Chapter 2: The idea of fascism.
When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.
Sinclair Lewis.
2.1. Whence fascism?
At some of Donald Trump’s election rallies in 2016, supporters were filmed giving straight arm salutes while shouting “Heil Trump.” After he assumed the presidency, pranksters posted on the internet photos of him giving speeches, along with quotes fromMein Kampf, as though they were his. Unfortunately, the joke backfired: his supporters took them as actual quotes from the Dear Leader and went into raptures. This adds new and ominous depths of meaning to what is now known as Poe’s Law, which originally said:
Without a winking smiley or other blatant display of humor, it is impossible to parody Creationism in such a way thatsomeone won’t mistake for the genuine article5.
What this says is that it is impossible to put a picture of Trump on the same page as a quote from the very font of fascism, and not have somebody take it as a genuine utterance from The Donald. This means that the expectations of his “base” were so extreme that they saw nothing wrong with identifying him with one of modern history’s most appalling regimes. Because their views, and what they wanted from him, fitted snugly into the Nazi template, people applauded tweeted quotes like these:
Any alliance whose purpose is not to wage war is senseless and useless (of NATO).
The great masses of the people will more easily fall victim to a big lie than a small one6.
This points to the message in the usually rather delphic writer, Theodor Adorno:
I consider the survival of [fascism] within democracy to be potentially more menacing than the survival of fascist tendencies against democracy.
That is, the danger of fascism lies within the nation, not outside. But Trump wasn’t alone: all around the world, country after country seems to be moving rapidly toward the hard right wing of politics. Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro clearly idolised Trump and has himself been called the “Trump of the tropics.” In the UK, nativists pushed the country to sign itself out of the European Union, even though none of them appear to have considered the consequences. India’s Narendra Modi has ridden the twin tigers of nationalism and religious intolerance to power, and looks set to stay for some time to come. In the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte has turned death squads on anybody who offends him. Nearby Thailand (which means Land of the Free in Thai) languishes under yet another military junta. Meanwhile, neighbouring Myanmar’s army has bludgeoned its way back into power and has unleashed the army and bands of religious fanatics on defenceless villagers.
In Europe, Poland and Hungary are pushing a nativist and socially reactionary program while throughout the continent, ultra-right wing parties are gaining ever-larger shares of the votes. In the Middle East, Saudi Arabia is an unabashed clericalist-fascist dictatorship but nobody bothers about th
