scratch a liberal and you'll find a fascist
scratch a liberal and you'll find a fascist proverb: people who identify as liberals (usually rather than leftists) are not uncomfortable with fascist beliefs.
Proverb
scratch a liberal and you'll find a fascist
- People who identify as liberals (usually rather than leftists) are not uncomfortable with fascist beliefs.
- Scratch a liberal and you'll find a fascist, they say - this book does just that, not only with the author but with the Rt. Hon. Joe Grimond M.P. who provided the introduction to the book.1982, Stuart Christie, “Left, Right: The March of Political Extremism in Britain, by John Tomlison published by John Calder at £4.95 [Book Review]”, in Anarchist Review, number 6, Cienfuegos Press...
- I have a friend in the poverty movement named Larry Carter Center. He always had this saying, "scratch a liberal and you'll find a fascist." I believe he's got a valid point.
The limousine liberals who *are* in a position for lending a hand-up to those struggling with deep poverty are precisely the...2009 August 23, Jacqueline S. Homan, Barbara's Blog: Barbara Ehrenreich Comments on Working in America (comment), archived from the original on 08 Apr 2010
- Synonyms:
- scratch a liberal and a fascist bleeds
Synonyms of scratch a liberal and you'll find a fascist
Origin of scratch a liberal and you'll find a fascist
Originated with the Black Panther Party. One of the variations of the proverb formula scratch (somebody) and you'll find (somebody else). Compare for example Russian поскреби русского - найдёшь татарина (poskrebi russkovo - najdjóšʹ tatarina, “scratch a Russian and you'll find a Tatar”).
Questions about scratch a liberal and you'll find a fascist
- What does scratch a liberal and you'll find a fascist mean?
- Scratch a liberal and you'll find a fascist means people who identify as liberals (usually rather than leftists) are not uncomfortable with fascist beliefs.
- What part of speech is scratch a liberal and you'll find a fascist?
- Scratch a liberal and you'll find a fascist is a proverb.
Words near scratch a liberal and you'll find a fascist in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: scratch a liberal and you'll find a fascist (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “scratch a liberal and you'll find a fascist.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/scratch_a_liberal_and_you%27ll_find_a_fascist. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.