11/27/2025
It takes real effort to gaslight that they are both Collectivist Systems… and the history of Fascisms founding inspirations.
What your professors won't say—and the history they skip.
If you went to high school in the last 20 years, you were probably taught that fascism sits on the far right. It's supposed to be the enemy of socialism. The opposite of communism. The economic system of greedy capitalists in jackboots.
But the reality is far less convenient.
In practice, socialism and fascism looked eerily similar. Both rejected the free market. Both centralized economic control. And both viewed the individual not as an end—but as a tool for a collective vision.
Fascism preserved the illusion of markets—while planning everything from the top down.
Fascist regimes didn't nationalize all property. They didn't have to. They simply kept formal ownership in private hands, then told those owners exactly what they could do. The appearance of a market remained. But the choices that define a market were gone.
Under fascism, every business had to be licensed. Every activity was subject to central control. Strikes were banned. Wages and prices were fixed by state committees. Every decision—what to produce, how much to charge, how to hire, where to sell—was dictated by the state. There was no room for consumer demand. Economic activity served the plan.
Fascism centralized the economy through nationalization of banks and industry, heavy subsidies for politically aligned corporations, trade protectionism and high tariffs, mandatory unionism, price and wage controls, and quotas, licensing, and cartelization.
By 1934, one in five Italians worked for the government. By 1939, Italy had more state ownership than any country but the Soviet Union.
The Fascist government took over failing businesses, seized stock holdings from banks, controlled over 80% of credit, nationalized three-quarters of pig iron production, and controlled nearly half of Italy's steel industry.
Mussolini wasn't regulating business. He was absorbing it.
"Corporatism" was central planning by another name. Fascist corporatism promised harmony between labor and business. In reality, fascist regimes introduced state-run cartels. Businesses and workers were forced into unions—each one supervised by the government.
This was not negotiation. It was orchestration. There was no competition. No entrepreneurship. Only quotas, licenses, and orders from above.
This shouldn't be surprising. Before rising to power, Mussolini edited a Marxist newspaper and dubbed socialism his "spiritual mother."
What he built later in Italy wasn't a betrayal of socialism. It was its rebranding. He kept the planning. Kept the control. He just replaced Marxist rhetoric with nationalist slogans.
In his autobiography, Mussolini made the fascist philosophy clear: "The citizen in the Fascist State is no longer a selfish individual who has the anti-social right of rebelling against any law of the Collectivity."
Freedom, in fascism, meant obedience. And obedience was non-negotiable. The regime controlled wages, prices, investments, credit, and trade. It abolished independent labor unions. Strikes were outlawed. Jobs were assigned by syndicate. Excess profits were taxed. And ownership could be revoked if it clashed with the state's vision.
Private enterprise existed—but only at the state's pleasure.
Fascism didn't denounce socialism's controls. It only gave them a nationalist flavor.
Where socialism invoked "workers," fascism invoked "the nation." Where socialism talked about revolution, fascism talked about order. But both handed power to the state. Both subordinated the individual. Both turned the economy into a tool of ideology.
So why does fascism get branded as right-wing? Because it didn't talk like socialism.
It talked about national pride and industrial strength, not class struggle. It said "community" instead of "collective." It kept the outward image of private property—while controlling everything behind the scenes.
The true divide isn't fascism versus socialism. It's control versus liberty.
Fascism and socialism both used economic coercion to mold society. They just disagreed on the uniform.
