It would be good to be able to recognize fascism when you see it. Sight is our dominant sense (light travels faster than sound) and provides us warning. In addition, because โfascistโ is an epithet as well as political term, it must be used carefully. In 1942, a New Hampshire Jehovahโs Witness named Chaplinsky was arrested after calling a Rochester city marshal a โdamned fascist.โ The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the arrest on the grounds that the expression constituted โfighting words,โ excluded from constitutional protection. Recent court decisions in the U.S. have widened speech freedoms, but the word โfascistโ remains highly charged, underlining the need for historical and political discretion.