Liberal Fascism, by Jonas Goldberg

An excellent book.

Of course Liberals will dismiss it as tripe without reading it.

Read it - it is intellectually challenging. (Can you stand the challenge?)

Why bother? The premise is so obviously a distorted rewrite of history. Just one example: If Italian and German fascism was in any way comparable to today's liberalism, then why did international corporate investment INCREASE in those countries under Mussolini and Hitler? And why was their a plot among U.S. corporations (the General Baker plot), exposed in 1934, to overthrow not Hitler or Mussolini, but the liberal Roosevelt?The answer is because the fascist regimes were profit-friendly (as long as the profiteers were acceptable politically).
Today's liberalism is hardly considered a friend to capital, because it recoginizes that more must be considered than profit i.e. the environment, human rights...Ironically, there is an analogous situation today. Nominally-communist China, according to many conservative business commentators, "treats its capital better than the U.S.", as if this somehow compensates for its oppresive government and horrible human rights record. I would consider it a grand compliment if someone said of the U.S. the reverse: It treats its people better than capital.
Of course, this is merely the debateable economic argument. In all other comparisons--freedom of speech, freedom of the press, right to privacy, freedom of religion (including freedom from religion)-- the conservatives of today are closer to the fascists of the past, though the comparison is facile and more than a bit of a stretch.

The above should have read "the General Butler plot," not General Baker. General Butler exposed the attempt by some corporate leaders to draft him to lead a fascist coup against Roosevelt.

Oh, and another point: consider the fascism of Franco's Spain. Does it more closely resemble today's conservatism or liberalism? Remember, Nixon commended Franco as a loyal ally of the U.S.
Goldberg's book is an Orwellian attempt at redrawing fascism as merely a "rival" of communism, a slightly different competitor---Coke vs. Pepsi (or perhaps I should say Fanta vs. Pepsi, in a nod to Coco-Cola's rebranding for Nazi Germany?) If that were true, then why was so it so easy for conservatives to side with Franco over his "rivals"?

Best book I have read in 30 years.
Keep up the good work Jonas, enjoy your money made on a book well researched.
The Liberal's (Progressives) in the U.S. know full well you got'em pegged.

This book seems to have made a big impression on you, Max!
But could you explain exactly how Jonas has "pegged" the US Liberals, for those of us not in the know. What are his basic arguments? (Point form is fine.) Thanks in advance.