@adiz The victory of 'democracy' over 'fascism' is essentially the foundational myth of modern western society, so these terms are basically used as moral absolutes--democracy is the ultimate good, fascism is the ultimate evil. Never mind that real fascism was a movement inextricable from its historical context (despite Umberto Eco's definition) and basically no longer exists anymore; if you say that, then you're just an apologist who's arguing about semantics to deliberately defend the bad guys. Also never mind the fact that our "democracy" is dominated by two private parties that can choose which candidates can run through an opaque, closed-doors process, or the fact that national elections are incredibly easy to cheat, or the fact that democracy in a massive, heterogeneous nation like America necessarily involves demagoguery, lies, and corruption. If you criticize democracy, at least in any way that doesn't give more power to the government, then you must be on the bad guys' side.