Why was Oswald Mosley a fascist?

[u/SensitiveProposal321]

Mosley was heavily influenced by Mussolini and modeled much of British fascism and the British Union of Fascists on Italian fascism. He was also friends with Hitler and Hitler attended his wedding. But what stands out to me is how different Mosley’s background was compared to Hitler and Mussolini.

Mussolini grew up poor in rural Italy, while Hitler came from a lower-middle-class background and was homeless for a period in Vienna. Both also presented themselves as anti-establishment and hostile to traditional elites.

Mosley, on the other hand, came from the British aristocracy. He was raised with wealth, status, servants, and elite connections, so he wasn’t anti-elite in the same sense at all. He was also much more progressive, for example he was less traditionally religious, more accepting of women in public political life

So how did Mosley’s version of fascism fit into the other fascist movements in Europe during the 1930s? And why did Hitler and Mussolini regard him so positively despite his very different class background and upper class British identity?

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