I know I'm kind of hanging on the edge of your guys' conversation here, but I don't think it's *preposterous*. There are some little check marks that are suggestive. I just think its legitimizing Donald Trump [as a fascist]. He's politically illegitimate, and has never had a political ideology. It's shortsighted to suggest he has one now.
I used to agree that Trump was not a fascist, but I think it's inarguable that he has fascistic tendencies. Is he consciously a fascist? No; I agree with you that he lacks any stable political ideology. But do a lot of his statements and behaviours line up with those of fascists, or legitimise fascist tendencies? I think so.
Dave brought up the relationship between fascism and democracy, and of course Trump has not openly embraced the anti-democracy of many fascists. But those very fascists often used democratic systems, and Trump's consistent undermining of the peaceful functioning of the electoral system - calling the result rigged, promoting voter intimidation, suggesting his rival's candidacy is illegitimate, proposing to throw said rival in prison - is straight out of the fascist playbook.
And, of course, fascism itself is a rather nebulous ideology that often lacks a consistent policy basis from movement to movement, period to period. I'd say three of its defining qualities are the idealisation of a traditional past ("Make America Great Again"!), violently exclusionary rhetoric against multiple out groups, and a self-aggrandising, ego-driven lust for power as an end in itself. Recall numerous fascists keeping their actual policy under their hats, or making it up on the fly, as they worked to attain power and then came to grips with using it. It can be hard to distinguish some expressions of fascism from other forms of authoritarianism and populism.
I also think there is too great a tendency to see fascism solely through the lens of Nazism (and for many people to reduce Nazism to a few specific events/outcomes/individuals, which is why it is so hard now to raise relevant comparisons to Nazism when they occur), when in fact its expressions in Britain, Spain, Italy, and Romania, to pick some examples, were quite distinct from that. Romanian fascism really is quite something, by the way.
Crooked Hillary is not just obsessed with money, BUT IS ON ACTUAL MONEY!!!! BIG BIZNEZZ!!!! PAY TO PLAY!!!!!!