By: Edvard Kadič
Decades of repetition of “Death to fascism, freedom to the nation” leave consequences in people. Unfortunately, these are not only positive, as was probably the intention of the creators of this slogan. The word “fascism” represents evil, and “freedom” represents something good. Fascism is an ideology that originated in Italy at the beginning of the 20th century. Its main goal is to establish a totalitarian political system where the state has complete control over society and the economy. The leaders of the country have complete control over all aspects of life in society. This includes economy, culture, media, education, agriculture, and of course state administration. Pluralism, democracy, and freedom of speech are something they oppose, and propaganda and censorship are used to maintain power.
In general, taunting fascists in Slovenia is very effective and welcome by the transitional left. Every time you call someone a fascist, the relationship between evil and good resonates in the depths of the soul, i.e., fascism against freedom. Every time you call someone a fascist, you unconsciously open the way for the aspirations of freedom. (Perhaps it is also more understandable to those who are not the most adept at political propaganda, why someone in freedom (!) and democracy (!) is called the Freedom Movement – Gibanje Svoboda.)
In its original form, fascism also speaks of a “pure” national identity based on racial and cultural homogeneity. It is interesting because this way we better understand why it is so important for the Slovenian transitional left not to use Slovenian flags and other Slovenian symbols for political purposes. But it uses all the others, e.g., Yugoslavian, rainbow, red, whatever, but not Slovenian. The use of Slovene flags can then be used as a marker of who is a political opponent and who should be labelled a fascist. The raison d’être in the background is that the use of the national flag calls for a “pure” national identity and therefore the user of the Slovenian flag is a fascist. This is best seen on the Twitter social network, where the user can attach the Slovenian flag to their name. Since transitional leftists and their followers do not use Slovenian flags and other Slovenian symbols for political purposes, they can calmly call anyone who uses them fascists. It is interesting that people who like to call users of Slovenian flags fascists, for example, have no problem with using Slovenian flags at a basketball game.
With such a populist ideology in the background, it is easier to understand the low competence, sometimes the sky-high immaturity to the functions of the current ruling structure. (Birds of a feather flock together.) The absence of understanding of the cause-and-effect connection, that today’s actions lead to tomorrow’s consequences, is noticeable. It is the understanding of this cause-and-effect relationship that provides the basis for taking responsibility for one’s decisions. A good example is e.g., return of punishment to rioters during Janša’s government. That is not how it works, neither with children nor with adults. If people have broken laws, they must be sanctioned. If this does not apply equally to all, we get the rule of the stronger or even anarchy.
It is not surprising that the rhetoric of the ruling coalition quickly converged in accusations, when Pavel Rupar at the last rally called on the president of the country to fire his advisor for pension issues because of her support for euthanasia. Apparently, the fear of the consequences of the protests is so great that it is necessary to call one’s followers to fight again – against fascism. The president responded to Rupar’s call with a reprimand, saying that Rupar was calling for some kind of removal or something worse regarding the aforementioned consultant. Terrible, is it not? Fascism? Then, as if on a conveyor belt, the statements of dignitaries and meritorious members of the transitional left about the fascism of political opponents began to appear. The movement of the political field began again. Movement for freedom, but against fascism. Death to fascism, freedom to the nation. To the movement for freedom. So, the Freedom Movement. Apparently, more and more people are seeing the emperor naked, as support for the government coalition is falling in opinion polls. That is why the propaganda machine of “fascism” of the transitional left must be reactivated, because it has been proven that slandering opponents with fascists works. At least for now.