings out the
Speaker 1: absolute worst and conformist in human beings as well. Yeah. Um,
Speaker 1: so fascism is is basically the opposite of democracy. The
Speaker 1: whole point is the state. There is no individualism, there
Speaker 1: is no ump no, no. But that that doesn't necessarily
Speaker 1: mean it's communist. And actually communism and fascism are opposite
Speaker 1: sides of the coins, uh to a lot of at
Speaker 1: least economically, right, because with communism it's um one social class, right,
Speaker 1: and with fascism they're very distinct social classes that you
Speaker 1: cannot get out of. Yeah, if you're in a social
Speaker 1: classes under fascism, then be prepared to stay there. Right.
Speaker 1: And another uh defining characteristic of fascism is that the
Speaker 1: whole point of the state is um war. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: it's based on natural selection Darwinian evolutions, where the the
Speaker 1: the state's entire existence is to wage and win war,
Speaker 1: and it's survival of the fittest. So everybody's out there
Speaker 1: waging war. And if you lose, well then you're you
Speaker 1: are naturally selected, you're absorbed by another state, you're tronker,
Speaker 1: you're subjugated. And the state that did the subjugating was
Speaker 1: selected as the fittest that was the strongest. So the
Speaker 1: entire point of the state is to wage war imperialism. Baby, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's pretty pretty rotten stuff really, um. And Mussolini put it, Um,
Speaker 1: that war alone brings up to its highest tension all
Speaker 1: human energy and puts the stamp of nobility upon the
Speaker 1: people's who have the courage to meet it. What a jerk,
Speaker 1: But you know it was a rallying point. People got
Speaker 1: into it for a while. Yeah. And and how I mean,
Speaker 1: like you wonder, how can some guy come along and
Speaker 1: say you have no individualism. Everything your mommy told you
Speaker 1: about how great and unique you are in your little
Speaker 1: snowflake is wrong. Um. And your entire purpose in life
Speaker 1: is to support the glory of the state, which is
Speaker 1: going to go wage war indiscriminately. Um. How do people
Speaker 1: get duped into this? How do they follow along? I'll
Speaker 1: tell you how, buddy. One thing that uh, the fascist
Speaker 1: prayed on And we say prayed because it's not strictly
Speaker 1: define Fascism isn't really around anymore, although there are tendencies
Speaker 1: and smaller groups, but as far as the big time governments,
Speaker 1: it's it's gone. But one thing to do is they
Speaker 1: take a nation in crisis. For instance, let's say Europe
Speaker 1: after World War One. Yeah, and they say, you know,
Speaker 1: we can return our country to its former glory. All
Speaker 1: you have to do is buy into it. So people
Speaker 1: got to buy into it at first. It can't be
Speaker 1: done with the iron fist initially, right. And the way
Speaker 1: they buy into it is that the people are already suffering. Right.
Speaker 1: So a lot of people blame the Treaty of Versailles
Speaker 1: that ended World War One for eventually leading to World
Speaker 1: War Two. There was a lot of um restriction placed
Speaker 1: on the losing nations. Um. They they their their normal
Speaker 1: working class people in countries like Germany suffered tremendously um
Speaker 1: and they they had to repay to rebuild nations that
Speaker 1: they went to war with, and there was no trust whatsoever.
Speaker 1: So it's kind of a bad treaty actually, but it
Speaker 1: did set set the stage for fascism, right. So you've
Speaker 1: got the people who are suffering and they're saying, you've
Speaker 1: got to buy into it. What are they buying into
Speaker 1: while they're buying into the state and only the state,
Speaker 1: and everything you do is for the good of the state. Right.
Speaker 1: That pretty much sums it up. And a lot of
Speaker 1: times it's based on um, some sort of idealized past, right,
Speaker 1: which again after World War One, that made it easy
Speaker 1: because this nation, like Germany, was suffering tremendously UM, and
Speaker 1: so they they were saying, well, we used to be great.
Speaker 1: We need to reclaim our superiority. Even if the great
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter because mythical as long as they buy
Speaker 1: into it, right, Yeah, like the fifties. And also there
Speaker 1: there tends to be um, one ethnic group that is
Speaker 1: singled out as the important one, and everything else is
Speaker 1: being every every other group is dragging this one group down,
Speaker 1: and they need to be dealt with the master race
Speaker 1: in the case of Germany for sure. Yeah. And that's
Speaker 1: where we come to the difference between the capital f
Speaker 1: and the lower case f right. As far as fascism,
Speaker 1: apparently Mussolini's is capitalized and Hitler's is not. And he
Speaker 1: was probably pretty angry about Uh. I don't think so
Speaker 1: too wanted to capital left, Yeah, he was, He get
Speaker 1: angry a lot. Um. Mussolini's fascism was largely based on
Speaker 1: going and waging war just for the hell of it, right, yes,
Speaker 1: just to show the glory of the state. Hitler's conquests
Speaker 1: um actually had a method to the madness, right right.
Speaker 1: His was basically basically um based on uh, furthering the
Speaker 1: Aryan race through conquest. Yeah, I got a cool quote
Speaker 1: for you, alright. This Italian fascist philosopher who knew Giovanni
Speaker 1: habably enough, his name is Giovanni Genteel. He says mankind
Speaker 1: only progresses through division and progress and progress is achieved
Speaker 1: through the clash and victory of one side over another.
Speaker 1: So basically you can't progress unless you're dividing people and conquering.
Speaker 1: So there you have it. So my dad always said,
Speaker 1: and his name is Genteel or Genteel. Nice, Thanks, Chuck.
Speaker 1: I was looking forward to this one because I knew
Speaker 1: that you bust the Italian accident out of you know,
Speaker 1: in my blood. There's another characteristic that we didn't mention,
Speaker 1: and it's an authoritarian leadership, right right. I mean you've
Speaker 1: got Mussolini, you've got Hitler. They have these cults of
Speaker 1: personality surrounding them. Yeah, that's really important, and they come
Speaker 1: to embody the state. Right, So like it's you, you
Speaker 1: can pretty much interchangeably say everything you're doing is for
Speaker 1: the glory of Germany, or everything you're doing is for
Speaker 1: the glory of Hitler. They're pretty much interchangeable. That's why
Speaker 1: we had their flags and their posters all over the place,
Speaker 1: which they love their posters or did. Um. There's also
Speaker 1: a tremendous amount of violence in these societies as well. Um,
Speaker 1: you can't have war without violence, you can't have well,
Speaker 1: not only that this it's not domestically you also have violence.
Speaker 1: So in addition to say, um Hitler's process of the
Speaker 1: Final Solution, where he's furthering the Aryan race by murdering
Speaker 1: anybody who's not a member of it, um, there's also, uh,
Speaker 1: there's domestic violence. For anyone who speaks out any resistance
Speaker 1: movements anything like that, they're gonna be crushed. Yes, you're
Speaker 1: not supposed to you're not supposed to wage warrant discriminately
Speaker 1: for the glory of the state. You're really not supposed
Speaker 1: to turn on your own people right round upon most decidedly. So,
Speaker 1: what's life like if you are one of those people
Speaker 1: who um would would have passed the Milgram experiment with
Speaker 1: flying colors and are just waving flags and happy as
Speaker 1: can be to see Mussolini's Il duce a car driving
Speaker 1: past well, it's not a very happy place because Mussolini
Speaker 1: flat out rejected them what he called the myth of happiness. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and uh, it's not a good place if you're a woman,
Speaker 1: because the only thing you are and under a Thatchero's
Speaker 1: seme as a woman is a little fascist maker. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't want to They don't want you to work
Speaker 1: in anything. I want you to make a little fascist.
Speaker 1: And the the youth are um accentuated in the society's
Speaker 1: right sur it is survival of fist but also the
Speaker 1: youth make the best soldiers. And they're also the leaders
Speaker 1: of tomorrow. So if you indoctrinate them throughout their lifetimes,
Speaker 1: beginning at an early age, they're going to have the
Speaker 1: same ideals. Right. It's it's also not very good if
Speaker 1: you're gay. It's because aside from Hitler and the gang
Speaker 1: thinking it's like, you know, mass perversion, it's also you
Speaker 1: can't make a little fascist, So that that was no good.
Speaker 1: Is I didn't know that? Is that why homosexuals were
Speaker 1: targeted so much Hitler well, for those reasons that they
Speaker 1: thought it was perverse, and then they you know, you
Speaker 1: can't make baby fascists, so what good are you right,
Speaker 1: but Hitler thought it could be cured. Mussolini just outlawed
Speaker 1: it altogether. There's also what lots of rallies, parades, like
Speaker 1: you said, posters everywhere. It's it's um ubiquitous. The the
Speaker 1: the sentiment of fascism, everything for the state and the leader.
Speaker 1: They're everywhere you go. So if you're you know, sixteen
Speaker 1: seventeen in your courting, you're going to go to a
Speaker 1: state parade, state holiday. They tend to take on a
Speaker 1: religious quality, right, because there's no religion but nationalism. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a little tricky because they they reject religion in
Speaker 1: a lot of ways. But in uh, the article that
Speaker 1: pointed out Mussolini in Italy clearly cannot reject Catholicism because
Speaker 1: that's where it's rooted. So he would kind of use
Speaker 1: the church to his advantage when it worked for him,
Speaker 1: and Hitler did a lot the same as well. Right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: he was a protector of the church. Right, so they say, God,
Speaker 1: these guys are crazy. Luckily that this, uh, this, this
Speaker 1: whole this, this fascism didn't take off all that well.
Speaker 1: They tracically had a pretty short run. Nineteen eighteen and
Speaker 1: nine was the height of it, right, Yeah, that's not
Speaker 1: very long. This is where you find the fascist states
Speaker 1: in Germany, Italy, Romania had one pretty much sort of
Speaker 1: did Spain did. Yeah. When Franco led the revolution, he
Speaker 1: was colluding with the fascists, but they apparently weren't organized
Speaker 1: enough for I'd spread enough to really, um come on
Speaker 1: as the functioning government, so he just took on. He
Speaker 1: adopted some of their fascist values in Spain. Uh. You
Speaker 1: know what, I think one of the coolest things is
Speaker 1: why it didn't work out. Was the reason it shouldn't
Speaker 1: work out is people started to say, wait a minute,
Speaker 1: genocide probably isn't a very cool thing to do, and
Speaker 1: violence and mass murder is Uh, we're kind of bad
Speaker 1: guys now, And I don't know if I like that. Right.
Speaker 1: We're sick of the shock troops cracking our skulls for
Speaker 1: smiling because happiness is a myth, an absurd myth, right,
Speaker 1: And so after World War Two the chaos is gone,
Speaker 1: which you know, they depend on that kind of chaos
Speaker 1: to to rally the people, right, and the fascism was seen,
Speaker 1: um even before World War two. Were during World War
Speaker 1: two is leading the world to war. These guys were
Speaker 1: just conquering nations, like going out and invading other nations
Speaker 1: that were nearby for whatever reason, and they had to
Speaker 1: be stopped. Which is why World War Two, I think,
Speaker 1: is viewed as such a positive war. There were such clear,
Speaker 1: mind bogglingly distinct bad guys. Right, the rest of the
Speaker 1: world was like, we're going to take you down. Sure,
Speaker 1: and they did and fought well together, and you know
Speaker 1: it was it was, as far as wars go, a
Speaker 1: pretty great war. Yeah, we're not war guys, obviously, the
Speaker 1: kind of worst we waged today. But back then, I
Speaker 1: think I would have grab my my musket. Wait, probably
Speaker 1: not a musket. I would have grab would have been
Speaker 1: really in trouble I did go into the front world,
Speaker 1: I would grab my bolt action rifle and I would
Speaker 1: have Yeah, I would have tried to Yeah, I would
Speaker 1: have been loving glorious Beast. So I was just about
Speaker 1: to say that I just saw it again this weekend. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's awesome movie. Um. Unfortunately, fascism didn't completely go away,
Speaker 1: Like you said, there are small pockets of movements around
Speaker 1: the world. Right, we're gonna talk about skinheads, these puts is,
Speaker 1: they're just stupid. I don't think we should give them
Speaker 1: any times, because you know what, there's such small pockets
Speaker 1: of morons out there that embrace this kind of thing
Speaker 1: these days. It's just silly. H There there's some neo
Speaker 1: fascist sentiment that I found surprising. It's called love of difference,
Speaker 1: which is basically just racial separation, but with a different
Speaker 1: spin on it. Right. Yeah, they say being different is
Speaker 1: really great. That's why you shouldn't mix races, not because
Speaker 1: one is better, which is we justlike being different, right,
Speaker 1: and being white. So those are kinder, gentler fascists, I guess,
Speaker 1: And there are. There's some markers that you can find
Speaker 1: in some governments. See if you can guess which ones
Speaker 1: we're talking about. Um, governments that have anti immigration laws. Right,
Speaker 1: that's a check small progressive limitations on civil rights in
Speaker 1: the name of giving a democratic country, uh, greater security
Speaker 1: check um. Isolationist foreign policy no comment. And government intervention
Speaker 1: in the means of production to secure the state from
Speaker 1: shortages and economic downturns. Definitely, no comments. Many Yeah, So
Speaker 1: that's fascism, yes, right, And it's still around here there.
Speaker 1: I don't think that there is any pure form of government,
Speaker 1: is there. No? But like we said, there are these
Speaker 1: pockets of morons that embrace uh, you know, neo Nazis,
Speaker 1: that kind of thing. But I shouldn't completely dismiss them
Speaker 1: because they do act out in violent ways at times.
Speaker 1: Oklahoma City obviously, so I don't want to make light
Speaker 1: of that. They do bad things. No, London had some
Speaker 1: bombings in I was thinking about that. London is one
Speaker 1: of the largest metropolitan areas in the world's very progressive
Speaker 1: city and it had bombings. It has bombing sometimes. That's
Speaker 1: pretty nuts, it is, Okay, So that's fascism. You want
Speaker 1: to learn more. See some creepy pictures of people smiling
Speaker 1: and waving flags as Mussolini passes by. And if you
Speaker 1: love to look at Hitler and hate him, you can
Speaker 1: find pictures of him on this fascist article by typing
Speaker 1: fascism and the andy search bar at how staff works
Speaker 1: dot com. So I guess it's listener meal time, right, Yes, indeed, Josh,
Speaker 1: I feel dirty, Yes, Josh, I'm gonna call this one. Um,
Speaker 1: how could we not mention Boba Fett? That's we're gonna
Speaker 1: call it. We heard from quite a few people on
Speaker 1: this and the Bounty Hunter episode because we failed to
Speaker 1: mention Boba Fett, who was arguably the coolest bounty hunter.
Speaker 1: He drove a vet. Oh did he? Haven't you ever
Speaker 1: heard that, Chris, I'll send it to you. So this
Speaker 1: is from our pal, Aaron A C who he writes
Speaker 1: in a lot and he's a regular. Um. I just
Speaker 1: got done listening to the latest joint how bounty bounty
Speaker 1: Hunters work, and I'm appalled, appalled because you did not
Speaker 1: I did not hear a single mention of Boba Fette
Speaker 1: and then he types, wah uh yeah, okay, so maybe
Speaker 1: he's fictional allegedly, but come on, no excuse. During the
Speaker 1: Ninja podcast, I sat through it seemed like ten minutes
Speaker 1: of you guys parentheses, Josh geeking out hard on the
Speaker 1: dossier credentials of action figures. So I know that's not it.
Speaker 1: So come on, how about a shout out for Boba.
Speaker 1: I think he deserves it. Dog and his mulleted militia
Speaker 1: ain't got nothing on the fat Man, and I would
Speaker 1: agree I would too. So we didn't mention Boba Fette.
Speaker 1: We wanted to acknowledge that. And he also says, speaking
Speaker 1: of Boba Fette in honor of his anticlimactic afterthought, of
Speaker 1: a death scene in Jedi. I'd like to offer a
Speaker 1: podcast suggestion how the Wilhelm scream works. Have you ever
Speaker 1: heard of this? I've never heard of it either, but
Speaker 1: it is awesome. It was the scream, uh, that a
Speaker 1: sound engineer recorded for a movie, and I think the
Speaker 1: nineteen forties Man Dies by Alligator was what it was called,
Speaker 1: and that has since been used the exact clip and
Speaker 1: over two movies since then. It's like an in joke
Speaker 1: with sound engineers. The Vilhelm scream. I can't believe I've
Speaker 1: never heard of it. So he asked if we can
Speaker 1: play one, and I think Jerry, we can probably rustle
Speaker 1: up a Vilhelm screen. It sounds a little something like this.
Speaker 1: I can't wait to hear what that sounds like. It's
Speaker 1: really funny actually, and after you hear it, you've noticed, Wow,
Speaker 1: I've heard that before. I hope I do. So. Thank you.
Speaker 1: I'm going crazy here, like it just played and I
Speaker 1: still don't know what it sounds like. Uh. We just
Speaker 1: want to thank Aaron for for educating me on a
Speaker 1: movie thing. I can't believe I didn't know this popular
Speaker 1: movie thing. Nice. I think Jerry knew it. Nice. And
Speaker 1: now you know I do, and knowing is half the battle.
Speaker 1: That's right. If you have any obscure movie Arcania, actually
Speaker 1: Arcania of any variety, Yeah, we're always very interested in that.
Speaker 1: We're wrapping up in an email, spanking on the bottom
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