- 23 Aug 2011 19:59
#13785473
According to this incredibly interesting lecture by Ralph Raico yes it is. According to him the fascists invented the term ''third way'' as a way to describe a middle point between the extreme of classical liberalism/libertarianism with its almost non-existant state and the total all-encompassing state of communism.
[youtube]CGoBQ1vb7vs[/youtube]
Other points he brings up is that italian fascism was relatively harmless compared to Russian Communism since the number of killings of political prisoners were counted in the tens, not in the millions like they occured in the communist countries.
Another thing that was interesting was that anti-semitism was pretty non-existant in Mussolini's Italy, anti-semitic laws were only created in 1938 because Mussolini wanted to look good in Hitler's eyes (apparently Mussolini even had a jewish girlfriend at some point).
Another interesting fact he talked about was that initially Mussolini hired a free market economist as finance minister and that he was even allowed to make several economic reforms to introduce more economic freedom but that he was eventually kicked out when his policies started affecting the income of the Italian military-industrial complex.
I was pretty shocked how benign italian fascism actually was, I had expected something far more murderous, from the way Ralph Raico describes it Italian fascism was primarily a middle class movement of people trying to defend themselves against violent and murderous socialists wanting to take their houses/farms/small businesses in Italy at the time.
[youtube]CGoBQ1vb7vs[/youtube]
Other points he brings up is that italian fascism was relatively harmless compared to Russian Communism since the number of killings of political prisoners were counted in the tens, not in the millions like they occured in the communist countries.
Another thing that was interesting was that anti-semitism was pretty non-existant in Mussolini's Italy, anti-semitic laws were only created in 1938 because Mussolini wanted to look good in Hitler's eyes (apparently Mussolini even had a jewish girlfriend at some point).
Another interesting fact he talked about was that initially Mussolini hired a free market economist as finance minister and that he was even allowed to make several economic reforms to introduce more economic freedom but that he was eventually kicked out when his policies started affecting the income of the Italian military-industrial complex.
I was pretty shocked how benign italian fascism actually was, I had expected something far more murderous, from the way Ralph Raico describes it Italian fascism was primarily a middle class movement of people trying to defend themselves against violent and murderous socialists wanting to take their houses/farms/small businesses in Italy at the time.