The problem with this test is that it is not measuring the willingness of the test-taker to support the abolition of the liberal system and the transition to a new set of relations in a new society. One of the key factors of fascism was precisely that
- despite the 'going back' sort of rhetoric - it had not actually been done before.
For example:
F Scale wrote:[7] Young people sometimes get rebellious ideas, but as they grow up they ought to get over them and settle down.
That question is set up wrongly, because fascists were in fact conscious of the fact that they were rebelling. In Italy there were plenty of young men and women who joined the fascist youth organisations, which at the outset were created as an
alternative to traditional Catholic organisations.
In Nazi Germany, Hitler had speeches in which he praised the dynamism of young people for acting out.
And in Japan, the young male students - soshi - were celebrating the "feeling of barbarism", and were indulged by fascist-sympathetic leaders every time they did something that liberals didn't like. Some of the young members of the army even tried to overthrow the government and install a fascist state
prematurely on three or more occasions, and in some cases were humoured and pardoned by sympathetic officials after failing. Kingoro Hashimoto was involved in several of those plots and later went on to lead the youth wing
of Japan's fascist state when it finally materialised.
F Scale wrote:[8] What this country needs most, more than laws and political programs, is a few courageous, tireless, devoted leaders in whom the people can put their faith.
Voting 'agree' seems to push the scale up, but this question also fails to take into account the vast bureaucracy and the high number of social programmes that fascists went to great pains to lay out and describe, while they were promoting the much fêted leaders who would preside over their implementation.
In fact, the scale seems to lack any political-economic questions. How can they have an F Scale without asking anything about that?
F Scale wrote:[17] When a person has a problem or worry, it is best for him not to think about it, but to keep busy with more cheerful things.
This question also works in the wrong way. Agreeing with the question causes the F-scale to increase, but that makes no sense because the last thing that fascists wants to do is 'not worry' about the liberal society that they are
upset and frustrated with.
F Scale wrote:[30] The true American way of life is disappearing so fast that force may be necessary to preserve it.
Why on earth would a fascist want to preserve the
American way of life as it is? Wouldn't that be the very thing a fascist would have a problem with?
For these and various other reasons, I think this test is not really measuring a propensity for fascism at all. It's measuring some kind of feeling, but what that feeling is, is anyone's guess.
- By wat0n
- By Tainari88
- By Potemkin