The funny thing about name-calling is that the more it is done, the less insulting it is. And that is doubly true for those who call their political opponents fascists.
The elections for the Parliament of the European Union were notable for the increase in support for so-called far-right parties such as the National Rally in France, the Party for Freedom in the Netherlands, the Freedom Party of Austria, the Alternative for Germany, and the Brothers of Italy.
The results were alarming to legacy media institutions and the long-entrenched center-right and center-left parties that have dominated European politics for decades. There are numerous reasons for that dominance, but among them is that at one point or another, the entrenched parties have accused each of the aforementioned “far-right” parties of fascism or of harboring fascist sympathies.
The calculus was simple. The scars of European fascism that led to World War II are still relatively new in historical terms. After all, people who lived through it are still alive today. Therefore, to brand a political party as fascist is an attempt to scare people out of voting for that party out of fear that it will lead to the return of the evils wrought by Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.
But the problem with this strategy is twofold. First, the more the label is used, the less salience it has over time as people become desensitized to it. But secondly, it waters down the definition of fascism to the point where people who hold entirely reasonable political beliefs are labeled as fascists.
During the decadeslong reign of the centrist parties, certain policies became entrenched in the political system. Chief among these was the expectation that EU nations were going to take refugees and migrants from non-EU countries, while to oppose this was tantamount to fascism.
To oppose unfettered immigration is not and has never been fascism. Neither is expressing concerns that the EU and its leaders in Brussels are infringing upon national sovereignty. But both of these concerns are among the top issues that the so-called far-right parties have identified with and are the very issues that earned these parties the accusation of fascism.
With that in mind, voters have started to disregard the fascist label. When Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and her Brothers of Italy party took power in 2022, she was all but labeled as the second coming of Mussolini. But as prime minister she has governed in a fairly pragmatic way that has even seen her forge a close relationship with EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
A similar story played out in the Netherlands, where the largest party in parliament is now the Party of Freedom, which is led by the staunch immigration restrictionist Geert Wilders.
Accusations of fascism are just as prevalent in the United States, where Republicans and especially former President Donald Trump are breathlessly accused of being authoritarians hellbent on plunging the country into some sort of dystopian fascism. President Joe Biden has gone so far as to say that voting against Trump is a necessary act to ensure the continued existence of democracy.
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But regardless of what Biden may say, the 2020 election did happen under Trump’s watch and he left office on Jan. 20, 2021. And voters in the U.S. are now worried about unfettered immigration, just like the voters in Europe.
At a certain point, calling voters and the parties they support fascist for opposing unfettered immigration loses its bite, because if everyone is a fascist, no one is.