Don’t sell Italy and Japan short.

Mussolini invented fascism, and did population-scale deployment of chemical weapons in Ethopia… Imperial Japan are absolutely an all-time G.O.A.T of horrific war crimes.

Their behavior was egregious, and that’s why they sided with the nazis.

I’ll be the one to say it: who is actually using leashes with their shibari suspension?

Fascism is notoriously difficult to define. There’s a huge amount of contention on it among historians, but one definition I like is Rodger Griffin’s. In his definition the core ideology of fascism is

(i) the rebirth myth

(ii) populist ultra-nationalism

(iii) the myth of decadence

I think the MAGA movement pretty transparently meets all 3. The rebirth myth is literally in its name, the movement is pretty openly populist and ultra-nationalist, and decadence is how they describe their enemies (e.g. their rhetoric around trans and queer folk).