Taliban ≠ Fascist

The Taliban is a nation of violence. There is no doubt about that. In the Taliban, people will kill people just for the sake of being against them. This warfare is not based on any military. The Taliban is not a government, it is just a bunch of people who have radical opinions and act on them with violence. Because of its lack of a military and organization, the Taliban is not a Fascist movement.

Fascism is a strict government in which those who do not follow are persecuted, and often killed. A true fascist nation is totalitarian, meaning the government has total control over the subjects. There never really has been a true fascist nation all the way through, but totalitarianism must be at least attempted at in order to be fascist. The key to fascism is a structured government and military. Without this structure, there is only chaos, and no fascism. This is the case with the Taliban.

Another quality of fascism that the Taliban does not satisfy is the promotion and advertizing of fascism and government. Fascists have a strong sense of nationalism towards their fascist nation. A key aspect of fascism is the propaganda. The Taliban works off of sheer violence and intimidation. People are practically forced to join the Taliban, as their lives are often threatened. While the Taliban gains supporters through force, fascism tends to rely more on intellectual persuasion.

The argument that the Taliban is a fascist movement is based off the fact that the Taliban promotes violence based on sexism, and takes a strong stance on keeping tradition, just like fascism. However, these are just a few qualities of fascism that are not even the main points. In this sense, any violent or racist movement is fascist. This certainly is not the case because unless this violence is happening as an attempt to strengthen the government, it is not fascist. The nature of fascism is to help the government through each act. The Taliban kills innocent people for the sake of killing them, not for the sake of strengthening themselves. This is a crucial fact when considering the type of movement of the Taliban. I do not think that it can be associated with any formal type of government.