There are those people that have a habit of insulting somebody that they don’t like or the governance that they are under as being fascist, without really understanding what fascism actually is, for they basically just recognize that to be labeled as a fascist, is to be something that is considered to be quite undesirable and therefore to adjudge someone as fascist is to label someone as being something akin to being a dominating and unjust bigot or even worse.
In actuality, fascism is basically when the democratic or republican form of government no longer effectively exists, because it has been either been co-opted or is controlled by those elements which are unelected and thereby dictates to the general public the conditions of their citizenship, of which, it is therefore the duty of those citizens to obey those dictates, or else to suffer the punishment or alienation of being seen as in opposition or dissension to those that are its leaders.
To be fascist is to believe that the only thing that really matters is to recognize that one’s country is always right, no matter what that country actually does or permits, and it so follows therefore that it is the citizen’s duty to support and to defend those governmental commands and thereby to suppress, defeat, target, or imprison all those that do not toe the appropriate governmental line.
So too, it thus follows that the government is not in any respect of, for, and by the people, but rather the government marches to the beat of those that have the power within and the power outside that government, which typically is a consortium of private enterprise and the money brokers; in addition to the face of the government often is somebody who has dictatorial power in just about all aspects of society, so as to manage and to control it for the betterment of those that are its actuators.
A fascist government is going to therefore primarily benefit those that are the power brokers of it, along with those in the highest echelons of the government or private enterprise and of which, some of the population may well be satisfied with that government, especially when it serves to backstop their creed, or their race, or basically anything that allows those certain people to have a higher place in the hierarchy based upon hereditary or similar type characteristics, as well as their perceived utilitarian worth to the fascist government.
So then, when the people do not effectively have a voice, and are not permitted to have their own opinions but must be in conformance with their fascist government, then the people are not free to be about their business. So too, all those that are outside what are considered to be the orthodoxies of the fascist regime are those that live in fear that what they do have is at risk, at being taken, and further to the point, are subject to being not just perceived as disloyal outcasts, but also can be considered as no longer worthy of life itself.