What is Fascism and How it divides us?

TL;DR

This is a small book on Fascism with the current US political backdrop. This is by no means a thorough analysis of Fascism; it has no material outside Nazi Germany and the current Trump administration.

Chapter 1: Mythic Past

Fascism politics sells the story of a glorious mythic past that had been tragically destroyed to the masses. Also, the mythic past had a form of purity of some kind such as religious, racial or cultural purity. And they describe the actual past in conspiratorial terms to obscure it. Globalism and liberalism is seen as a threat to fascism. Every country has some form of an extreme right-wing party in politics. Whether it’s Myanmar Government’s effort to get rid of Rohingya Muslims from their country or the Hindutva a nationalistic movement gaining a foothold in India, they have things in common. For example, they try to paint their country’s past with a giant brush of uniformity in the original people of the nation who had been victimized by liberalism. There is also mention of current political activities happening in Hungary and Turkey. Fascist policies divide people into different hierarchies. And the author also refers to this academic journal titled ‘Motivated to “Forget”: The Effects of In-Group Wrongdoing on Memory and Collective Guilt’, summarizing that there is an inherent bias for forgetting in-group wrongdoings in humans.

Chapter 2: Propaganda

It is hard to propagate something that will harm a section of society blatantly. So the fascist propaganda is coated with widely accepted goals concealing the dangerous goals. Nixon’s war on poverty masked the war on crime in the USA. Problematic goals are masked with virtuous ones. Fascist politicians usually start with eradicating corruption as their first goal. Historically fascist leaders came to power via democracy. But they were intended on destroying it as they believed democracy undermines itself.

Chapter 3: Anti-intellectual

The incident that happened in Portland where 2 people were stabbed and killed, is it a sign of patriotism? The chief reason for free speech is to have a public discourse and not exchange insults. The author talks about Horowitz and his fight for the freedom of conservative free speech in universities across the USA. Horowitz was a fringe figure once upon a time but is now mainstream in Trump’s USA. Professors can lose their job and pension for their liberal thoughts or if they are a part of studies or projects that could have a liberal outcome. Currently, Ergodan in Turkey has purged all left leaning liberal professors and changed the education system from being secular.

Chapter 4: Unreality

An oration in fascism politics is not to convince intellects but to sway their will. Reasoning doesn’t attract people but emotions do. The reality itself is doubted. Fox news promoted Trump’s theory that Obama was born in Kenya. Candidates need more money when running for office, so they have to protect the interests of their large donors. When a society has a lot of inequalities, the resentment from unmet expectations of certain groups is going to be directed towards minority groups. The opposite of a liberal democratic champion is one who appears sincere and stands for a division without apology. This politician will be like a breath of fresh air into politics but he can also openly lie about anything and everything.

Chapter 5: Hierarchy

Men’s fates are not equal. According to fascist ideologies, nature imposes hierarchy of power and dominance that is inconsistent with equality of respect. Equality is a trojan horse of liberalism that will pollute the pure blood of America through homo-sexuality and immigration. Empires in decline are going to take the fascist route because the mass is made to believe that their national pride was humiliated.

Chapter 6: Victimhood

The dominant group feels a threat to its dominance when minority group is well represented. There is a propagandist thought that the USA will become a majority minority country. ‘Black Lives Matter’ - Do only black lives matter? No the point of the slogan is a claim to equal respect. There is a difference between the nationalism used for dominance and the nationalism against oppression. The nationalism that arises against an oppression is not fascism. Gandhi used Indian nationalism against the British colonialism. In the face of discrimination, repressed groups have risen up in movements that proclaimed pride in their identity.

Chapter 7: Law and Order

In 1989, five black teens were wrongfully arrested in an incident and Donald Trump took out a full-page ad calling for their execution in the newspapers. In 2016, Jeff Sessions brought up this example as Trump’s dedication to law and order. In fascist politics, the dominant group is lawful by nature and minority groups are inherently unlawful just by existence. Author’s grandmother’s husband had two speeding tickets in Nazi Germany and the Gestapo took him to prison. Most of the Jews were not aware of the full horror that was going on as they were not thinking of themselves as criminals. The author also talks about Linguistic Intergroup bias. We describe the actions of another group differently from our own. They are criminals but we make mistakes. We protest and they riot.

Chapter 8: Sexual Anxiety

The politics of sexual anxiety is particularly effective when the traditional male role is under threat by economic forces. LGBT people are used for raising anxiety and panic about the threat to traditional man-woman roles. According to Hitler, Jews hired black people from Africa to rape and make the white Aryan blood impure. KKK cult also believed in that in the USA. The lynching of black persons for rape allegations during the 1890s, the ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar which started because of a rumor that a young Buddhist girl was raped by a Rohingya Muslim in 2014. In India, we have something similar called ‘Love Jihad’, and in the USA, Trump made the connection between the Mexican immigrants and rapists. Fascist politics distorts the male anxiety heightened by economic anxiety into a fear that one’s family is under threat.

Chapter 9: Sodom and Gomorrah

Hitler in his autobiography despises the city of Vienna because of the presence of various races in the city. The social culture is corrupted by Jews and other immigrants in urban areas whereas the rural community is pristine. Fascist ideology feeds a myth that hardworking rural workers are supporting people living in metro cities. Consider Trump’s rhetoric tweets about the crimes in the inner cities. A city supports a group of minorities. In fascist ideology, the nation has one group, one leader, and specific customs of a single religion or a single race. Hitler theorized that a Jew has always avoided work with his hands and was a parasite living off from the sweat of others.

Chapter 10: Arbeit Macht Frei

The words mean ‘Work Sets You Free’ and were written on the gates of the Auschwitz concentration camp. Fight against the drones and fight against the Jews who reap without sowing. In a fascist nation, there are undeserving minorities taking advantage of the hard-working majority. As a prelude to ethnic cleansing, the fascist Government will create certain artificial conditions within the state that seem to legitmize the brutal treatment of a particular group. First, create a stereotype and then try to make it real. Paint a group as lazy and then slash their welfare programs to make them work hard. Industrialists operate on a hierarchy unlike democracy so Hitler called on for the support of the industrialists for his fascist Government.