The Illustrated Fascist, Part 3

The 14 defining elements of fascism.

No. 3, Identification of Enemies/ Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause.

The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc. 

Britt wrote, “The most significant common thread among these regimes was the use of scapegoating as a means to divert the people’s attention from other problems, to shift blame for failures, and to channel frustration in controlled directions. The methods of choice — relentless propaganda and disinformation — were usually effective. Often the regimes would incite ‘spontaneous’ acts against the target scapegoats… Active opponents of these regimes were inevitably labeled as terrorists and dealt with accordingly.”