>George Orwell wrote in 1944 that "the word 'Fascism' is almost entirely meaningless ... almost any English person would accept 'bully' as a synonym for 'Fascist'".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism#%22Fascist%22_as_a_pej...

I'm also sure many of the people who call each other these names have little idea what the terms actually mean.

During the Great Depression, very similar rhetoric was used to create the authoritarian fascist regimes. One example is the false narrative that one could blame all of their economic problems on certain racial/ethnic groups. The horrid rhetoric suggesting that Jews caused the financial crisis in 1929 is very similar to the horrid rhetoric saying that Mexican immigrants are stealing American jobs and causing widespread economic devastation.

We _should_ be very concerned to see concerning patterns repeating themselves. Frankly, if the Republican Party was all about “garden variety conservatism”, it would be banishing the extremists from its ranks. That’s not happening. Are republicans fascist? Maybe not. But do several use fascist techniques? Definitely. And those not actively using those techniques are complacent or even accepting.

“Garden variety conservatives” did know what Trump was doing in 2016, and they called him for for it in the Republican primaries. Though I have no rosy view of the Conservative party before then either, it has now overtly embraced many fascist concepts.

Though people would still disagree with “garden variety conservatives”, people have a much bigger problem with fascist concepts.