alt Hacker News>Just call them what they are: totalitarian-authoritarian personalities, whose roots lie deep in the desire to be free of the perceived "filth of others".
The word for that is "fascist."
>Just call them what they are: totalitarian-authoritarian personalities, whose roots lie deep in the desire to be free of the perceived "filth of others".
The word for that is "fascist."
Fascism is a loaded word that will get completely negated by glib idiocy.
Totalitarian-authoritarian personality is more fitting, because in fact as a personality it can arise in any individual - not just those wearing brown shirts and marching around in jackboots, seeking conformity with a clean ideal.
Totalitarian-authoritarianism is a meme - a kind of virus, which can be just as easily discarded as it can infiltrate a social organ.
Fascism™ ~= Totalitarian-Authoritarianism©
Fascism is a mark of trade of the totalitarian-authoritarian personality, who demands the right to be copied (in order to attain conformal cleanliness).
You can find it in yourself, if you care to look - but you may (or may not) be identifiable as a fascist.
The broader issue is that absolutes are unattainable. It is absolutely impossible to have a clean society, free of the filth of others. We humans depend on filth to perpetuate our species.
Sure, boot out the fascists if you feel that is keeping you un-clean. But in so doing, you will establish your own totalitarian-authoritarian personality. The key is not to resist - it is futile - but rather, instead, replace. The solution to any totalitarian order is simply to build another one, right on top.