Mussolini–the patron saint of 20th century humanism… and, he claimed, “a good catholic.” But then fascism always goes in two directions at once.

World War II annihilated openly-espoused fascism; but since the war, R.J. Rushdoony observed, fascism is “everywhere condemned, but everywhere imitated.”

https://chalcedon.edu/magazine/the-theology-of-fascism

Command economies don’t work well, in real life. In fact, they don’t work at all. So communist countries, facing ruin, fall back on fascism–as China has done.

In political science terms, fascism is an authoritarian government in cahoots with a few favored corporations steering the economy. Drop in a few favored unions to buddy up with the politicians and the magnates, and you’ve got Peronism. And Obamaism.

In this essay published in 2006, Rushdoony zeroed in on the now widely-practiced model of a “mixed economy.” When you mix your theologies, you get syncretism–the besetting sin of ancient Israel. When you mix capitalism and socialism, you get fascism: “socialism for the hypocrites,” Rushdoony said.

If the people are corrupt at heart, their state will be corrupt. There’s no getting away from it. We can try to be Christians and pagans at the same time, but no man can serve two masters.