>>17888627
Umberto Eco's list of fascist traits is very popular but it seems more based on vibes.

Part of the problem is that fascism is kind of based on vibes. Theory wasn't a strong point for movements devoted to the inadequecies of reason and the superiority of instinct and will. There are people who recommend Giovanni Gentile, but the intellectuals were more decorative elements to fascism and not the substance of it. The communists were different and Lenin was an intellectual in addition to being a politician, and if you were a communist, you'd end up finding yourself citing Lenin as an intellectual authority in your arguments.

But the fascists were also different from traditional authoritarian rightists in that they sought to appeal to the masses. At the time, there were a lot of old-fashioned authoritarian conservatives like Franco and Mannerheim. They didn't have a particular ideological agenda other than being anti-communist and having the same biases as land-owning aristocrats and military men in Europe did. There was also a strong nostalgia for the Middle Ages in which each social group had its part to play in an "organic" collective. There are notions of old-fashioned chivalry too and dislike of rationalism and the modern bugman existence. They felt that the communists were going to turn people into souless automatons.

The fascists appealed to a different social base from the conservatives. They didn't appeal to church and king but wanted to get the masses in the mix. They appealed to tradition and certain aspects of that, and they didn't like modern art. But they sought to replace the church and king with their own party which was like a cult. The Nazis also had crazy ideas about breeding a super-race through eugenics. It's like revolutionaries for counter-revolution. The Nazis also adopted a red flag and called themselves the National Socialist Workers Party and made May 1st a state holiday:
https://youtu.be/oYZjNdKH6s8