More on Vlaams Belang, Fascism, Gates of Vienna, and Little Green Footballs

Charles Johnson at Little Green Footballs has lately been on a tear. First he calls Dymphna at Gates of Vienna a 'fascist sympathizer', because she has disputed his accusations that the Belgian party Vlaams Belang are fascist. Then he claims that Gates of Vienna 'toys with genocide' because they publish an essay that theorizes that the result of muslim immigration into Europe may be genocide.

Hey Charles, if I were to write a biography of Timothy McVeigh, would that mean that I approve of blowing up buildings?

I have previously written about how Vlaams Belang do not sound like a fascist party. To illustrate the difference again, I will first quote from some people who really were fascist.

Adolf Hitler, Speech in Munich. April 12, 1922:

At the founding of this Movement we formed the decision that we would give expression to this idea of ours of the identity of the two conceptions: despite all warnings, on the basis of what we had come to believe, on the basis of the sincerity of our will, we christened it ''National Socialist.' We said to ourselves that to be 'national' means above everything to act with a boundless and all-embracing love for the people and, if necessary, even to die for it. And similarly to be 'social' means so to build up the state and the community of the people that every individual acts in the interest of the community of the people and must be to such an extent convinced of the goodness, of the honorable straightforwardness of this community of the people as to be ready to die for it.

Benito Mussolini, "Doctrine of Fascism" (1932)

7. Against individualism, the Fascist conception is for the State; and it is for the individual in so far as he coincides with the State, which is the conscience and universal will of man in his historical existence. It is opposed to classical Liberalism, which arose form the necessity of reacting against absolutism, and which brought its historical purpose to an end when the State was transformed into the conscience and will of the people. Liberalism denied the State in the interests of the particular individual; Fascism reaffirms the State as the true reality of the individual. And if liberty is to be the attribute of the real man, and not of that abstract puppet envisaged by individualistic Liberalism, Fascism is for liberty. And for the only liberty which can be a real thing, the liberty of the State and of the individual within the State. Therefore, for the Fascist, everything is in the State, and nothing human or spiritual exists, much less has value, outside the State. In this sense Fascism is totalitarian, and the Fascist State, the synthesis and unity of all values, interprets, develops and gives strength to the whole life of the people.

From Vlaams Belang's Website:

Het Vlaams Belang kiest uitdrukkelijk voor de democratie als politiek model. Het volk beslist. Dat is meteen de kern van het Vlaams-Belangstandpunt terzake.Het Vlaams Belang wil een overheid die in haar inrichting en dienstverlening neutraal staat ten opzichte van de politieke opvattingen van haar burgers. In een democratische samenleving zijn de rechten van alle burgers, ongeacht hun politieke overtuiging, in het gedrang, indien de overheid - die een zo belangrijke rol speelt in onze complexe samenleving - geen neutrale overheid is of zich ten aanzien van de politieke mening van die burgers niet neutraal opstelt.

In English:

Vlaams Belang chooses explicitly for democracy as a political model. The people decide. That is the core of Vlaams Belang's beliefs.

Vlaams Belang wants a government which in its institution and services acts as a neutral state with respect to the political conceptions of its citizens. In a democratic society the rights of all citizens are preserved, irrespective of their political convictions. The government plays in this way an important role in our complex society - by establishing itself as a neutral party with regards to the political convictions of its citizens.