The term fas­cism is loose­ly bandied about. When most peo­ple think of it the images that come to mind are of stormtroop­ers and Hitler rant­i­ng and rav­ing. It is often auto­mat­i­cal­ly assumed that fas­cism devel­oped in Europe in the 1920s. But it had its ori­gins ear­li­er in the Unit­ed States. The Unit­ed States was built on geno­ci­dal attacks on Indige­nous peo­ple, white suprema­cy and enslaved Black peo­ple. Actu­al­ly, Hitler and the Nazis were great­ly impressed and inspired by Amer­i­can fas­cism. Though the term was not used the Unit­ed States had devel­oped a sophis­ti­cat­ed sys­tem of aggres­sive nation­al­ism, racism and oppres­sion, in oth­er words: fas­cism. It lingers in the shad­ows and reap­pears, as is evi­dent today. Oath Keep­ers, Proud Boys and oth­er groups are fas­cist. They fear social equal­i­ty as a threat to patri­ar­chal, white suprema­cist domination.