Right-Wing Statism: A Real Threat Hidden Behind Misleading Labels
By equating left-wing socialism with all forms of statism (including authoritarian right-wing statism), there is a diversion away from the real threat of rising authoritarianism that masquerades as patriotism or capitalism.
Recently, the U.S. government, under President Donald Trump’s administration, took a remarkable step by acquiring a roughly 10% equity stake in Intel, one of America’s largest semiconductor manufacturers. This $8.9 billion investment, funded partly by previously awarded grants under the CHIPS and Science Act, places the government as a significant shareholder in a major private corporation. While touted as a move to strengthen U.S. technology and national security, this marks a clear expansion of government intervention in private industry under the guise of economic patriotism. The government’s involvement includes voting alignment with Intel’s board on shareholder matters, although it claims no direct governance rights. This kind of corporate-state partnership blurs the separation between public authority and private enterprise, raising warning signs about growing right-wing statism, authoritarianism, and state control in capitalist frameworks.
This modern example echoes troubling historical precedents. Fascist Italy (under Benito Mussolini) and Nazi Germany (under Adolf Hitler) were regimes where the state exercised authoritarian control over the economy, politics, and society. Mussolini’s Italy centralized power, suppressed opposition, and fused corporate interests with state authority, creating a model of state-led capitalism wrapped in nationalism. Nazi Germany, despite the term “National Socialists” in its official party name, was not Marxist nor socialist in a left-wing sense. The National Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nazi Party) used the label “socialist” as a deliberate misnomer—their policies promoted capitalist structures subordinated to a totalitarian, ultra-nationalist state obsessed with racial purity and militarism.
This conflation of “socialism” with Nazi ideology misleads many and serves as a logical fallacy and a diversion tactic. True socialism, rooted in Marxist and democratic traditions, advocates for workers’ control of the means of production and equitable distribution of wealth. The Nazis, by contrast, opposed Marxism vehemently and repressed genuine socialist and communist movements, while maintaining capitalist elites and private property under state dominance.
The danger today is similar: by equating left-wing socialism with all forms of statism (including authoritarian right-wing statism), there is a diversion away from the real threat of rising authoritarianism that masquerades as patriotism or capitalism. The Trump-Intel deal is an example where the state deepens its control over the economy, not through socialist democratization, but through authoritarian partnerships with big corporations. This kind of right-wing statism not only undermines democratic accountability but can pave the way toward fascistic tendencies.
Understanding this distinction is vital. We must warn against right-wing statism—authoritarianism or fascism in economic and political form—rather than falling for rhetorical traps that conflate it with authentic social democracy or socialism.