[finnbow]

Originally Posted by donquixote99

Germany had the 'Night of the Long Knives,' Stalin and Mao* had their purges. Fascism always wants enemies to smash, and will find them among its own ranks if necessary.

*I make no distinction between left strongmen and right strongmen when they go that far. The ideology is just 'enabling myth' for these guys. The story they are telling is just a matter of historical happenstance.

From Dr. Paxton (see OP): Fascism is a:

...cult of unity, energy and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing...