Topic: Benito Mussolini

Fascism is defined, following a quote attributed to Mussolini, as the merger of corporate and government power. The left-right political paradigm is described as a mental trap where the "left" favors state power and the "right" favors corporate power, while both rely on hierarchical bureaucracies. This structure is compared to the Middle Ages, where the "state" was an autocracy and the "corporation" was the monopolistic religious institution.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is described as a corporate movement that allows companies to sue national governments over laws that hurt profits. Jim Mars references Benito Mussolini’s definition of fascism as the merger of state and corporate power, arguing this is the current state of the U.S. He cites the Supreme Court's stance on corporate personhood as a primary driver of this modern "corporatism."