If Liberalism spells individualism, Fascism spells government.

Whenever you hear American "liberals" saying that the real Fascists deny "our democracy," you  should understand the definitions of "liberal" and "democracy." Liberalism is a conception of freedom from the state, freedom for the individual. Democracy is a theory of political power that admits no immunity from the state (see "Rousseau and Totaliarianism" by Robert Nisbet). Today's liberals have abandoned the first and adopted the second. So what does the inventor of Fascism say about actual Fascists? The  quotes below in bold are from Benito Mussolini's Doctrine of Fascism, written in 1932, or from the book of the same name.

If you believe Americans must oppose extreme individualists who deny our shared democracy...

If you believe a new youthful politics must reimagine the broken forms of harmful middle-class life in a way that takes us forward...

If you believe we are stronger together and must abandon the conventional lie of equality...

If you believe that only a concentrated democracy can deliver economic and political liberty for all in a new collective century...

...then you should be aware that Mussolini said all these things to the citizens of Italy, and you might have voted for him in 1922.

"The Fascist conception of the State is all embracing; outside of it no human or spiritual values can exist, much less have value."

The only values that can exist under Fascism are the values created by the State. Fascists thus reject the core idea expressed by the Bill of Rights: that your human rights come from God, not the State. The America as founded utterly rejects the Fascist philosophy. An American who denies that human rights transcend any form of government is leaning toward Fascism. Any "American" who says your rights come from government has already accepted a fundamental principle of Fascism. After attaining power, the only way forward for the Fascist is to strip citizens of their God-given rights and replace them with rights created by the State.

"The Fascist State organizes the nation, but leaves a sufficient margin of liberty to the individual; the latter is deprived of all useless and possibly harmful freedom, but retains what is essential; the deciding power in this question cannot be the individual, but the State alone."

In recent years, the world has heard much about which liberties the State deems "essential" or "non-essential." During the COVID pandemic, the State judged the right to racial street protests as essential while the right to attend church was declared harmful and pastors were arrested. There are too many other examples to list here, but if you declare that the State has sole jurisdiction in these matters, and deny the individual's right to self-determination, then you are a Fascist.

"Fascism stands for liberty, and for the only liberty worth having, the liberty of the State and of the individual within the State."

Some Americans will tell you that the individual's right to self-protection (aka "the right to keep and bear arms") is one of those "non-essential" freedoms that can be infringed by the State. They also say that those who dogmatically assert their Second Amendment rights are Fascists, and that the only liberty worth having is the kind where no private citizen has "weapons of war," and everyone is kept "safe" by armed agents of the State. Those Americans point to our traditional values and proudly assert "that's not who we are."

The inconvenient truth is that private citizens with guns are the last line of defense against an absolute State. The first defenders, if you will, are citizens who deny the Fascist concept of liberty. Is that who you are?

"Anti-individualistic, the Fascist conception of life stresses the importance of the State and accepts the individual only in so far as his interests coincide with those of the State, which stands for the conscience and the universal will of man as a historic entity."

Conservatives (also called "classical liberals") desire smaller government above almost anything else. Fascism rejects, with extreme prejudice, any individual who denies the absolute power of the State.

"It is opposed to classical liberalism which arose as a reaction to absolutism and exhausted its historical function when the State became the expression of the conscience and will of the people."

Society invented "classical liberalism" to end the rule of absolute monarchies. America, for all her admitted flaws, was founded with that very intent. Fascism was invented to reassert the absolute rights of the State over the individual. Notice that under Fascism the "will of the people" can only be expressed by the State.

"Liberalism denied the State in the name of the individual; Fascism reasserts the rights of the State as expressing the real essence of the individual."

"Fascism, in short, is not only a law-giver and a founder of institutions, but an educator and a promoter of spiritual life. It aims at refashioning not only the forms of life but their content — man, his character, and his faith. To achieve this propose it enforces discipline and uses authority, entering into the soul and ruling with undisputed sway. Therefore it has chosen as its emblem the Lictor’s rods, the symbol of unity, strength, and justice."

There is an ideology in modern America that also promotes unity, strength, and justice. It claims to be "anti-fascist" while, at the same time, promoting a nationwide educational program of "anti-racism." Students of this ideology view everything through the lens of race, and proudly proclaim that only State power can "end racism" through mandated "diversity" programs that define all white and "white-adjacent" people as racist. And finally, disciples of DEI proclaim that "our democracy" is threatened by "fascists" who deny the State's race-first worldview and promote individual liberties under rights that come from God.

"The Fascist State is wide awake and has a will of its own."

"If liberalism spells individualism, Fascism spells government."

"Fascism is an organized, centralized, authoritarian democracy."

Much has been said from both sides of the "woke" divide, but that ideology is defined by this principle: our essential duty is to affirm our place under a just, strong, and unified government, and to organize against the old and worn-out values of individual liberty that threaten our democracy.

Now that you know a little bit about actual Fascism, from the inventor of Fascism himself, look around the country and try to determine who the actual Fascists are. No one will admit to being a Fascist, so you can't identify them by what they say. But you can tell a Fascist by what they do.

"We must make haste; when the present regime breaks  down, we must be ready at once to take its place."

"[N]ever before has the nation stood more in need of authority, of direction and of order. If every age has its own characteristic doctrine, there are a thousand signs which point to Fascism as the characteristic doctrine of our time."