Now America was fascist and authoritarian in the mid-post WWII era?? Are you guys competing for biggest contrarian or did I accidentally step into a neomarxist forum?
America wasn't fascist, it had fascism. For example in the form of McCarthyism. I don't support Marxism or Communism. I just think the ruthless persecution, group think powered selective reading of the constitution and bullying tactics of empowered individuals constitute to enough of the qualities to be labeled fascism.
If you've got a scale that goes from equal rights direct democracy on the left to dictatorial fascism on the right, then America was not quite fascist in the sense that they still had indirect partly represented democracy. But the way minorities, other-gendered, other-lifestyled and the politically deviant were denied representation and other basic rights it was definitely on the fascist side of the spectrum.
I see what you mean and how that ties into Barbie, although this worldview is definitely rooted in neomarxist revisionism. But I don't have the time and energy to derail this any further so I'll leave it at that.
If you've got a scale that goes from equal rights direct democracy on the left to dictatorial fascism on the right, then America was not quite fascist in the sense that they still had indirect partly represented democracy. But the way minorities, other-gendered, other-lifestyled and the politically deviant were denied representation and other basic rights it was definitely on the fascist side of the spectrum.