From the publisher of Right-Wing Watch.

   [My note: If you read this carefully you will note that one of the
   endearing traits of Fascism is "Shapeshifting". It really has no fixed
   ideology. It morphs to suit whatever society it infests. It relies on
   popular opinion of whatever is 'wrong' about a society and utilizes
   reactionary behavior to accomplish it's goals. No political ideology is
   required. It's parasitic to political ideologies using the (snigger)
   "Little Man"(Wilhelm Reich) to make the "Big Man" bigger.]

   [1]http://www.wilhelmreichtrust.org/listen_little_man.pdf
   A reading: [2]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeIgAlIxI0I

   Originally published in 1997.

   [Author’s Note: I am skeptical of efforts to produce a “definition” of
   fascism. As a dynamic historical current, fascism has taken many
   different forms, and has evolved dramatically in some ways. To
   understand what fascism has encompassed as a movement and a system of
   rule, we have to look at its historical context and development–as a
   form of counter-revolutionary politics that first arose in early
   twentieth-century Europe in response to rapid social upheaval, the
   devastation of World War I, and the Bolshevik Revolution. The following
   paragraphs are intended as an initial, open-ended sketch.]

   Fascism is a form of extreme right-wing ideology that celebrates the
   nation or the race as an organic community transcending all other
   loyalties. It emphasizes a myth of national or racial rebirth after a
   period of decline or destruction. To this end, fascism calls for a
   “spiritual revolution” against signs of moral decay such as
   individualism and materialism, and seeks to purge “alien” forces and
   groups that threaten the organic community. Fascism tends to celebrate
   masculinity, youth, mystical unity, and the regenerative power of
   violence. Often, but not always, it promotes racial superiority
   doctrines, ethnic persecution, imperialist expansion, and genocide. At
   the same time, fascists may embrace a form of internationalism based on
   either racial or ideological solidarity across national boundaries.
   Usually fascism espouses open male supremacy, though sometimes it may
   also promote female solidarity and new opportunities for women of the
   privileged nation or race.
   Fascism’s approach to politics is both populist–in that it seeks to
   activate “the people” as a whole against perceived oppressors or
   enemies–and elitist–in that it treats the people’s will as embodied in
   a select group, or often one supreme leader, from whom authority
   proceeds downward. Fascism seeks to organize a cadre-led mass movement
   in a drive to seize state power. It seeks to forcibly subordinate all
   spheres of society to its ideological vision of organic community,
   usually through a totalitarian state. Both as a movement and a regime,
   fascism uses mass organizations as a system of integration and control,
   and uses organized violence to suppress opposition, although the scale
   of violence varies widely.
   Fascism is hostile to Marxism, liberalism, and conservatism, yet it
   borrows concepts and practices from all three. Fascism rejects the
   principles of class struggle and workers’ internationalism as threats
   to national or racial unity, yet it often exploits real grievances
   against capitalists and landowners through ethnic scapegoating or
   radical-sounding conspiracy theories. Fascism rejects the liberal
   doctrines of individual autonomy and rights, political pluralism, and
   representative government, yet it advocates broad popular participation
   in politics and may use parliamentary channels in its drive to power.
   Its vision of a “new order” clashes with the conservative attachment to
   tradition-based institutions and hierarchies, yet fascism often
   romanticizes the past as inspiration for national rebirth.
   Fascism has a complex relationship with established elites and the
   non-fascist right. It is never a mere puppet of the ruling class, but
   an autonomous movement with its own social base. In practice, fascism
   defends capitalism against instability and the left, but also pursues
   an agenda that sometimes clashes with capitalist interests in
   significant ways. There has been much cooperation, competition, and
   interaction between fascism and other sections of the right, producing
   various hybrid movements and regimes.

   Author’s postscript, December 2016.
   In the nineteen years since I wrote “What is fascism?,” right-wing
   politics have continued to evolve, and my thinking about fascism has
   evolved as well. In particular, my concept of fascism has broadened
   with regard to the following points in the above sketch:
   1. “Fascism…celebrates the nation or race as an organic community
   transcending all other loyalties…” I now believe the category of
   fascism should be extended to include some movements for which nation
   and race are secondary or irrelevant, but which promote a myth of
   collective rebirth around a shared culture or ideology, notably
   membership in a religious group. This includes certain totalitarian
   branches of the Christian right, Islamic right, Jewish right, and so
   on.
   2. “Fascism seeks to organize a cadre-led mass movement in a drive to
   seize state power.” Some fascist movements, notably the European New
   Right and currents influenced by it, have deferred state power as a
   goal in favor of a “metapolitical” strategy. This means a long-term
   effort to transform the political culture, as a precondition to
   transforming institutions and systems of power.
   3. Fascism “seeks to forcibly subordinate all spheres of
   society…usually through a totalitarian state.” Over the past half
   century, diverse branches of the far right—including several branches
   of neonazism—have rejected big centralized states in favor of various
   moves to decentralize political power. These currents represent forms
   of what I have called “social totalitarianism,” which seek to impose
   total ideological control through local governments and/or non-state
   institutions, such as church and family. I believe this represents a
   major shift in fascist politics, and one that has been overlooked by
   many scholars.
   4. “[F]ascism defends capitalism against instability and the left…”
   Some writers have argued that German National Socialism challenged the
   basic economic principles of capitalism, by replacing the system of
   industrial wage labor with a system of slave labor in which workers on
   a mass scale were intentionally worked to death. This interpretation,
   coupled with the rise of anticapitalist ideology among some
   neofascists, has raised the question whether fascism might in some
   circumstances replace capitalism with another form of class rule—or
   with a chaotic breakdown of socio-economic systems.
   For more in-depth discussions of what fascism means and how it relates
   to recent political developments, see my essays “Two Ways of Looking at
   Fascism” [[3]http://sdonline.org/47/two-ways-of-looking-at-fascism/]
   (2008), “Is the Bush Administration Fascist?”
   [[4]http://newpol.org/content/bush-administration-fascist] (2007), and
   “Trump: A fascist upsurge is just one of the dangers”
   [[5]http://threewayfight.blogspot.com/2015/12/trumps-impact-fascist-ups
   urge-is-just.html] (2015).

   - See more at:
   [6]http://www.politicalresearch.org/2016/12/12/what-is-fascism-2/

References

   1. http://www.wilhelmreichtrust.org/listen_little_man.pdf
   2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeIgAlIxI0I
   3. http://sdonline.org/47/two-ways-of-looking-at-fascism/
   4. http://newpol.org/content/bush-administration-fascist
   5. http://threewayfight.blogspot.com/2015/12/trumps-impact-fascist-upsurge-is-just.html
   6. http://www.politicalresearch.org/2016/12/12/what-is-fascism-2/