Georgia’s Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze pledged on Thursday to stamp out the “liberal fascism” he claimed was fuelling the mass anti-government protests that have roiled the country for more than a week, using language reminiscent of that used by the Kremlin in Russia to target political opponents.
That’s not a contradiction. Eating poison leads to death, but you can’t eat poison while you are dead. Liberalism tends to fascism, but you can’t have liberal fascism.
Fascism is inherently an anti-liberal ideology. That’s a core component of their belief set, just as much as anti-Marxism is. However liberals, especially the middle and upper classes of liberals, have often abandoned their liberal beliefs once their way of life is threatened, and historically they’ve consistently handed power to fascists rather than socialists. But that doesn’t make fascism and liberalism comparable, that’s a misinterpretation of their relationship.