Fascists were antisocialist, generally anticapitalist, and (at least in Hitler’s and Mussolini’s
cases) hostile to the church. They tended to glorify instead a mythical war-based society
of the past—for Mussolini the ancient Roman Empire, for Hitler the Teutonic knights
of the Middle Ages and Wagner’s dreamy stories about the old Germanic gods.
Their political style was opportunist. All used violence and terror to advance
their movements. Somewhat paradoxically—remember, they despised modern institutions—
they were also “up to date” and presented themselves as forward-looking.
Hitler was the first German politician to campaign from an airplane, for instance, and
the design of fascist propaganda and rallies was often done in the modern-looking art
deco style.