So many have given Jonah Goldberg's idiotic book, Liberal Fascism the critical evisceration that it deserves, but this one by John Scalzi gives him the most compelling of all.
In addition to the fact that Mussolini was a fascist and, in fact, founder of the Fascist Party in Italy and author of The Doctrine of Fascism, Mussolini and Hitler also supplied aid to Franco during the Spanish Civil War, whose air forces conducted the destruction of Guernica.
Franco also allowed more than 18,000 volunteers to fight on the side of the Nazis against the USSR in a unit known as the Blue Division. Rich Lowry, who writes for the same publication that Goldberg does quotes approvingly of David Pryce-Jones:
As in the Spanish Civil War, whoever wins will have momentum in the coming wider struggle. As David Pryce-Jones has written, in the Spanish Civil War, "the Fascist victory meant that there was no chance to put Communism into practice in Western Europe, and no chance either to stop Hitler in his tracks."
In essence, one of Goldberg's colleagues acknowledges that Franco was a fascist and that his victory aided Hitler. The National Review praised Franco rabidly during the 1950's:
October 26, 1957: General Franco is an authentic national hero... [with the] talents, the perseverance, and the sense of the righteousness of his cause, that were required to wrest Spain from the hands of the visionaries, ideologues, Marxists, and nihilists that were imposing... a regime so grotesque as to do violence to the Spanish soul, to deny, even, Spain's historical destiny. He saved the day.... The need was imperative... for a national policy [to]... make this concession to Churchill this morning, that one to Hitler this afternoon.... Franco reigns... supreme. He is not an oppressive dictator.... only as oppressive as is necessary to maintain total power...
What mentions does Goldberg make of Franco in his book? One is in reference to Pat Buchanan sharing similar anti-communist views as Franco and the other deals with Franco's refusal to turn over Jews to Hitler during WWII.
No mention of the Blue Division. No mention of Mussolini's and Hitler's aid during the Spanish Civil War. This is not mere cherry-picking. This is willful ignorance - and what better way to define such ignorance than to call it what it is: intellectual dishonesty.
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