Ur-Fascism by Umberto Eco (1995)
What an insightful piece.  It is interwoven with Eco's experience as a kid in Fascist Italy, but written 50 years later.  At the end is a little listicle of typical characteristics of a Fascist movement, with a careful indication that not all will be present.<p>Being written in 1995, the training set is independent of the test set, and one is thus free to find parallels in the current moment:<p>"Irrationalism also depends on the cult of <i>action for action’s sake</i>. Action being beautiful in itself, it must be taken before, or without, any previous reflection. Thinking is a form of emasculation."<p>"Ur-Fascism grows up and seeks for consensus by exploiting and exacerbating the natural fear of difference. The first appeal of a fascist or prematurely fascist movement is an appeal against the intruders."<p>"To people who feel deprived of a clear social identity, Ur-Fascism says that their only privilege is the most common one, to be born in the same country. This is the origin of nationalism."