A comment on some repulsive recent posts on Damian Thompson's Daily Telegraph blog

[fpb]

Are Fascists and other haters of freedom really growing in numbers, or is the Internet a particularly rich stomping ground for them? Either way, they revolt me.

Comments

[mentalguy.livejournal.com]

I have noticed the same trend in other places. I don't know that they are necessarily getting more numerous, but they are certainly getting more confident and vocal on blogs outside of their own usual echo chamber. On the other hand, they are being noticed and I get the sense that more people are starting to recognize them for what they are. That might actually be a good thing in the long run.

[affablestranger.livejournal.com]

I think they're growing in the boldness, desperate for some ferocity against those with whom they disagree and whom they detest.

[luckymarty.livejournal.com]

The latter is most certainly true, since the Internet is a particularly rich stomping ground for pretty much any fringe movement, whether repulsive or admirable (or, most commonly, innocuous). I don't think an online network of loonies has much of a tendency to grow, exactly, but the sense of community probably does empower them in the sense of confirming their beliefs and making it less likely they'll drift away.

So I don't know any way to tell if the former is true or not, based simply on Internet impressions. Personally, I tend to think that anti-freedom movements are expanding, though fascism in the narrow sense is way down towards the bottom of things to worry about. ("Fascism" has no meaningful broad sense in English, as George Orwell pointed out back in 1946.)

[jordan179.livejournal.com]

Are Fascists and other haters of freedom really growing in numbers ...

Yes, because the dying-out of the Greatest Generation and the successful conversion of "fascist" from a specific ideology to a general swear-word means that only historians remember who they actually were and what they believed.