Summary: Mainlining fascism – and heroin – have become fashionable in America. Trump has given little evidence of being a fascist, but his campaign has emboldened them. The Right’s extremists were expelled from mainstream conservatism in the early 1960’s. Let’s hope they come to their senses and do so again — or that the rest of us stand together to resist this infection.
Fascism is an endemic disease in the west since its origin in the late 19th century. There are warning signs of a revival in America. On the right, racism, white nationalism, and fascism have become respectable. For example, turn to Chateau Heartiste is a popular Men’s Rights and Pick Up Artists blog run by James C. Weidmann (aka Roissy; see RationalWiki). In the past year he’s gone big into White Nationalism. More recently, he’s become proto-fascist — as shown in yesterday’s post. While you read listen for the echos of history.
“A White Hot Fire Rises.”
“There are signs of volcanic life surfacing in long dormant White America. A White hot fire rises. Recently, I saw once such sign, a very small sign, but magnificently portentous because it was an act of pro-White rebellion committed deep in the heart of a decadent anti-White shitlibopolis; the nature of the act was one that I had not encountered before in the wilds of any SWPLville.
“A handful of posters promoting an anti-Trump protest march were taped to traffic light poles and other utility boxes near an outdoor cafe. As I watched with growing interest, five corn-fed and bearded White men wearing working class clothes and ear-to-ear shitlib-eating grins strode purposefully from one poster to the next, tearing them down and (respectfully) walking to a nearby garbage can to throw them out. As they performed their valuable public service, an effete, stoop-shouldered white manlet snarled at them from across the street. Even at twenty paces I could see the manlet’s curled lip quivering with menopausal rage.
“The Fantastic Five noticed him too and, gathering together in a V-formation of happy force, triumphantly strutted across the street toward the iconic white liberal, whereupon they rudely impaled his personal space to remove the last anti-Trump poster that happened to be on the traffic pole situated at that corner right where he was standing and fuming. One of the Five swung in front of the manlet and made a dramatic show of crumpling the poster and tossing it into the garbage for a sweet three-point conversion.
“The funniest outtake from this scene was the manlet’s utter enfeeblement in the face of an impudent provocation from his mortal enemies. Snarling from a distance, he was left speechless and catatonic when the Five entered his comfort zone; his inability to act on his suppressed rage a reminder of his low-T futility.
“…Nothing physical happened, this time, but something much worse occurred: the ouster of the shitlib from his position of power in the public space he considered his own, and his abject humiliation in the face of real resistance.
“There’s fight left in White men. The time is coming, very soon now, when the paper tigress of shitliberalism is exposed on the vivisecting table, and unapologetic shitlords stream out of their bunkers armed to the teeth with the liberating knowledge that the passive-aggressive snarl is all their enemies bring to battle, and behind that snarl there’s nothing but cowardly submission.”
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“At least that white rebellion article is humorous.”
— Reaction to the above article by an intelligent and politically aware person.
Conversation between Colonel Stok (Soviet secret police) and Vaclav (Czechoslovakian secret police) in Len Deighton’s great cold war spy novel, Funeral in Berlin
Stok: “These Germans, sometimes I wonder how we managed to beat them.”
Vaclav: “The Nazis?”
Stok: “Oh, we still haven’t beaten them. The Germans, I mean.”
For More Information
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- Americans trust the military most. 29% are ready for a coup. Ready for fascism?
- Good news: we begin to see that we are sliding towards fascism.
- Edward Luttwak: Why Fascism is the Wave of the Future.
- The Left calls Trump a “fascist”, ignoring the many experts who disagree.
Good books about fascism
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Let me see if I’ve got the timeline right here:
– Five people march out into the street, tearing down posters
– One stranger loudly objects
– The five make a show of force, displaying their unity and their willingness to harm the stranger
– The lone stranger backs down in the face of superior force
…And this is supposed to be some kind of moral victory? Does might make right now? What the hell was the objector supposed to do, charge into battle with the sure knowledge that he’s going to get his ass kicked?
Thank you for bringing this to our attention. I just wish I knew how to persuade people to stop thinking like this.
Matthijs,
There is a vast literature about the belief system, thinking, and feelings at work here. It’s about 1930’s Germany. This is not the usual Godwin’s Rule gibberish, but rather a simple and alarming echo of history.
“I just wish I knew how to persuade people to stop thinking like this.”
A antidote to fascism would be the political equivalent of discovery of penicillin by Alexander Fleming in 1928. A vaccine against fascism would be the equivalent of Edward Jenner’s invention of a smallpox vaccine in 1796. Needless to say, I haven’t a clue how to even search for such things. Rather, we must fight to contain and defeat outbreaks of fascism.
” an effete, stoop-shouldered white manlet”
This reminds me of the old Charles Atlas ads about the 97-pound weakling who gets sand kicked in his face at the beach. Then, according to the ad, he bulks up and then gets even with the bully.
Of course, this is the 21st century, so I would recommend instead that our manlet get a robot to fight for him.
Just take their story and re-write it. It’s called poetic combat, which is thousands of years old.
https://masculinitysummit.wordpress.com/2013/08/19/archetypes-the-97-pound-weakling/
DC,
It’s not the least like the old Charles Atlas ads, since it’s told from the bullies’ perspective, with the bullies as heroes.
If we get unlucky, we’ll hear this same story again. But the five guys will be wearing nifty uniforms, marked with a distinctive logo. You will be correct in one respect, however. I’ll bet their organization has a Madison Avenue exec write the equivalent of poetic stories showing them as brave warriors.
Of course it’s told from the bullies’ perspective. I’m retelling it from the “manlet’s,” using Charles Atlas as a starting point.
It’s quite common to retell an old tale from a new perspective. Eg: John Gardner rewrote Beowulf from Grendel’s perspective.
But more basically, I’m disappointed you failed to catch my robot suggestion. Perhaps, then, I should retell it from the robot’s perspective. And that’s been done. See eg: I, Robot. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I,_Robot
DC,
You miss the point. There is no “Charles Atlas” solution to fascist gangs. Individualistic solutions are for comic books (which provide nice fantasies but horrible role models).
“But more basically, I’m disappointed you failed to catch my robot suggestion. Perhaps, then, I should retell it from the robot’s perspective. And that’s been done. See eg: I, Robot.”
I’ve no idea what you are attempting to say, or its relevance to the rise of fascism in the US. My impression (guessing) is that you’re having fun — trying to ignore the subject. That’s a common response, now just as in Weimar. Didn’t work for the folks in “Caberet” (an afterword about the characters’ later lives would be interesting) or for Germany.
Your anecdote is perhaps an example of where a group now feels emboldened to come out from the shadows, but by using the word “mainlining”, you’re implying that society as a whole is becoming more tolerant of such groups. Where is the evidence of that? Likewise, the illustration implies that the GOP is becoming more tolerant or worse. Where is that?
Dell,
(1) “Your anecdote…”
Just to be clear. “Anecdotal evidence” is unreliable or hearsay. This is hard evidence. You can click through to see it for yourself.
(2) “you’re implying that society as a whole is becoming more tolerant of such groups.”
Stories like this were almost unknown a year ago, especially on major websites. Now they’re commonplace.
(3) “the illustration implies that the GOP is becoming more tolerant or worse. Where is that?”
Trump did not, so far as I know, condemn his white nationalist supporters. There was no “Sister Souljah moment” in his campaign, when he condemned extremists supporters. That’s acceptance, a big step down for the GOP. The Wikipedia entry cites similar moments during the presidential campaigns of George W. Bush and John McCain.
“There is a vast literature about the belief system, thinking, and feelings at work here.” The Left wing does the same thing and I would say it is more pervasive in American society. Look at all the provocation,instigation and outright violence by the left at Trump gatherings/speeches, just one example. The anecdote of five people march out into the street, tearing down posters & The five make a show of force, displaying their unity and their willingness to harm the stranger is quite hypocritical when you actually look at what the left does as well. The Left does it more often in this country and in Europe. Pot calling kettle black.
Two articles worth consideration:
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/01/donald-trump-fascist/424449/
http://blackagendareport.com/actually_existing_fascism
A few other quotes for consideration:
A number of features of Bolshevism and Nazism/Fascism did show striking similarities, including their revolutionary action and proletarian nation theories, leadership principles, one-party dictatorship, and party armies. Hitler publicly acknowledge his debt to the Bolsheviks when, for instance, proposing to make Munich ‘the Moscow of our movement.’
Cyprian P. Blamires, editor, World Fascism: A Historical Encyclopedia, Volume 1, Santa Barbara: CA, ABC-CLIO, Inc. (2006) p. 96
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“I really wish North American writers would stop invoking “fascism,” because their obvious ignorance of actual fascism, as it historically emerged and existed, only trivializes real fascism.” Max Forte of Zero Anthropology
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Thus, by 1925, both Leninism and Fascism, variants of Marxism, had created political and economic systems that shared singular properties . . . Both sought order and disciple of entire populations in the service of an exclusivistic party and an ideology that found its origins in classical Marxism . . . Both created a kind of ‘state capitalism,’ informed by a unitary party, and responsible to a ‘charismatics’ leader.
A. James Gregor, Marxism, Fascism & Totalitarianism: Chapters in the Intellectual History of Radicalism, Stanford University Press, 2009, p. 293
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The first Fascists were almost all Marxists—serious theorists who had long been identified with Italy’s intelligentsia of the Left.
[[w:A. James Gregor|A. James Gregor], The Faces of Janus: Marxism and Fascism in the Twentieth Century, New Haven: Connecticut, Yale University Press (2000) p. 20.
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To satisfy their hunger for meaning and value, they [the masses] turn to such doctrines as nationalism, fascism and revolutionary communism. Philosophically and scientifically, these doctrines are absurd; but for the masses in every community, they have this great merit: they attribute the meaning and value that have been taken away from the world as a whole to the particular part of the world in which the believers happen to be living.
Aldous Huxley, Ends and Means : An Inquiry into the Nature of Ideals and into Methods Employed for Their Realization. New York : Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1937.
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Fascism cannot be comprehensively understood without an understanding of Marxism.
Robert Michels, as quoted in Young Mussolini and the Intellectual Origins of Fascism, A. James Gregor, Berkeley: CA, The University of California Press (1979) p. 1
Dayton,
(1) “The Left wing does the same thing”
Very true. I’ve documented this at great length. A — perhaps the — distinguishing characteristic of America today is that both Left and Right have gone bonkers. It’s probably symptomatic of some deeper “illness” in US society. More than that is beyond my pay grade to say.
(2) “I would say it is more pervasive in American society.”
Such assessments are commonplace by both Left and Right. That is, the other guys are worse/more powerful. I don’t know how one would make such an assessment. My opinion is that both sides are roughly speaking deeply guilty.
(3) As the Wikipedia article says, mirroring the political science literature, fascism is a creature of both Left and Right. The political spectrum requires at least two dimensions to model (e.g., a circle). A line — left, right — works for usual purposes, since there are two teams. When the extremes become powerful, the game becomes more complex.
When it came to expansion of Medicaid, conservatives argued in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius that the federal government could not coerce states into accepting an expansion of Medicaid, and effectively found that states must be given the right to opt out of Medicaid expansion without losing their pre-existing Medicaid funding.
But now conservatives are going to argue that the federal government can coerce states and cities to enforce federal immigration law or face the loss of federal funds?
Sorry, but you cannot have it both ways.
Wendell,
That’s a great observation! I hadn’t put those pieces together.
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