Mother Russia and her fascist child

Russia is on the way to becoming “russcist”

Growing up, people around me used the word “fascist” quite liberally — to label people, movements, nations. From “who are you, fascist?” to “wow, you’re such a fascist”, the F word found its way into our everyday vocabulary and stayed there as some sort of generalized insult that had little to do with the actuality of being a fascist.

Over time, the F word lost its significance. I no longer heard it thrown into conversations or disagreements. Now, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has raised the dormant insult of my childhood from the dead. The “fascist” is once again in the spotlight and part of the philosophical discourse of who is who and who is what.

Russians have been throwing the F (actually, mostly the N(nazis)) word at Ukrainians. Ukrainians have also ridden the wave of mutual accusations by saying that, no, it's Russians who are fascists. They even coined a new term, “russcist” — the combination of Russian and fascist.

At first, I thought both were incorrect, populistic brawls that had little to do with the truth. Now, I’m thinking that one of them is troublingly correct.

It’s hard to argue that Ukrainians are fascists — half of their political elite are Jewish, including president Vladimir Zelensky…