[Ads-l] Saying: Fascism will come disguised as anti-fascism

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Peter Reitan wrote:
> I found the 1938 Mencken citation when the discussion was going on here
> last week, but didn't mention it here because I was under the impression
> that someone had already found an early citation.

Thanks for searching, Peter. Yes, you are right I already found and
posted a citation that was earlier than H. L. Mencken's column. But I
think Mencken is such an important figure that his words are worth
sharing.

Peter Reitan wrote:
> I also found a news item from 1933 that expressed the general idea that
> anti-fascists could act with fascist-style violence, although not in a pithy
> phrase and not by a notable personage.  Interestingly (at least to me)
> the news item involves a "The Fugitive"-style manhunt for a one-armed man:

Right, I agree with you. I also found the "one-armed man" citation
before I posted on Feb 23. I didn't mention it because I thought
"intimidation and terrorism, under the guise of Anti-Fascism" deviated
too far from the target saying, but that is a subjective judgment,
i.e., the type of judgment we are making all the time.

Garson

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Saying: Fascism will come disguised as anti-fascism
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Great thanks to Dan and Stephen. The earliest match I've located is
> still February 22, 1936. Here are some more instances. The first one
> below ascribes the comment to Bruce Bliven.
>
> H. L. Mencken expressed the same idea in a column dated November 6,
> 1938. I found the Mencken citation several days ago, but I now see a
> note at newspapers.com saying: "clipped by pjreitan 6 days ago". So I
> think Peter Reitan found it first.
>
> [ref] 1937 June 22, The Evening Herald (The Daily Herald), Not All
> Fascists Wear Funny Colored Shirts (Editorial), Section 2, Quote Page
> 2, Column 1, Provo, Utah. (Newspapers_com)[/ref]
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> Bruce Bliven, editor of the New Republic, sagely remarked not long ago
> that if or when Fascism ever makes any headway in America, it will
> probably be known as "Anti-Fascism."
> [End excerpt]
>
>
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