"scratch a liberal and you'll find a fascist" meaning in English

See scratch a liberal and you'll find a fascist in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Proverb

Forms: scratch a liberal and a fascist bleeds [alternative]
Etymology: Originated with the Black Panther Party. One of the variations of the proverb formula scratch (somebody) and you'll find a (somebody else). Compare for example поскреби русского - найдёшь татарина (poskrebi russkovo - najdjóšʹ tatarina, “scratch a Russian and you'll find a Tatar”). Head templates: {{en-proverb}} scratch a liberal and you'll find a fascist
  1. (politics, derogatory) People who identify as liberals (usually rather than leftists) are not uncomfortable with fascist beliefs. Tags: derogatory Related terms: NazLib
    Sense id: en-scratch_a_liberal_and_you'll_find_a_fascist-en-proverb-QnjkgrFD Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English proverbs, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Fascism, Leftism, Liberalism, Politics Topics: government, politics

Alternative forms

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  "forms": [
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      "form": "scratch a liberal and a fascist bleeds",
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          "ref": "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, page 42 of 42-43:",
          "text": "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.",
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          "text": "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.\nThe limousine liberals who *are* in a position for lending a hand-up to those struggling with deep poverty are precisely the ones who chop us off at the knees.",
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  "etymology_text": "Originated with the Black Panther Party.\nOne of the variations of the proverb formula scratch (somebody) and you'll find a (somebody else). Compare for example поскреби русского - найдёшь татарина (poskrebi russkovo - najdjóšʹ tatarina, “scratch a Russian and you'll find a Tatar”).",
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Download raw JSONL data for scratch a liberal and you'll find a fascist meaning in English (2.6kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-06-10 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-06-01 using wiktextract (58c391d and f1c2b61). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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