The ubiquity and frequency of the word fascism have grown significantly in recent years to the point that it is now used as a weapon as opposed to a philosophical argument. Declaring that another is a fascist is a way to discredit the accused fascist and silence debate about the topic at hand. For most, this logical fallacy was obvious and showed that true intellectual dialogue could not be continued, however that all changed on September 10th of this year when the accusation of a fascist led to the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Since the declaration of fascism now gives the power and authority to murder in cold blood or physically harm others, it is long past due to look at where the word comes from and what it means to be a fascist. Words are necessary for our society to exist and if we are going to accuse others of the heinous crime of being a fascist, we should all be on the same page of where fascism came from and who actually is a fascist in our country.

It should come as no surprise that at the same time that the National Socialist German Workers Party (Nazism) was gaining traction, a similar socialist party was rising under Mussolini in Italy. His Fascist bloc used an emblem from the Roman times: the fasces which is a bundle of rods strapped around an ax. This emblem came to signify the main tenet of fascism which is the use of state force to unite everyone under their power and authority. Fascism was not an insult to them at the time; it was a self-identifying belief in a political movement born out of revolutionary socialism. Fascism was not born out of a desire to protect the greatness of what Italy used to be but rather a radical reimagining of what governance should be that would reorganize society and deliver national greatness through modern planning and aggressive central control. Mussolini explained the goal of fascism rather bluntly when he said, “Everything in the State, nothing outside the State, nothing against the State.” From this statement, it is very easy to glean the political, economic, and cultural goals of fascism.

A necessity of fascism is to create an authoritarian regime by which the goals of fascism could then be achieved. They did not believe in having checks and balances on the government and abandoned the idea of limiting the government and its bureaucracies. To achieve that end, fascism directly attacked the belief of individual rights and believed that the rights of the people outweighed the rights of individuals. This was typically portrayed and communicated through the ultranationalist argument using the good of the nation to justify a host of grievances including censoring the press, banning opposition parties, and jailing or outright killing opponents. It seems quite obvious then that the economics of the country would be neither outright socialism nor any sort of free market. Instead, they used corporatism and unions to allow the state to direct how private property was used and utilized. The unions allowed the state to set wages, working rules, and production priorities but at the same time they did not allow strikes. Independent unions were quickly crushed as were any corporations that did not want to listen nor embrace fascist control. For the good of the nation, fascism believes in state direction, coordination, and discipline of every major industry. Culturally, they squashed any semblance of free speech or the right to peacefully assemble. Any satire or criticism of the government was seen as treasonous. Fascists do not believe in moral relativism but neither did they believe that truth was absolute. Instead, the state was the source of truth and any disagreement with the truth was by extension a disagreement with the state – a very dangerous position to take.

This naturally begs the question of how does fascism present itself in our society? The simple answer is that unless someone is a self-identified fascist there is a high likelihood that they are n...

Two shoe salesmen were sent to a new territory to assess its market potential and report back to their company. The first salesman reported back, “There is no potential, nobody wears shoes here.” The second salesman reported back, “There is unbelievable potential, nobody wears shoes here.” This story is a concise example of a situation that may be viewed both as an obstacle or an opportunity.

A few years ago, a friend leading my county’s political party got a call from a Boulder, Colorado high school politics teacher. The instructor was inquiring if someone would be interested in speaking to his class about our political party platform to his students. As a recognized speaker within the party, my name was provided to the instructor, who subsequently extended an invitation to me.

With a bit of hesitation and many questions I queried what the instructor had in mind. He explained he wanted to get his students to think for themselves about all the local political party platforms so they could understand the different public policy positions and learn to be good civic citizens. I accepted the opportunity.

The first year I did the presentation I did it from a historical perspective. I began by greeting the students at the door of the classroom and shook each of their hands, I looked them in the eye and said, “Hello, I’m Brad, what’s your name?” and handed them a booklet with the Declaration of Independence and United States Constitution. The students were polite and about one third of the class seemed receptive to my message. They asked engaging and challenging questions. Upon reflection, I recognize that my presentation focused extensively on facts and figures, which resulted in insufficient time being allocated for additional questions. I should have incorporated more stories that made a point.

Over the past two years, I have modified my program following previous experiences. My presentations typically last 15-20 minutes and focus on the principles of freedom associated with the founding of the United States. Our country was established on the idea that all individuals are created equal, reflecting the concept of human equality. The American Founders and Framers debated and acknowledged the concept of universal, equal, natural rights for everyone. Citizens provide consent to be governed and to have their rights protected by elected representatives. These representatives operate within defined limits, forming a constitutional government based on the rule of law intended to protect individual rights and property equally. Historically, this concept has served as the basis for our major political parties.

Upon my arrival at the classroom, I placed a poster on the wall listing the freedom principles just mentioned, yet I revealed them one by one and shared their significance. I opened by reciting a paragraph from Thomas Jefferson’s first inaugural speech from March 4, 1801, “…a wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government; and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities.”

This section of Jefferson’s speech concisely gives the reason for our form of government, which is to protect those universal, equal, natural rights of all men, meaning all citizens. It sets the stage for how I engage the students.

Then at this point I opened the floor for questions, requiring the students to select one of the principles we discussed and tying their question to a freedom principle. This way the students must think about their question rather than base it on a preconceived notion or emotion. This approach encourages more in-depth discussion and solicits greater input from students by opening their perspectives on their questio...

In 2025, Health and Human Services (HHS) has implemented changes in vaccine recommendations for the COVID vaccines, the MMRV combination vaccine, and potentially the Hepatitis B vaccine. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has aligned with Big Pharma to incentivize blue states to defy the CDC’s vaccine recommendation changes, and the AAP has stated intent to lobby against religious exemptions. Now more than ever, parents and consumers need to do their own risk-benefit analysis of each of the 70 doses of recommended vaccines in the U.S.

In May 2025, the CDC changed the recommendation for the COVID vaccine for healthy children and healthy pregnant women. According to The Defender,

“Instead of a universal recommendation that all children ages 6 months and older receive the COVID-19 shots, the CDC now recommends ‘shared clinical decision-making’ between parents and providers for children ages 6 months to 17 years who are not moderately immunocompromised. That means that parents and providers can decide together whether a child should take the shot based on the child’s health status and parents’ preferences.”

However, some doctors caution that immune compromised children could have a more severe reaction to vaccines.

For people who want the COVID vaccine, it is still covered by health insurance and free vaccine programs.

This change should protect pediatricians from being compelled to order the COVID vaccine under threat of disciplinary action for not ordering it, and the change should promote risk-benefit conversations. However, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) swiftly responded in backlash to keep selling the COVID vaccine to children.

In July 2025, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) became the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit against HHS and HHS Secretary Kennedy demanding the recommendation of the COVID vaccine to children and pregnant women and reinstatement to the CDC immunization schedule.

The Defender reported the AAP has a financial conflict of interest:

“But according to Kim Mack Rosenberg, general counsel for Children’s Health Defense (CHD), ‘The medical cartel — funded extensively by the pharmaceutical industry — has a tremendous financial incentive to preserve the status quo.’

Karl Jablonowski, Ph.D., senior research scientist for CHD, noted that the lawsuit ‘fails to mention that several plaintiffs, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Physicians and the Infectious Diseases Society of America, received millions of dollars from the CDC to promote COVID-19 injections.’”

The AAP doubled down and publicly called for the end of religious exemptions for vaccines. The Defender published “American Academy of Pediatrics Wants to Shut Down Religious Vaccine Exemptions.”

Kim Mack Rosenberg, general counsel for Children’s Health Defense, said, “The AAP’s statement calling for an end to religious exemptions to immunization ignores constitutionally protected rights regarding religious freedom and potentially is in vi...