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

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

An entry on this topic is now available.

Sure, We’ll Have Fascism in This Country and We’ll Call It Anti-Fascism
http://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/03/04/anti-fascism/

[Begin acknowledgement]
Great thanks to David A. Daniel and Bonnie Taylor-Blake whose
inquiries led QI to formulate this question and perform this
exploration. Special thanks to discussants and researchers Fred
Shapiro, Victor Steinbok, Dan Goncharoff, Stephen Goranson, and Peter
Reitan who identified valuable citations.
[End acknowledgement]

Feedback welcome
Garson


On Wed, Mar 1, 2017 at 11:02 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole
<adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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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