FLIPADELPHIA posted:

Several people have repeatedly said "well you need to define fascism". Ok let's do that. The 14 features that constitute fascism, by Eco

1. The first feature of Ur-Fascism is the cult of tradition.

Check. Southern society was steeped in the traditions of Anglo Saxon landed gentry

2. Traditionalism implies the rejection of modernism

Check. "Modernism" in this context certainly includes universal abolition and as I stated in the other thread, the CSA was itself a pure manifestation of the rejection of abolition. That was its core tenet.

3. Irrationalism also depends on the cult of action for action's sake

Check. The CSA launched a war against a far superior power before their government was even fully constituted. Confederate politicians had insane fever dreams of turning Latin and South America into a vast slave empire ruled by white Americans.

4. No syncretistic faith can withstand analytical criticism / disagreement is treason

Check. Though the CSA lacked the thought police and centralized propaganda arms of 20th century fascist regimes, abolition was not tolerated as a possible concession or tactic to end the war. In fact the Confederate government declared abolition unconstitutional during the war (which incidentally also destroys the "state's rights" argument thrown around by Confederate apologists

5. The first appeal of a fascist or prematurely fascist movement is an appeal against the intruders. Thus UrFascism is racist by definition

Check. Again, the otherization of black humans was THE foundation of Southern society. Their own vice president said those very words.

6. Ur-Fascism derives from individual or social frustration. That is why one of the most typical features of the historical fascism was the appeal to a frustrated middle class, a class suffering from an economic crisis or feelings of political humiliation, and frightened by the pressure of lower social groups.

Check. Poor rural Southerners were fighting not for the right to own slaves personally (most could not afford to) but for the preservation of a racial pecking order where even the poorest white man stands head and shoulders above the most capable black man.

7. To people who feel deprived of a clear social identity, Ur-Fascism says that their only privilege is the most common one, to be born in the same country. This is the origin of nationalism. Besides, the only ones who can provide an identity to the nation are its enemies.

Check. The Confederacy existed as a protest against the United States. Its very identity was reactionary in nature.

8. The followers must feel humiliated by the ostentatious wealth and force of their enemies

Check. This is a huge component of the Lost Cause Myth - that despite being outnumbered, out-supplied, and out-spent, the valiant and virtuous southern boys gave Billy Yank hell and fought on well past the point of retaining their honor. Primary sources from Confederate soldier diaries feature much resentment against the Union soldiers for their perceived superior equipment, supply, and terms of service.

9. For Ur-Fascism there is no struggle for life but, rather, life is lived for struggle. Thus pacifism is trafficking with the enemy. It is bad because life is permanent warfare

Check. There is a reason that Confederate/Southern identity was/is so wrapped up in ideas of military worship, being in a "militia", and having the "freedom" to own weapons of war to fight tyrannical government.

10. Elitism is a typical aspect of any reactionary ideology, insofar as it is fundamentally aristocratic, and aristocratic and militaristic elitism cruelly implies contempt for the weak. Ur-Fascism can only advocate a popular elitism.

Check. Aristocratic, militant cultural elitism? Yeah, check.

11. In such a perspective everybody is educated to become a hero. In every mythology the hero is an exceptional being, but in Ur-Fascist ideology, heroism is the norm

Check. Considering the first thing the CSA did was declare war on its much larger neighbor with an army made up of zealous volunteers, I'd say this definitely describes southern attitudes toward dying for the cause.

12. Since both permanent war and heroism are difficult games to play, the Ur-Fascist transfers his will to power to sexual matters. This is the origin of machismo (which implies both disdain for women and intolerance and condemnation of nonstandard sexual habits, from chastity to homosexuality). Since even sex is a difficult game to play, the UrFascist hero tends to play with weapons – doing so becomes an ersatz phallic exercise.

Check, though I think this is a particularly 20th century aspect of Eco's vision for UrFascism. I think the roots of gun worship were present in Confederate society, but perhaps did not manifest as the obsession with weaponry we see in contemporary American fascism.

13. Ur-Fascism is based upon a selective populism, a qualitative populism, one might say. In a democracy, the citizens have individual rights, but the citizens in their entirety have a political impact only from a quantitative point of view - one follows the decisions of the majority. For Ur-Fascism, however, individuals as individuals have no rights, and the People is conceived as a quality, a monolithic entity expressing the Common Will

I'm willing to acknowledge that this item doesn't fit naturally and is much more in line with the centralized fascist states post-WW1. The CSA was too fractured to have a unified "People" as a singular political entity.

14. Ur-Fascism speaks Newspeak. All the Nazi or Fascist schoolbooks made use of an impoverished vocabulary, and an elementary syntax, in order to limit the instruments for complex and critical reasoning

This one is difficult to address because the CSA was only around for a short time, and wasn't able to develop a distinct body of literature or political commentary that would serve as evidence one way or the other. However, if we look to the writings of Confederate sympathizers in the aftermath of the war, we can find one of the most successful disinformation campaigns of all time. If the CSA going to war to protect the rights and freedoms of Southerners isn't Newspeak, then nothing is.


As stated previously, not all 14 points are milled to perfection fits, but if we accept Eco's theory of what constitutes eternal fascism, there is very strong evidence that the CSA was the first true fascist state, as it was explicitly founded for the primary reason of preserving a racial hierarchy. Slavery wasn't a feature of the CSA, it was its raison d'etre.