The Other F Word

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Archive on 4: The Other F Word

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Jonathan Freedland asks what the word fascism means in the 2020s.

Jonathan Freedland asks what the word fascism means in the 2020s and whether it is right to compare the politics or language of today with that of the 1930s.

Fascist. Fascism. By one measure, a very specific, historical movement. But also a word that is wholly of the now, used - or thrown around - daily and with ever-greater frequency.

A warning from history, few words have such power. But has that power been eroded over the decades, twisted by propagandists, rendered meaningless by over-use?

Jonathan Freedland considers the past and present of the f-word, spooling through the BBC archives from Benito Mussolini's March on Rome a century ago, to contemporary talk of body fascism and eco-fascism. 

Who or what in today's world could be described as fascist? Why does the word exert such continued power? And is it appropriate to compare the politics or language of the 1930s with that of today?

Dr Selena Daly, Professor Gary Gerstle and Professor Kerry Brown join Jonathan to hear and discuss Mussolini and Mosley, Putin and Xi Jinping, Trump rallies and Gary Lineker's tweets. 

Jonathan also talks to Karen Pollock of the Holocaust Educational Trust and hears from Peter Pomerantsev, author of Nothing is True and Everything is Possible, and Orysia Lutsevych, head of the Ukraine Forum at Chatham House. 

Producer: Julia Johnson
A TBI Media production for BBC Radio 4

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