2026-09-02 17:05 UTC
Ask a liberal which is worse, fascism or socialism and you might be surprised how many would say socialism is worse, if they were being honest. Not that they like fascism. Not at all, they hate it. They just hate socialism more. To them, fascism is the lesser of the two evils. And I’m not just making this up, a prominent liberal economist of the 20th century said it explicitly:
As you will understand, it is possible for a dictator to govern in a liberal way. And it is also possible for a democracy to govern with a total lack of liberalism. Personally I prefer a liberal dictator to democratic government lacking liberalism.
Friedrich Hayek
Replies (1)
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@Doomsider@lemmy.world 2026-09-03 05:01
Why would you even ask such a thing when fascism was already chosen a long time ago. Your example would hold much truer for a conservative in the US. Most of them are anti liberal (they don’t know what it means but they hate it) and definitely would choose fascism. I don’t think that most people who consider themselves liberal would pick fascism. Of course, the framing of the question is rather important. If you describe socialist policies without calling it that big bad scary word most people are very amiable to it.