Fascism in 10 easy steps.
Jason Stanley, the Jacob Urowsky professor of philosophy at Yale University, describes fascism in a YouTube video:
“Fascism is a cult of the leader, who promises national restoration in the face of supposed humiliation by immigrants, leftists, liberals, minorities, homosexuals, women in the face of what the fascist leader says is a takeover of the country’s media, cultural institutions, schools by these forces. And that's why you need a really macho powerful violent response.
He adds, “The fascist leader says he will solve the problem.”
Stanley goes on to enumerate ten strategies that underpin the rise of right-wing autocracy. I have listed them below with my commentary and references to America today.
1. Mythic past.
No country has an unblemished history. No nation even has a period of perfection. The budding fascist, however, will refer back to some imaginary, Edenic era, which in myth was a time when the country was great — mainly because everybody understood their role, stuck to their lane, and did not act uppity.
In the American conservative orthodoxy, that time was the “Father Knows Best” 1950s. The US had just saved the planet from fascist hordes (spot the irony). And Americans lived in a white suburban heaven where bread-winning patriarchs provided for domestic goddess wives and their passel of bright-eyed and (mostly) obedient children.
2. Propaganda
To return to this Eden — to make the country great again — the fascist promises to defeat the forces that have caused the national decline. In short, these ‘bad actors’ are the “them” in the “us vs. them” formulation. The leader demonizes them repeatedly as agents of destruction.
These enemies of the state can be a racial, religious, and/or foreign cabal. For the American right-winger today, these are minorities, immigrants, Muslims, and the UN
3. Anti-intellectualism.
The fascist cannot allow multiple perspectives. He must destroy the reputation of intellectually diverse people. He characterizes knowledge as deviancy. Mao unleashed his Cultural Revolution to decimate Chinese academia. And Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, while not mandating that university professors go pick oranges, is just as determined to undermine the university intelligentsia.
Schools in the fascist nation teach only state-approved curriculums — which fosters the belief in a perfect past. And shield students from today’s realities. While the autocrat may celebrate free markets in business, he cannot allow a free market of ideas. And therefore we have “don’t say gay” laws and a ban on CRT — even though it’s not taught in schools. and few people know what it is.
4. Unreality
The fascist lies — repeatedly. Joseph Goebbels reportedly explains why. “If you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it, and you will even come to believe it yourself.” (He may not have said it, but the message resonates.) A fascist who can get a population to agree with his version of reality has established a base that will accept as gospel anything he says
5. Hierarchy
The fascist tells the ‘select’ group — in the US, that would be whites — that they are better than the others. Often racial superiority will be reinforced by the primacy of one religion. He will enforce this state of affairs by casting the chosen people as morally superior to the rest.
Southerner Lyndon Johnson was well aware of this strategy, saying: "If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you."
6. Victimhood.
If the “lower” groups dare to lobby for equality, the fascist calls his base the nation's true citizens — “real Americans”, for example. He will portray the supreme group as under attack. In his formulation, Protestants are the victims of papism. Christians are the victims of Jews and Muslims. Whites are the victims of minorities. Men are the victims of feminism.
7. Law and order.
The fascist embraces ‘law and order’ to preserve the status quo. Groups representing minority interests — say, Black Lives Matter — are painted as murderous, anti-social lawbreakers. And a threat to the peaceful order.
8. Sexual anxiety
The fascist extols the heterosexual/bigender model. Anybody not conforming is a deviant and threatens the womenfolk and children. The LGBTQ community is not satisfied with acceptance. They have an agenda to corrupt the young. Drag queens and transgender are visible symbols of immorality.
Ironically, against this background, the base will excuse a fascist who is a heterosexual predator, if he has promised to crush the perverts.
9. Sodom and Gomorrah.
The fascist extols the virtues of the non-city dweller. He demonizes cities as magnets for deviants, decadence, immigrants, and criminals — even if he is a product of the city himself. The fascist extols patriots, who live in the country and work with their hands.
10. Arbeit macht frei.
“Work sets you free.” The fascist characterizes minorities as lazy and content to live on state handouts — which weak-minded (i.e. liberal) citizens are eager to dole out to the undeserving for their votes. He will slime trade unions as hotbeds of communists who get rich by picking the workers’ pockets. In their place, the fascist promotes “right to work” (aka union busting) laws.
Stanley could add three more autocratic tactics to his list.
11. Isolationism
Fascists celebrate isolationism and preach anti-globalism. They say that foreign wars are not their concern. In the 1930s, some Americans, notably the German Bund, dismissed the Nazi territorial grabs in Austria and the Sudentenland as local concerns. And Hitler’s jingoistic militarism would, at worse, result in a European war.
Today, their descendants dismiss the Ukrainian War as a “territorial dispute.”
12. Enforced patriotism
The fascist insists on pledges of allegiance. He will slam any questioning of the national values. Consider the US athletes kneeling during the anthem. They were called anti-patriotic, unAmerican troop-haters and excoriated far beyond the scope of their supposed sin.
13. “We were robbed”
Claiming the democratic process is rigged — and elections are stolen — evidence be damned.
The fascist presents himself as the leader in an existential fight to reclaim the nation. Once his target audience accepts his bastardization of the truth — his set of lies — he is insulated from criticism. Any attack on him or his policies is considered evidence that he is a threat to the Deep State or other forces determined to diminish the rights of the citizens.
For decades the right in America has warned that unAmerican actors were coming to grab their guns and Bibles and strip away their religious freedom. That it never happens is irrelevant. The warnings are constant. The fears are chronic.
Fascism is like a car accident. It happens seemingly suddenly. And only after the event do you realize that the driver was drunk and speeding or that the fascist was laying the groundwork for his takeover. One day there is a democracy — by the next, there are no more elections.
It never ends well. For the Dear Leader’s fan club, it goes OK for a while. Then even his supporters are ground down by the dictator’s paranoid psychosis. And it takes years to pick up the pieces.
Note: I have dispensed with gender-neutral pronouns as most fascist leaders have been men. Exceptions include Rotha Beryl Lintorn Lintorn-Orman, who founded the British Fascisti in 1923. However, women are becoming increasingly prominent in ultra-right politics — notably Italy’s new Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni.
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