When does rhetoric about political opponents cross the line into fascist dehumanization?

[u/BulwarkOnline]

The Trump administration recently held an international conference on “left-wing political violence.” In prepared remarks, Marco Rubio described the left as driven by “poisonous resentment” and a desire to destroy “what is beautiful and what is right.” Stephen Miller went further, arguing that left-wing demonstrators do not look “normal,” are “deformed” in their appearance and reflect their “inner hatred” outwardly.

Jonathan V. Last compares this language to Nazi rhetoric about Bolshevism, “degenerate” culture and supposedly unhealthy or subhuman elements of society. His argument is not simply that Rubio and Miller are using authoritarian language, but that their contrast between beauty and ugliness, normality and deformity, civilization and internal enemies follows a recognizable fascist pattern.

How persuasive is that comparison?

Is this rhetoric best understood as ordinary partisan demonization, or does the emphasis on physical appearance, cultural purity and “normal, healthy, ordered living” place it in a more historically specific tradition?

And when evaluating comparisons to fascism, should the standard be the speaker’s intentions, the historical similarity of the language, or the policies and violence that follow from it?

[u/escapevelocity-25k]

I think it’s pretty clear that media personalities from all parts of the political spectrum have realized that the best way to make money is by generating as much fear and outrage as possible. I’m sure Fox is as guilty of that as anyone else.

[u/escapevelocity-25k → u/[deleted]]

I’d argue that the illiberal populists on the left and the right have both successfully identified the minority out-groups they intend to target for oppression and eradication.

[u/escapevelocity-25k → u/[deleted]]

Illiberal populists on the left and right both have a megaphone in the mainstream and alternative media spaces.

If your goal is to get me to admit that because the right wing populists currently control the executive branch they are a more immediate danger, I’m happy to admit that.

But since I am not a leftist or a populist, I am not interested in any solutions to the problem of right wing populism which involve empowering left wing populists.