Totalitarianism.
that's it!
it's just
worship of the State. but, its dictatorial founder just
made-up the assertion that it was different than Fascism or Communism
(a "Third Way"). it isn't. it's framed as Collectivism, but where the entire premise is that the State is always right...no different than Fascism, and no different than Communism...once the dictator is in control (shortly after each bloody revolution). hear me out! as i shared on the other thread, James Lindsay summarized Fascism in his
New Discourses podcast (see References at the end of this). Peronism is just
Populist Fascism, which is Totalitarianism/Collectivism. let's analyze Fascism first! Lindsay argues:
"Fascism is actually the bastard son of Communism [...]. It is a reaction to Communism as well, but that's because it's the negation that arises from within it [dialectical]" (James Lindsay, :14::30). Mussolini even said his century was the "Century of the State." most importantly, and parallel to Argentina's Peronism, Mussolini made-up the idea that Fascism (which is Totalitarian where '
nothing outside of the State,') is different than Communism. but James Lindsay around the 10:00 mark argues that both Fascism and Communism ended up fusing into each other into Totalitarianism. similarly, Peron claimed Peronism/Justicialism was different than Fascism, but
the end state is...the State. there is no meaningful difference.
"Mussolini's movement was not limited to
nationalism and
assaults on property. It boiled with the
readiness for violent action, anti-intellectualism, rejection of compromise, and contempt for established society" (Paxton 5). in Argentina, "The reality is that
Argentinian industry has been captured by unproductive state-owned enterprises and racketeering labor unions under the guise of socialism. This kind of regulatory capture is par for the course as economies trend toward socialism" (Reddit u/coke_and_coffee). Avocado will lie and say that Peronism isn't Collectivism or Totalitarianism (in all its forms - Fascism, Communism, Socialism), yet
Peron himself said that Peronism/Justicialism was "socialista nacional" (National Socialist) in ideology, if you watch his interview here:
similarly, in Germany's past and still today in China, we see the ability for a government to say it is a "market" economy,
but any company or owner who didn't follow the government's mandates, ended up being seized or shut-down, so it was only the illusion of free-market Capitalism (in the CCP now, and what ESG today is trying to do with BlackRock, Vanguard, WEF, WHO, etc. "Equity and Inclusion" or DEI/DIE). James Lindsay calls this idea a "
Potemkin Market."
most crucially for the Fascist link, Peron went to Italy to study the model of Fascism: "Colonel Juan Peron matched [the image of a Fascist
jefe] more closely, both in his personal charisma and in his political predilections. On the eve of World War II, as assistant Argentine military attaché in Rome, he had admired the order, the discipline, the unity, and the enthusiasm, as he perceived them, of Fascist Italy. Indeed Peron claimed Italian ancestry, like many Argentines" (Paxton 193).
Peronism can't be defined, even by its followers. there's a reason why this meme is so funny:
"A political party with no real ideology that all they care about is doing whatever it takes to get as many votes as they possibly can and then trying to remain in office for as long as they are able to, even if it requires amending the constitution" (Reddit u/
nismaneado20150118). and a YouTube comment on an explanatory video is apt: "Peronism is when the government does stuff, and the more stuff it does, the more Peronist it gets, and when the government does a WHOLE lot of stuff, its Kirchnerism" (YouTube @challah4311). why is such a fervently-help belief so un-definable? easy:
it takes the form of whatever the ruling elites say it is. that's called Populism messaging, backed by Fascism's power.
it can't be defined because
it is just power, maintained by the current dictator/oligarchy.
"early Justicialists (from which Peronism descends or is a part of) and Peron were not subtle about admiring Fascism. They openly espoused
corporatism, an ideology pioneered by Mussolini. And that combination of executive power and progressive reforms was similarly seen in European fascists states. Peron himself repeatedly expressed sympathy for European fascists, welcomed them to Argentina after they lost, and condemned the Nuremberg trials, calling them 'a disgrace and an unfortunate lesson for the future of humanity'" (Reddit u/Erusian). Peron loved Mussolini's control, nationalism, youth indoctrination, and military shows of power. "[Juan Peron] nevertheless admired Mussolini especially and had strong personal ties to Nazi Germany (modern-day Peronists still reject these claims). So, Peron was ostensibly a hard-right military man at the beginning of his career, and maintained some level of fascist sympathies for the whole of his life" (Reddit u/HClay77).
youth indoctrination: Soviet Union and Mao did the same: "
Hoy, los ferrocarriles y los teléfonos de nuestro país son propiedad del Estado, cumpliéndose así una de nuestras más ardientes aspiraciones. ¡HOY, al General JUAN DOMINGO PERÓN, la ferviente gratitud de todos los argentinos!" (
Libros Peronistas). how creepy that entire generations were reading Fascist books; no surprise why the Collectivism contagion still lurks in so many brainwashed minds...propaganda works!
Justicialism/Kirchnerism/Peronism/Fascism/Communism/Socialism/Totalitarianism: "By 1946, General Juan Domingo Perón stood victorious in the elections, ending the first dictatorship (which he had supported) and giving way to the most destabilizing movement for the economy: "Justicialism" (defined by Perón himself as a national -socialism, only as the word "socialism" did not please, it is given the name "
Justicialism"), which was basically a
popular movement to attract the ignorant masses of that time to a period where the Benefactor State prevailed" (Reddit u/HClay77). and when the USA, in its usual regime-change business-as-usual, tried to stop Peron in 1945, it probably just gave him more credibility with 'the people' of Argentina. the problem with listening to Peron or his followers about what Peronism is, is that since they have to say anything that will perpetuate the State, their
words are meaningless. we have to instead look at their actions. "A new 'man' in a new nation - Mussolini's regime made immense efforts to convince Italians that the Fascist state was 'working for the people' (Ferrarini).
"In power, Peron continued to exhibit tendencies that seem contradictory on a left-right axis but all fit in to the larger trend of assuring his power and satisfying his base. In fact, while the term 'populist' gets thrown around a lot these days, Peron fit it better than most, as many of his policies in the economic and social sphere were a way to directly satisfy his working-class base as a way to ensure their continued support of him. And this is the way in which Peron can seem 'socialist' to our eyes, as he enacted sweeping labor protections and social reforms ranging from minimum wage and safety regulations to voting rights for women, etc. And in this context, Peron seems to be a pretty traditional 'socialist' reformer. However, at the same time as all this,
Peron continued to make moves towards strengthening his own executive power, in ways that make him look a lot more like a traditional strongman" (Reddit u/HClay77).
Totalitarian leaders always need to change the laws to remain in power, and Peron was no different: "So while he was empowering workers and protecting their rights, he was also doing everything in his power to rule as a dictator, going so far as to change the constitution in 1949 to give himself sweeping presidential powers, which enabled him to run for and win an unprecedented second term in 1952" (Reddit u/HClay77). and, Peron followed Hitler and Mussolini and North Korea, when arguing for leader-worship: "School texts from the period read like an Orwellian horror show, as children would learn grammar by reciting sentences praising Peron or his wife Eva (Evita). Peron’s second term was even more openly dictatorial, and the so-called 'Liberating Revolution' of 1955 (another military coup), was explicitly aimed at shutting down Peronism for good, and forced him into exile" (Reddit u/HClay77).
Summary from r/AskHistorians: "in Peronism we have a movement that has both hard-left and hard-right tendencies, in reflection of a highly complex man. Personally, I think of Peron more as a conservative military strongman than a leftist crusader, as it seems to me that
his overtures towards workers were more because they were his avenue to power rather than a genuine interest in the interests of the lower classes. But millions of Argentinians disagree, and
the student and union political spheres, especially, are still dominated by Peronist groups (or rather, groups claiming to be Peronist). The contradictions of Peronism, while they have explanations and reasons for being, are still mind-bending contradictions that have to be worked around (or simply paid lip-service to). Maybe the most important legacy of Peronism is that it provided a figurehead for various social and political movements, and that it has given Argentina its defining question of political identity. Just as in the US you’re usually a Democrat or a Republican, or in other parts of the world you’re more left or more right, in Argentina you’re either pro- or anti-Peronist, whatever that means. If you're interested in more, I'd recommend David Rock's
Argentina, 1516-1983 or Luis Alberto Romero's
A History of Argentina in the Twentieth Century for general overviews. If you want a more in-depth and politically-focused read, go for Federico Finchelstein's
The Ideological Origins of the Dirty War, which is a fascinating history of fascism in Argentina.
TL;DR: The contradictions in Peronism are a direct result of Peron's actions. It's above all a populist movement, with pro-labor and distinctly authoritarian tendencies" (Reddit u/HClay77).
Peron's "workers" mentioned before, sounds exactly like Communism's proletariat, doesn't it? Peronism, like all Totalitarian ideologies, uses noble-sounding causes to seize power...
Peronism, Communism, etc., 'empower' 'workers' as a fixed caste of proletariat, against some perceived evil/boogeyman. today, that evil is Javier Milei, who Peronists are brainwashed to think is a devil against which they, as the Anointed must fight on the Side of the Angels to save humanity (Thomas Sowell). "Peronism
has no clear ideology (not even under Perón), it's just a
'the leader is good, obey the leader' kind of herd mentality, and as such Peronists in power can do whatever they like and generally keep the favor of the Peronist majority. Many of their policies tend to be awful and very destructive for the long-term well-being of the country, and they're also pretty much always very corrupt. I grant you, non-Peronist politicians can and have been very corrupt in Argentina too, but only Peronists can be openly corrupt and still be regarded as heroes of the people" (Reddit u/ObiWanTegobi). and, "first of all, the leader is always right so the movement won't take any responsibilities for mistakes done; those within the movement will follow the leader somehow as if it were a religious figure" (Reddit u/Actual_Tomorrow2557).
"Peronism was born as the Nazi Party of Argentina but in the 60s and 70s was progressively 'infiltrated' by communists. (As Perón lived in exile, he used the Communists to undermine the nation and the successive governments to allow him to return. While he had a hatred of communists, he used them but lost control of them. Search for '
Perón echa a los Montoneros de la Plaza' for the climax of this conflict). Economically, Peronism believed (and believes to this day) that
the State must handle every aspect of the economy. Whether this be by creating an agency that buys products from exporters at fixed prices and sells them, by nationalizing industries,
by establishing price and currency controls, or by granting monopolies to courtesans of the different government officials, the private sector is sidelined and regulated or otherwise sabotaged by the economic planners. Socially, Peronism has seen the greatest mutations. The only real trait that I believe has survived was anti-semitism (Though ironically Perón suported Israel, at least at first). It otherwise started as an extremely conservative, highly catholic, almost reactionary position in the 40s, it eventually started turning into a much more 'progressive' shape that it has now, more on the side of social marxism that is more reminiscent of neo communists, tying them also to their economic and political views, as they are supported by communist parties in Argentina and abroad. (The current government having been part of the 21st century socialism current). Politically, they are populists, or totalitarian. Those terms can be interchangeable in many cases" (Reddit u/FlaviFeels).
Tenets: "The three main tenets of peronism were Social Justice, Economic Independence and Political Sovereignty (
soberanía política, independencia económica y justicia social). Social Justice was partially achieved by measures like paid vacations, an additional salary per year or the women vote. But in the other two, little was achieved" (Reddit u/Gogol1212). this is because "Peronism was totalitarian in nature; it is sometimes referred to as Justicialism in Argentina. It has three key legs that define the central values of the state-- social justice, economic independence, and political sovereignty. Rather than the traditional hard left approaches of socialists and communists, they took a more fascist type approach towards economic development and partnerships, espousing a form of corporatism where the state became the arbiter of economic relationships between worker and employer" (Reddit u/ErieHog).
Peron was able to use Evita to claim their oligarchy was going to help the poor masses against the elites, but their rule and the resulting Peronist/Kirchnerist reigns ended up being
just like any other elite - seizing power, enriching themselves, and staying in power. their skill was in convincing people like Avocado and CheVos that they were enriching themselves in order to help the masses; a pretty impressive level of propaganda and brainwashing! regarding propaganda: "Peron's dictatorship used
police intimidation and controlled the press" (Paxton 196). like every totalitarian regime, the only way to maintain power is through controlling all communication (like how Communist China today has its own censored intranet that the State tells its people is the full Internet).
this affects voting: "Press was so heavily censored by the hand of Raúl '
El Nazi' Apold that
you could only print the news if they had been pre-approved by a government censor. Throughout the system of '
Jefes de Manzana' (people who were tasked with keeping an eye on their neighbours to make sure anyone not sufficiently supportive of the regime was neutralized, whether by fear, by tarnishing their reputation, by destroying their businesses or leaving them jobless, or even by eliminating them if need be) the regime managed to ensure that if you weren't one of them, you stayed quiet and afraid.
Elections under the first Perón were not too dissimilar to the Anschluss Referendum. 'Vote Perón or else'" (Reddit u/FlaviFeels).
conclusion: if Fascism is "Idolatry of the State" then
peronismo must be
idolatry of whoever is in charge of the Peronist/Kirchnerist/Whateverist dictator/empire at the time. just like how
kirchnerismo can't be defined, since it's as intentionally confusing as Peronism was/is, the next authoritarian leader will use populist politics to use whatever the current social trend is, to rise to as much Executive power as possible (dictatorship/totalitarianism). the followers of the next -ism will be zealots of the religion of the State. Fascism "is not individualistic" but each citizen eventually needs to fuse with the State, so that "you are not you anymore," you are a component of the State, and must toil/struggle perpetually for the nationalistic and populist 'goals' of the dictator/
politburo (Lindsay :57::30). this is why Lindsay says
the State becomes an idol to be worshipped. thus, Peronism, like Fascism, is "a religion of the Fascist State" that focuses on a perpetual (perceived) struggle" (Lindsay).
"
The Fascist conception of the State is all-embracing. It's the idol. [...] Outside of the State, no human or spiritual values can exist [...], much less have value. [...] Thus understood,
Fascism is totalitarian. [...] [Fascism] potentiates the whole life of a people." (Lindsay, quoting Mussolini. 1:07::30). if you play the game, just like mentioned before in the Soviet Union and now in Communist China, you can be part of the Kirchner/Peronism racket where you loot the wealth of Argentina while singing praises to equity and worker rights. if you don't toe the line when commanded, you will be thrown-out. in the end, it's an oligarchy/dictatorship of the political elite, or nepotism of the current family/group in charge. it should be painfully obvious that the 'poor' face of Peronism,
Evita, ended up looting the wealth of the nation and spending absurd amounts of money on her decadence and pet projects, just like any other corrupt dictatorship. yet, Avocado/CheVos will worship her to their death, no matter if a video surfaced someday of Evita admitting she was intentionally looting the country. it wouldn't matter; she's a Saint, at the core of the religion of Peronism/Fascism. to criticize Evita is to pull the foundation out of the entire worldview that they've been brainwashed their whole lives to believe.
current events: related to all of this, Peronists will blame Macri for everything! which is perfect...because Macri didn't de-regulate fully, and actually
increased public spending and debt; the opposite of what needed to happen to bring Argentina out of the third-world it's been mired in. see:
and
so those who say Milei is just Macri's minion, it's sad that their tribalism rejects all evidence and logic; Milei already did more in his first hour than Macri (and Trump in the USA) did in his whole presidency. spending less and getting out of debt is the main goal, accomplished by de-regulation and allowing the free exchange of goods/services/ideas.
this is terrifying to any Authoritarian, because it essentially takes away all the perks of being in control; enriching one's oligarchic group while in power, and then staying in power at all costs. "
A Totalitarian State that does whatever it has to do to maintain power" (Lindsay 1:49::00).
Orwell: "The Party seeks
power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power, pure power. What pure power means you will understand presently. We are different from the oligarchies of the past in that we know what we are doing. All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were cowards and hypocrites.
The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just around the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal. We are not like that. We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power" (Orwell's
1984).
you could add Peronism to that description, and say 'the Peronists believed their dictator seized power for a limited time, with the intention of relinquishing it, and just around the corner there is
a paradise where Argentines would be free and equal' and it would fit pretty perfectly. Lindsay argues that since the 1960s-1970s, Communism and Fascism synthesized into a single conception:
State power that maintains its power however it can. "Fascism can produce, sort of, but it can't make people happy. [...] It's Fascism for the corporate universe, and it's Communism for the people [...]. That's the new model. This program doesn't actually work; it works better than Communism, but it doesn't work" (Lindsay 1:13:00).
CheVos and Avocado as the annoying Peronist zealots in this Expat forum will undoubtedly say 'that's not what Peronism is, you've only been here 2 months and you don't know anything about Argentina' -or some other attack on the author and not the ideas, but in the end, even they won't be able to give anything other than a vague Wikipedia-style sentence of 'Peronism is a unique political stance in Argentina that has roots in Fascist Italy, and favors [insert current Populist topic, like Workers' Rights here]' ... this is because Peronism is just what the current party leaders say it is, when they
pander to the current zeitgeist of the majority (the definition of Populism).
whatever 'free stuff' the government can 'give' is called Peronism/Kirchnerism, but there are no actual principles other than maintaining as much political power as possible. in the USA, Woke-ism is sort of a totalitarian cancel-culture version of this. as
@Cheap Bastard mentioned before, "The Twenty Truths of the Perónist Justicialism [...] There is only one class of men for the Peronist cause: the workers" (Peron, 1950).
if those times had some other popular movement, Peron would have capitalized on it, to gain power.
similarly, using the DEI zeitgeist, Nestor Kirchner in 2006 exclaimed: "we have taken 1,562,000 people out of poverty in one year and 562,000 have been lifted from indigence. Minimum salary in Argentina went from 200 pesos to 830, in other words, it experienced a 400 percent increase and the economy did not suffer at all. The number of people that retired from the lower end of the scale, had an increase of 270 percent and we are now recovering those retired persons that are in the higher end of the scale. Evidently, all of this goes to consumption, an area in which there is a full recovery and which has not experienced any alteration either.
It is fundamental for us to strike a balance between economic growth and equity and justice" (Nestor Kirchner, 2006). this is hilarious to read, when Nestor was the one that made crazy price controls, published fake inflation numbers, and oversaw one of the worst periods in Argentine economic history. but, it's all forgiven by Peronists, because he did it while saying it was for equity and workers, and something-something Democracy!
😉
in real life,
if it quacks like a duck, it's Totalitarian Collectivism, where the Fascist State is at the core of everything, and it maintains its power at all costs. it must use dictatorial power to manipulate the media and keep the masses appeased, just like any corrupt emperor of Rome did, and what Hitler did, what Musolini did, what the USSR did, and what China is currently doing. of course, because they are brainwashed from childhood books (
Libros Peronistas) onward to State media, the supporters Avocado/CheVos will find mental-gymnastics ways to say it is Democracy, but authoritarianism is authoritarianism, whether it's your 'guy' in power, or the other 'side.' just like any other religious cult/ideology, the messaging appeals to lower-class people who feel the next election will solve all their life problems, and the psychopathic State authoritarians are happy to capitalize on this. even today in the USA for 2024 we see the messaging: "Democracy is at stake/on the ballot" etc., when both Trump and Biden are the same Uniparty 80-year-old creepers that have done nothing but perpetuate the welfare-warfare state. but we swear this time will be different! for Peronists, they're just extra dumb, because even with 70+ years in power there still aren't public restrooms in Buenos Aires, and poverty is at 50%, but somehow
the Peronists will never admit that their favorite oligarchs are to blame for massive spending and corruption.
some Peronists will claim that they are united under
"anti-imperialism" and "anti-colonialism" but there isn't any consistent evidence of that, nor do the elites who seize power do any of that, other than via meaningless propaganda. to sum-up, if Peronism is all about workers' rights and equity, why did this political plan result in massive poverty and horrifying conditions for the lower/working class? and most importantly for Kirchnerists/Peronists, how is Peronism any different than Fascism, and was there anything the State
wouldn't do to maintain power, historically? i look forward to the Peronists' responses to this research, because obviously they won't read any of this, and like all ideological drones, they will repeat the propaganda they've been taught. this is pretty depressing, because not even with the implosion of the Argentine economy, the religious cultists will never self-cure their Stockholm Syndrome; how more depressing it is also to read Mussolini: "
Never before have the peoples thirsted for authority, direction, order, as they do now" - looks like not much has changed in CABA, unfortunately.
References
1. James Lindsay,
New Discourses, "Fascism: Idolatry of the State," 08 January 2024 podcast,
2. Robert Paxton,
The Anatomy of Fascism,
https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Anatomy_of_Fascism/JU3th4LnKvsC
3. Fabio Ferrarini,
https://www.sv.uio.no/c-rex/english/news-and-events/right-now/2023/when-fascism-became-populist.html
4. Juan Peron,
https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/1950peronism2.asp
5. Benito Mussolini and Giovanni Gentile,
The Doctrine of Fascism (1932),
https://www.wm.edu/offices/auxiliary/osher/course-info/classnotes/thedoctrineoffascismedited.pdf
6. u/HClay77, AskHistorians on Reddit,
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistori...racterized_peronism_was_it_socialist/e3rrusf/
7. u/ObiWanTegobi, Reddit #2,
https://www.reddit.com/r/argentina/comments/f644ra/why_do_so_many_people_hate_peronism/fi2n31p/
8. u/FlaviFeels, Reddit #3,
https://www.reddit.com/r/argentina/comments/f644ra/why_do_so_many_people_hate_peronism/fi31rk8/
9. u/Gogol1212, Reddit #4,
https://www.reddit.com/r/DebateCommunism/comments/iluwa6/what_do_you_think_about_peronism/g3uyz5k/
10. u/
Actual_Tomorrow2557 and u/nismaneado20150118, Reddit #5,
https://www.reddit.com/r/argentina/comments/180b7ws/what_is_peronism/ka4tkyk/
11. u/ErieHog, Reddit#6,
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlik...5_the_political_movement_of_peronism/dnqnng6/
12. u/coke_and_coffee, Reddit#7,
https://www.reddit.com/r/Capitalism...at_were_the_material_conditions_that/kalq3pr/
13.
Libros Peronistas,
https://librosperonistas.com/
