| Ideas
From a Progressive's Standpoint, Fascism
As far right ideologies seemingly see a resurgence amidst a worsening national condition, learning the origins of fascism and how it comes to be can help in fighting it.
By Nicholas Just and Bodhi Giebel, August 4, 2021
Image Credit: Gelatin Silver Print. © Leo Seltzer.
Fascism is a political phenomenon that threatens every progressive movement as well as the proletariat themselves. An outstandingly alarming aspect of this ideology is that it can appeal to liberal governments and societies. While fascism has recently become a sort of political buzzword, it is important that the threat of fascism is understood and opposed by our democracy.
Fascism in its time was tolerated by western governments until it threatened world peace. In fact, Franklin Delano Roosevelt once said in reference to Mussolini, “I don't mind telling you in confidence that I am keeping in fairly close touch with the admirable Italian gentleman.” It was really only once Hitler invaded Poland that the capitalist governments stepped in and it was only to preserve alliances.
These governments likely tolerated fascist regimes because they crushed labor movements and installed a mode of government known as corporatism; they did not oppose capitalism. The incredibly popular and progressive labor movement in Germany, for example, was grinded to a halt when the leaders of said movement, among them Rosa Luxembourg, were arrested and then slaughtered by the Freikorps, an ultranationalist monarchist militia group.
Today we see many echoes of fascist movements of the early 20th century. The term “Cultural Marxism” is almost a direct copy of the term that the Germans used to demonize the left: Cultural Bolshevism. The right today isn’t only inspired aesthetically but also strategically.
The common republican only a few months ago believed that the election was stolen as a plot against Trump, a completely unsubstantiated and easily falsifiable claim that was weaponized as a tool against intellectualism. The entire idea of “fake news” was and continues to be used to separate facts from the right.
Trump himself chose not to refute the Qanon conspiracy, he claimed that he did not know what it was even though the majority of republicans say they do believe in the theory. Since the conspiracy theory paints his political opponents as fantasy super villains, though, it's obvious that Trump is using it to his advantage.
One of the early warning signs of fascism, according to Umberto Eco, is a “powerful and recurring nationalism”. Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images
This is reminiscent of tactics used by fascist leaders, operating almost exclusively on lies. This isn’t to say that Trump is the next Hitler, but rather to show that it should be concerning that characteristics of fascism are socially acceptable today.With that in mind, simply calling Trump and his supporters fascists is not a stand alone argument.
Philosopher Slavoj Žižek said in a speech to the Bled Forum at the Europe Association “If they don’t agree with you, you are labeled a fascist”. It is anti-intellectual to use fascism to describe your political opponents without fully understanding the concept itself as It is a polarizing word. We should refrain from using arguments that rely on calling our opponents fascists. Instead, we should focus on the aspects of fascism that we find most harmful to society.
Anti-intellectualism is a common aspect of fascism, as well as machismo and oppressive traditionalism. If you want to know the other commonly accepted aspects of fascism, Umberto Eco’s 1995 essay Ur-Fascism is incredibly useful in defining and fighting fascist ideas. Engaging with fascists online will only broadcast their harmful ideas to others. Therefore, if we want to attack their ideology, it is better to argue with people who are vulnerable to fascist ideology like conservatives because they will be more open to an exchange of ideas.
Fascists online are also known to spend much time trying to radicalize the more moderate conservatives with subtle extreme messages. “...the account would unexpectedly post extreme content. While regular posts would feature familiar conservative tropes...”, says Joshua Citerella’s in his opinion piece There’s a new tactic for exposing you to radical content online: the ‘slow red-pill’.
It is this sort of integration of radical rhetoric into traditionally conservative talking points that we have to be weary of and is essentially why we should avoid platforming fascists. We should fight fascism by ensuring the aspects mentioned earlier like anti-intellectualism and machismo are not socially acceptable, and fermenting a progressive cultural movement is capable of halting the growth of the alt right.
Every progressive should recognize fascism as one of the immediate threats facing society. While it may seem unrealistic to some, we shouldn’t underestimate the far right and the power that the rhetoric they utilize has to convince the modern apolitical. We have seen in Germany that the masses become vulnerable to beliefs such as fascism during times of great economic turmoil, But, the labor movement at that point was at its strongest too. Great economic turmoil is inevitable, our focus should be to shift the Overton Window as far away from conservatism as possible before said collapse.