In 1995 Umberto Eco wrote "Ur-Fascism", where he listed 14 features of fascism.

"These features cannot be organised into a system; many of them contradict each other... But it is enough that one of them be present to allow fascism to coagulate around it."

Here they are

1. "The cult of tradition", characterised by cultural unity, even at the risk of the culture contradicting itself. All truth has already been revealed by tradition - therefore no new learning can occur, only further interpretation and refinement of tradition.

2. "The rejection of modernism" - rationalism and new thinking since the Enlightenment (that challenge tradition) are a sign of depravity. The exception is superficial technological advancement, which is a sign of vitality of the system.

3. "The cult of action for action's sake" means that action is of value in itself, and should be taken without intellectual reflection. Connected with anti-intellectualism and irrationalism, often manifesting in attacks on modern culture and science.

4. "Disagreement is treason" devalues intellectual discourse and critical reasoning, casts them as barriers to action. Also rooted in fear that such analysis will expose the contradictions embodied in fascist culture/discourse.

5. "Fear of difference", often in the form of racism or an appeal against foreigners and immigrants. Fascism will try to exploit and inflame these fears.

6. "Appeal to a frustrated middle class" is one of the most typical features of historical fascism. Their openness to this appeal is linked to fear of pressure from the demands and aspirations of lower social groups and/or feeling of political or economic humiliation.

7. "Obsession with a plot". Their only privilege is the most common, being born in the same country. To reinforce this, the followers should feel besieged on those grounds - by disloyalty and sabotage from within, by foreigners and international conspiracies from outside.

8. Enemies are "at the same time too strong and too weak" so people feel humiliated by the force and wealth of enemies, while staying convinced they can overwhelm them.

Eco here: b/c of this fascists are fated to lose wars as they're incapable of objectively evaluating enemies.

9. "Pacifism is trafficking with the enemy" because "life is permanent warfare". There must always be an enemy to fight. This principle leads to a fundamental contradiction within fascism: the incompatibility of ultimate triumph with perpetual war.

10. "Contempt for the weak". Every citizen belongs to the best people of the world, members of the party are the best among citizens, every citizen can (or ought to) become a member of the party. But you can't be better without a worse - and everyone below you is to be despised.

11. "Everybody is educated to become a hero" - and the cult of heroism is strongly linked to the cult of death. The "Fascist hero is impatient to die. In his impatience, he more frequently sends other people to death."

12. "Machismo" - distain for women and condemnation of differing sexual habits. Fascist transfers will to power to sexual matters too.

13. "Selective populism". The People, conceived monolithically, have a Common Will, distinct from and superior to viewpoint of any individual. The Leader is the interpreter of popular will (though truly they dictate it), uses this concept to delegitimise democratic institutions.

14. "Newspeak" employs and promotes an impoverished vocabulary in order to limit critical reasoning.

Read the full essay here:
https://www.pegc.us/archive/Articles/eco_ur-fascism.pdf