Albanese has spent the whole of his political life a member of Labor’s socialist left. As a result we get a big-spending, highly centralised, regulating government that sees ordinary people as the problem and government as the solution. But the thing about the friendly folk of the socialist left is that those who disagree with them (who are more conservative) are often labelled ‘fascist’. Most people who throw around the word as a term of abuse have no idea what it actually means. The Merriam-Webster explains: ‘Under fascism, a government ruled by a dictator controls the lives of the people in that society, and allows no dissent or disagreement.’ The word originally referred to members of the party founded by Benito Mussolini in 1919 and dedicated to violently nationalistic and totalitarian principles. It’s an Italian word from a Latin source word, meaning ‘bundle’. In ancient Rome magistrates carried a bundle of sticks, in the middle of which was an axe, as a symbol of their power and authority. In modern Italian, the word was used to a mean a ‘bundle’ or ‘group’ or ‘band’ of people. Mussolini took up this word to name his name his ‘fighting bands’ calling them ‘fascists.’ From 1919, they tried to seize power in Italy. The contradiction is that the conservatives who are smeared with the label ‘fascist’ are the exact opposite of such controlling authoritarians. By and large political conservatives are in favour of smaller government, less regulation, less interference in private lives, and greater personal freedoms. Those who want to do those things (interfere in our lives and freedoms) tend to be the very ones who call others ‘fascists’. Do the words ‘pot,’ ‘kettle’ and ‘black’ seem to fit in here?