Mussolini makes clear that the fascist mythic past is intentionally mythical. The function of the mythic past, in fascist politics, is to harness the emotion of nostalgia to the central tenets of fascist ideology — authoritarianism, hierarchy, purity, and struggle.

Jason Stanley (b. 1969) American philosopher, epistemologist, academic

How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them, ch. 1 (2018)
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