Was it because Mussolini was against the allies case for war? Because Ezra Pound named the scoundrels behind World War II? Or was it because Mussolini made the trains run on time? Pound lived in Europe from 1906 and was living in Italy until his arrest in 1945. It was a beautiful place to be in the early 1900s. Working for a radio station for meager wages to live by, which was funded by the government doesn't necessarily make Pound a fascist. On this side of the pond, Father Charles Coughlin was a very popular American radio host who supported Mussolini. Henry Ford to the esteemed, path-blazing New York Times foreign correspondent Anne O’Hare McCormick, expressions of fascist sympathy had reached the center of mainstream discourse and American political thought by the late 1930s. Are they all fascist too?

What is exactly the definition of fascism? It derives from from Latin 'fascis' meaning 'bundle'. This was the Roman symbol of authority, which they carried a bound bundle of wooden rods. Much later, the word was used as the Italian political party that Mussolini headed, from which the word-- 'fascism' is applied. Benito Mussolini said fascism was the marriage between the corporation and State. This also happens to be socialism, which are the prevalent governments of Europe, NZ, and Australia. In the United States it is also very true. One can argue minutia about whether socialism, crony capitalism, corporatism, and even communism is fascist or not. In varying degrees, they are all fascist. Big Tech in the United States appears to be married to government, as we are now finding out. Therefore, by definition we are a fascist nation.

My point is back in the 1922s to the middle of 1930s, no one had any issue Mussolini's Party until he supported Germany. As scholars such as Robert O. Paxton and Sheri Berman have noted, Italian fascism did not emerge as a sui generis authoritarian ideology and, in the beginning, was not explicitly premised on extreme racism, in contrast to German National Socialism. This is what Ezra Pound knew, but as the tides changed to Europe and Italy at war, Pound did all he could to prevent the war from engulfing Europe. From the Italian point of view, it was the Anglo-Americans who were the aggressors. The intellectual Pound knew who was behind getting America into the war. This was his crime, when he named these culprits. He did so just as Benjamin Freedman had done.

You keep dropping a guilt-by-association as reason to throw down one of America's greatest writers. I won't ever do this for the same reason I won't throw down Mark Twain being a 'racist' or a Thomas Jefferson owning slaves. To me, it's a shallow attempt to tarnish a great historical figure who was ultimately correct about the causes of World War II.

Was it because Mussolini was against the allies case for war? Because he named the scoundrels behind World War II? Or was it because Mussolini made the trains run on time? Pound lived in Europe from 1906 and was living in Italy until his arrest in 1945. It was a beautiful place to be in the early 1900s. Working for a radio station for meager wages to live by, which was funded by the government doesn't necessarily make Pound a fascist. On this side of the pond, Father Charles Coughlin was a very popular American radio host who supported Mussolini. Henry Ford to the esteemed, path-blazing New York Times foreign correspondent Anne O’Hare McCormick, expressions of fascist sympathy had reached the center of mainstream discourse and American political thought by the late 1930s. Are they all fascist too?

What is exactly the definition of fascism? It derives from from Latin 'fascis' meaning 'bundle'. This was the Roman symbol of authority, which they carried a bound bundle of wooden rods. Much later, the word was used as the Italian political party that Mussolini headed, from which the word-- 'fascism' is applied. Benito Mussolini said fascism was the marriage between the corporation and State. This also happens to be socialism, which are the prevalent governments of Europe, NZ, and Australia. In the United States it is also very true. One can argue minutia about whether socialism, crony capitalism, corporatism, and even communism is fascist or not. In varying degrees, they are all fascist. Big Tech in the United States appears to be married to government, as we are now finding out. Therefore, by definition we are a fascist nation.

My point is back in the 1922s to the middle of 1930s, no one had any issue Mussolini's Party until he supported Germany. As scholars such as Robert O. Paxton and Sheri Berman have noted, Italian fascism did not emerge as a sui generis authoritarian ideology and, in the beginning, was not explicitly premised on extreme racism, in contrast to German National Socialism. This is what Ezra Pound knew, but as the tides changed to Europe and Italy at war, Pound did all he could to prevent the war from engulfing Europe. From the Italian point of view, it was the Anglo-Americans who were the aggressors. The intellectual Pound knew who was behind getting America into the war. This was his crime, when he named these culprits. He did so just as Benjamin Freedman had done.

You keep dropping a guilt-by-association as reason to throw down one of America's greatest writers. I won't ever do this for the same reason I won't throw down Mark Twain being a 'racist' or a Thomas Jefferson owning slaves. To me, it's a shallow attempt to tarnish a great historical figure who was ultimately correct about the causes of World War II.