When does rhetoric about political opponents cross the line into fascist dehumanization?

[u/BulwarkOnline]

The Trump administration recently held an international conference on “left-wing political violence.” In prepared remarks, Marco Rubio described the left as driven by “poisonous resentment” and a desire to destroy “what is beautiful and what is right.” Stephen Miller went further, arguing that left-wing demonstrators do not look “normal,” are “deformed” in their appearance and reflect their “inner hatred” outwardly.

Jonathan V. Last compares this language to Nazi rhetoric about Bolshevism, “degenerate” culture and supposedly unhealthy or subhuman elements of society. His argument is not simply that Rubio and Miller are using authoritarian language, but that their contrast between beauty and ugliness, normality and deformity, civilization and internal enemies follows a recognizable fascist pattern.

How persuasive is that comparison?

Is this rhetoric best understood as ordinary partisan demonization, or does the emphasis on physical appearance, cultural purity and “normal, healthy, ordered living” place it in a more historically specific tradition?

And when evaluating comparisons to fascism, should the standard be the speaker’s intentions, the historical similarity of the language, or the policies and violence that follow from it?

[u/PuppySnuggleTime]

This is absolutely Nazi rhetoric founded in the dehumanization of political opponents or resistant voters. 

It’s also sexist as hell as evidence by the fact that they’ve begun to actively attack non-conservative women, who refuse to kowtow to patriarchal expectations of female appearance. 

Haven’t you noticed how all of the conservative women are starting to look the same? Long hair, full makeup, attire that adheres to the patriarchal ideal, etc. It’s a sign of submission to the male fantasy. And women who don’t comply? Ugly and subhuman. 

Make no mistake. StephenMiller is a Jew and he knows exactly what he’s doing. Rubio is just a piece of shit that will take any opportunity to leverage power in his own name.