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[-] robomuffin79@lemmy.world 59 points 5 days ago
[-] cabbage@piefed.social 9 points 5 days ago

When I had the misfortune of travelling in the US one of the many things that were striking to me was the use of fasces in monuments, including engraved in marble on a war monument in Washington Square Park in NYC.

Of course it's far from the most fascist thing about modern day America, but it was fascinating to see how blunt it is. I'd jump if I saw the same thing in Europe.

[-] redhorsejacket@lemmy.world 1 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

I feel like there's a term for this sort of backwards misattribution of a symbol's later meaning onto examples which predate their modern connotation, but I can't think of what it would be. The war memorial you're referring to was dedicated in 1920. Considering fascism as a political ideology had just started coalescing around Mussolini in Italy circa 1919-1920, it strains credulity to link the two. In a similar fashion, you wouldn't suggest the presence of swastikas outside a Hindu temple indicates support for Nazism by default.

Fasces have represented the strength of the state dating back to the pre-Roman Etruscan kings. Therefore, seeing it on the national architecture of a Western nation which fancies itself as a descendent of Greek and Roman civilizations shouldn't be that surprising, nor taken as a tacit endorsement of capital-F "Fascist" ideology. Case in point, do you know what's prominently featured on the cover of every French passport? It ain't a baguette, I'll say that much. Heck, in 1953, France elected to keep the fasces as part of their diplomatic emblem, despite their very recent experiences in WW2 under Fascist rule. If we can give France a pass for continuing to use the symbol after post-war, surely that can extend to a 1920 Revolutionary War memorial in America. Unless every example of nationalism is equivalent to Fascism (and I readily grant that nationalism is a core tenet of that ideology, but allowances should be made for nuance), sometimes a fasces is just a fasces.

All of which is not to say that America is fascism free. Obviously not. Just that the above comment made me roll my eyes when there are so many better examples to cite, like the roving gangs of brownshirts disappearing people into nebulously legal holding centers.

[-] Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 4 days ago

Many in Madrid in Spain too. So there's that, I sure thought it was weird too.

[-] cabbage@piefed.social 2 points 4 days ago

Huh, I missed them when I was there. At least it makes sense historically, and considering how Spain deals with the memory of Franco I guess it makes sense that they wouldn't erase symbolism from public spaces.

Will pay attention next time I'm there!

[-] Awooooooga@lemmy.world 0 points 4 days ago

What the USA is doing right now is unique to her history and it does the gravity of what's happening a disservice to pretend otherwise.

this post was submitted on 08 Oct 2026
940 points (91.8% liked)

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