What Exactly Is a Fascist?

Virgil Walker of Just Thinking Ministries recently wrote an excellent article on this topic, looking at what fascism is historically—I encourage you to read the whole thing, but I’ve included some excerpts below.

This is what real fascism looked like: book burnings, banned newspapers, outlawed churches, pastors in prison, and entire populations marked for destruction.

In May 1933, Nazi students piled books into bonfires across Germany, shouting, “Against the un-German spirit!” Those flames didn’t stop with books—they soon consumed people.

This isn’t a Twitter mob who says mean things about you on a post. This isn’t a blog article that you disagree with. This isn’t a law that you protest because you feel it’s unfair to those breaking the law. Real fascism was a regime of terror, not a social media spat.

Here’s the irony: those who casually hurl the word fascist today are blind to the fact that in a truly fascist society, they wouldn’t be able to use that word at all. . . .

Words build regimes. Sloppy words build sloppy tyrannies.

If “fascist” simply means “anyone I don’t like,” then it means nothing. But when you call someone a fascist falsely, you hand justification to hostility.

We’ve already seen it: “Punch a fascist” isn’t just a meme—it’s a marching order. Once someone is dehumanized, violence feels justified. That’s exactly how real fascists paved their road to power. . . .

The next time someone calls you—or anyone else—a fascist, pause and remember: the real thing was brutal, violent, and unforgiving. The freedom to use the word loosely is itself proof that we’re not there.

But sloppy speech is never harmless. Lies pave the road to tyranny.

So resist slander. Insist on truth. And refuse to let propaganda define reality.

Words matter.

Yes, words matter. We see this when it comes to the creation/evolution issue. For example, we are often told we’re “science deniers,” but what is meant by science? We certainly don’t deny observational science—science we can test, observe and repeat—but we do deny certain worldview-based interpretations of historical science (science you can’t directly test, observe, or repeat because it deals with the past). What someone means by what they say matters—and it matters whether they even truly understand what they’re saying (which, in many cases, they don’t!).

This kind of rhetoric, like labeling political opponents as fascists, has helped contribute to the growing acceptance of political violence in America, especially among the younger generations. Our Answers News team, Bryan Osborne and Avery Foley, along with special guest Virgil Walker, recently discussed this topic. I encourage you to watch and share the video below.

Yes, this new political trend is concerning, but the answer for our culture’s problems is the same as it’s always been: the truth of God’s Word and the gospel!

By the way, when you hear people using terms like science, fascist, etc., ask them what they mean by those terms—you are likely to find most people can’t really define them correctly!

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,
Ken

This item was written with the assistance of AiG’s research team.