Joe Biden gets a bad wrap for pushing socialism, and deservedly so. But a more accurate description of his policies might be socialism’s kissing cousin, fascism. Law professor Glenn Reynolds makes that case.

Fascism involves government control, but not ownership, of the means of production. Private companies exist, but they’re simply arms of the government.

That’s pretty much how things work in America today, except that even functions traditionally government-performed in countries like Hitler’s Germany and Mussolini’s Italy have been outsourced to private organizations.

Take reordering the economy. The Nazis’ program of Gleichschaltung rearranged everything to suit the party’s goals, with the supervision of party officials and government boards.

In America, on the other hand, the corporations that control the commanding heights of our national economy do it themselves, following the philosophy of environmental, social and governance investing.

Before ESG, they were supposed to run their companies for the benefit of shareholders, something required by their fiduciary obligations to the people who, you know, actually own the company.

But under the ESG philosophy, they are supposed to run their companies for the benefit of “stakeholders” — who can be employees, customers, “the community” or pretty much anyone they want — and things like “social justice” and environmental preservation, buzzwords that let them do pretty much whatever they want.

In practice, they’re given guidance not by some political party or government board but by various nonprofit groups that aren’t really accountable to anyone but, oddly enough, all seem to espouse pretty much the same programs.

Thus the Biden administration is able to effectively commandeer corporations to do its bidding, all without the pesky accountability problems. Reynolds explains how ESG guidelines for retirement funds end up functioning like taxes to fund leftist initiatives, and how the CHIPS Act funding manufacturing of semiconductor chips also requires child care for employees. He adds, “Even that mainstay of fascistic oversight, censorship, has been outsourced.” Yes, Big Tech is doing it, but “They acted at the behest of government.”

He eventually concludes:

Is what we’ve got now a kinder and gentler fascism than we saw in Germany and Italy? Sure. But it’s fascism nonetheless. And it must stop.

Read the whole thing here.