Hitler gave fascism a bad name

Fascism, from the Roman Fasces, a symbol of a bundle of sticks supporting an axe, seen in modern government buildings, the house of representatives, the lincoln memorial, the dime, and in state seals.  Faces symbolize strength through unity.  This in itself is not a bad ideal.  Having the country support you in strength and unity, raising their arm together, is not a bad ideal.  Nor is adopting an old hindu symbol to represent power and strength. 

Fascism, at its core, can be used for good.  A leader of Africa could rise up and use fascism, saying that the people must unite to eliminate poverty and strive for economic superiority.  A fascist could the ideals of charity and goodwill to create a nation that is superior in a philanthropic sense, not in a racial sense. 

But of course, with the advent of Hitler, any such unity among a nations people, and any common hand gesture as raising it straight at an angle, is seen as committing all the crimes of Hitler and being just as atrocious.  Because of him, fascism can no longer be used for good, at least not openly.

>>10

Here's an historical curiosity; apparently Jewish Fascism was a common phenomenon in Italy. Before Nazi influence caused racial laws to be passed in 1938, 1/3 of the ~50,000 Jewish folk in Italy were members of the fascist party. Jewish families often had as much as a 2000 year history in Italy (there was mention of the Jews wanting permission to cry over the tomb of Julius Caesar after his death), and the Italian Jewish experience (at least in the North, in the areas of progressive city-states, rather than Papal states) was one more or less of recent integration with the rest of the Italian people. So they tended to have political views pretty closely following the rest of the populace; or even perhaps more conservative views, such as latin-americans in the U.S. The book follows the lives of five jewish families under fascism. Some were fascist, some antifascist. Some in shades of grey. The stories were quite powerful when they strayed from the nonstandard; most of the Italian Jewish experience of WW-2 was much different from that of other European jews.

Copypasta, credit to amazon reviewer.

http://www.amazon.com/Benevolence-Betrayal-Italian-Families-Fascism/dp/0312421532