It happened too often during the 2008 election and continues today: accusations of socialism and fascism flung about without proper appreciation or knowledge of their historical gravity. Most, if not all, of the time, the charges have flowed in one direction from right to left. They’ve been cast haphazardly and without understanding of their true meaning, especially fascism, perhaps the eviler of two.

So what is fascism, or what does it look like? Israel Charny, a world-known and respected psychologist and genocide expert, compiled a list of typical fascist traits he observed through his study of genocides and detailed them in his book Fascism and Democracy in the Human Mind. His juxtaposition of democratic traits effectively highlights the disparity between the two belief systems.

Fascist

1. Totality, final solutions, perfection
2. Overcertainty, absolutism, and magical thinking
3. Censorship and suppression of information
4. Obedience, conformity, intolerance of dessent
5. Superiority, excessive power seeking, and prejudice
6. Violence against self and/or against others, cruelty, sacrifice, and destruction of life
7. Denials of doing harm to self and others

Democratic

1. Processing and containing contradiction, diversity, and complexity
2. Acceptance of uncertainty, process, possibility, creative tension, and anxiety
3. Openmindedness to information, questioning, and use of scientific-like empiricism
4. Freedom, respect for dissent, and responsibility to make choices
5. Basic equality and respect, sharing power with checks and balances against excessive power
6. Nonviolence, conflict resolution, aggression for self-defense and seeking peace, kindness, belief in humanity, and goodness of life
7. Acceptance of responsibility for doing harm to self and others

What’s shocking about the fascist mindset Charny describes is that it resembles the collective mindset of many on the far-right who vocally and persistently oppose the current administration and the left in general. They are trying to extinguish what they believe to be fascism with fascism, and they’re doing so seemingly unaware and even in denial (try pointing this out to any patron of Glenn Beck or Bill O’Reilly, for instance, and see what happens.)

This mode of operation is dangerous and one we have to do our best to derail. Failing to do so could result in serious consequences for our democracy. In fact, truthout.org wrote an insightful piece recently on that very topic that’s worth a read. Though I don’t have the solution to this problem, I believe the first step required is learning about it and thinking critically about what we can do as individuals.