fascism-101

This is a reference site about fascism: what the word means, what the scholarship actually says, which regimes and movements qualify under which definitions, and how to think about the cases being argued over right now.

What this site refuses to do

It never asserts a contested classification as settled fact. For every case, it states the criteria being applied, applies them transparently, names the scholars on each side of any dispute, and leaves the verdict to you. Every factual claim carries a source. Every page carries a last-verified date. The full rules are published at the methodology page, and errors are corrected in public at the corrections log.

Start here

• New to the subject: What is fascism? and then the spectrum. Those two sections are the foundation everything else stands on.
• Here about history: the historical narrative and the regime catalog, organized by strength of scholarly consensus.
• Here about now: the contemporary landscape, then the live debates.
• Here about the United States: the United States module, built to be read in order, criteria before evidence. The shortcut, if you must: what scholars actually agree on.
• Here to argue with someone: the checklists and the assessment, which will make the argument better.

The one insight to leave with

The six major scholarly definitions of fascism are not six answers to one question; they are answers to six different questions. Most public arguments about whether something is fascist dissolve into arguments about which question is being asked. Once you see that, everything on this site, and most of what you read elsewhere, gets clearer. The demonstration is at the definitions page.