Member-only story
Congratulations America! You Are Now Free to Use the F Word
But you still might get pushback from fascists.
Love grim history? Subscribe to A Grim Historian for a weekly dose of the darkest and most depressing history.
Remember when Kamala Harris called Trump a “fascist” during her presidential campaign?
Forget the pearl clutching. Republican Senator Mitch McConnell nearly dropped his monocle. Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, acted as if Harris had asked him to declare his pronouns. (We can assume it’s he/him/hallelujah.) Fox News piled on, warning that calling your opponent a “fascist” was a dangerous escalation. (Unlike, say… calling Democrats pedophiles, groomers, communists, or woke demons sent from hell to ruin your gas stove.)
Fox News had a point. Say the word “fascism” and you might as well throw a live grenade into polite conversation. Even George Orwell, writing in the 1940s as fascism was a global menace, warned us of its slipperiness:
“It will be seen that, as used, the word ‘Fascism’ is almost entirely meaningless… I have heard it applied to farmers, shopkeepers, Social Credit, corporal punishment, fox-hunting, bull-fighting, the 1922 Committee, the 1941 Committee, Kipling, Gandhi, Chiang Kai-Shek, homosexuality, Priestley’s broadcasts, Youth Hostels…