The True Origin of Fascism That Schools Won’t Teach Today

“You’re a fascist!” You’ve heard that shouted so many times, it barely registers anymore. It’s the insult of choice, usually tossed at anyone with a Republican tie. Doesn’t matter if it’s a senator or your neighbor who votes red; this has been happening since the 1970s, and somehow it’s only gotten louder.

But where does that label really come from? We’re told fascism lives on the Right. The Left repeats it, and some fringe groups wear it like a badge. But are they actually right? To figure that out, we’ve got to start with the basics: what is fascism? What’s behind the word? And maybe more importantly, who created the idea behind fascism? The libnuts are not going to like this.

You’ve heard of Adam Smith? He laid the groundwork for capitalism. Karl Marx? He gave us Marxism. But when it comes to fascism, who shaped its core ideas? Who was the brainchild behind it? <crickets>

Exactly.

You don’t know. Most people don’t. It’s not that he never existed. He did. But his name was pushed aside, quietly removed by historians and academics, who are mostly on the Left because they didn’t want to deal with the fact that they share much of fascism’s actual beliefs. The truth about where fascism really comes from? It makes some people uneasy, especially on the Left. See where I’m going with this?

His name was Giovanni Gentile. [Jen Tee Lay]

Born in 1875, Gentile wasn’t just another political theorist. He was hugely influential during the first half of the 20th century. He argued there are two kinds of democracy. One is the liberal democracy we know here in the U.S., which he saw as selfish and obsessed with individual rights. Oh, the horror! The other, the one he liked, is what he called “true democracy.” That’s where people willingly put themselves beneath the state to become subservient to it.

Like his mentor, Marx, Gentile thought the state should feel like a family. Everyone needs to pitch in. Everyone is following the same mission. Sounds familiar, right? That “we’re all in this together” vibe still gets applause at political rallies.

For example, while running for president, Bill Clinton argued that while Republicans “talk about family values,” Democrats “value families” by proposing policies that support them. In other words, if you make yourself subservient to the state, the state will take care of you. Welfare, anyone? A 1992 campaign ad emphasized the values of “work, faith, family, individual responsibility, and community.” Democrats today wouldn’t even recognize that.

At the 2012 DNC Convention, a “Welcome to Charlotte” video, produced by the convention’s host committee, stated that “government is the only thing that unites Americans.”

It sounds like they were quoting Gentile.

Here’s the rub. Gentile wasn’t some far-right radical. He was a socialist. For him, fascism wasn’t the enemy of socialism. It was a branch of it. A version that could actually work. Marxism divides people by class. Fascism does that too, but adds in national identity. That’s what makes fascists “national socialists.” Ever heard the term Nazi? It’s a short form of that exact phrase. National Socialist German Workers’ Party. Socialists, all of them.

Gentile believed that the individual didn’t truly exist apart from the collective. In his view, every personal choice—what job you take, how you raise your family, even how you think—should serve the broader goals of society. There was no separation between your private life and your responsibility to the public. They weren’t just connected; they were identical. And who defines society’s needs? The state. (The Government.) So, in Gentile’s logic, serving society wasn’t some abstract ideal—it meant following the state’s direction completely. That meant the government had the authority to shape not only your actions, but your beliefs, your values, and your daily habits. Nothing was off limits.

Mussolini, who led Italy from 1922 to 1943, didn’t just admire Gentile’s ideas—he built his regime on them. He took Gentile’s philosophy and turned it into policy. In The Doctrine of Fascism, Mussolini put it plainly: “All is in the state and nothing human exists or has value outside the state.” That wasn’t just a slogan—it was Gentile’s entire worldview brought to life.

And here’s something most people forget: before all of this, Benito Mussolini was the most famous Marxist of his time. He was never outside of leftist ideology.

Even though most people don’t know his name, Gentile’s legacy didn’t vanish. His ideas still show up today, especially among progressives who argue that government should take on a larger role in society. Just look at what’s unfolded in the U.S.: expanded government involvement in healthcare, banking, education, and energy. That approach, where the state directs key sectors of the economy, is the same structure that fascist regimes used in 1930s Germany and Italy.

This is why you never hear the Left mention Gentile. They can’t. Because the moment his name comes up, the narrative falls apart. They want fascism to look like conservatism. But conservatives argue for less government. They believe freedom dies when the state takes over. Gentile, like today’s Left, wanted to harness individual and corporate resources under central control.

So Gentile fades into the background, over and over. The less people know his name, the easier it becomes to distort what fascism actually is and where it came from.

But we should remember him. If we don’t, we risk mistaking the symptoms for the cause—and that leaves the door wide open for history to repeat itself.

Now you know why every definition of fascism starts with “Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian…” It’s because the Left that writes it does not want you to know how they share the same ideology with some of the most cruel, evil, and hateful people throughout history: Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, and more.

So the next time someone on the left calls you a fascist, tell them where fascism actually came from. It wasn’t born on the political Right. It’s never been on the political Right. It came from Giovanni Gentile, a leftist thinker who followed in the footsteps of Karl Marx.

That is the objective truth of fascism.

#fascismexposed #giovannigentile #truthaboutfascisM

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