Even with Trump voted out of office, the spectre of fascism still looms over our collective future. The nature of fascism, its core characteristics, the essence of its being, has been the subject of many books, articles and discussions, but the best and most comprehensive understanding of this anti-ideology is, in my opinion, neatly summarized as "capitalism in decay".
source: YouTube
That is what fascism essentially entails; a forceful reactionary response to the rise of leftist ideologies in times when capitalism is about to succumb under the weight of its own internal contradictions. Fascist doctrine attempts to erase from the minds of the people any concerns about the class divisions inherent in the capitalist status quo, by stressing some of the same monistic values usually related to communist and socialist ideologies. Contrary though to those ideologies, fascism takes away the peoples' concern about those class divisions and instead propagates the idea that they are part of harmonious whole, rich and poor together unified in something greater than themselves, usually the nation that is endowed with romanticized mythical roots by the narrative; in our times we can see this in Trump supporters who long for a return to a past when it was still okay to treat women, gays and brown people like second class citizens, and fervently defend their right to have statues of pro slavery "heroes" remain in their cities. Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Fuehrer (one people, one nation, one leader), is their actual slogan when they during rallies repeat Trump's talking points of "America First", "I'm a Nationalist" and "Make America Great Again" while chanting "USA! USA! USA!", with the occasional Confederate flag peeking through a sea of American flags and "Stop The Steal" signs...
"The fascist conception of life stresses the importance of the State and accepts the individual only insofar as his interests coincide with those of the State." This is a literal quote from Mussolini and, like the Kings of ages long gone, he himself was the State made flesh, just like Trump has become the personification of the American Ideal for many of his supporters, who still back his authoritarian attempts to overthrow the results of the election. They don't like to hear it, but these hardcore Trumpists have fallen victim to the cult of personality that's emblematic of the infamous fascist regimes in 20th century Europe. This is not to say that the average Trump supporter is a fascist, but I am saying that they support fascism, probably without being aware of it. Maybe Trump himself isn't even aware of the pivotal role he plays in the resurgence of fascism, that's even likely seeing as he's not the brightest bulb in the room, but he has had the full support of the capitalist oligarchs who see the rise of leftist democratic forces as a threat to their lofty positions. The ruthless decapitation of Bernie Sanders' chances of becoming the Democratic nominee in 2016 as well as 2020 has been the result of the behind the scenes efforts of those same oligarchic forces; they own both major parties and now that they realize they've overplayed their hand with Trump, they'll return, for now, to capitalism with a friendly face in a Joe Biden presidency.
Fascism is what happens when capitalism is driven into a corner while leftist forces are unable to direct the people's attention to their real adversaries; this happened in Mussolini's Italy and in Hitler's Germany. Both nations' large corporations threw their support behind their respective fascist leaders and in return were rewarded with tax cuts and sizable state subsidies, while their peoples were taxed more and their workers rights eroded. This all happened in a period of economic turmoil and recession of the 1920s and 1930s, a period when the gap between rich and poor was accentuated with high unemployment and increasing poverty among the people and a period in which socialism and communism gained much popularity with the example of the successful communist revolution in nearby Soviet Union. In those times the capitalists needed, much as they do now, leaders who are opposed to that ideology, preferably of the authoritarian kind if the ideological threat is imminent enough. What's conveniently overlooked in mainstream written history is the extent to which western capitalist states and leaders have cooperated with fascism. British Prime Minister Neville Chaimberlin, as well as many of his class saw Hitler as an effective countermeasure against the rise of communism in Germany, and Germany itself as a bulwark against the rise of communism in Europe. Before the Second World War broke out, many western leaders were positively friendly towards the Nazis, and after the war they did little to stop fascism except for putting on trial some of the top leaders in Nuremburg.
The ugly truth western capitalist states refuse to confront is that the very same people who were supposed to investigate the war crimes perpetrated by Nazi Germany were themselves complicit in those crimes. Corporations like ITT, Ford, General Motors and DuPont owned factories in enemy countries that produced the fuel, tanks and planes that wreaked havoc on Allied forces. These corporations were not prosecuted after the war but instead collected millions of dollars from the U.S. government for war damages to those factories. During the war bomber pilots were instructed to not hit factories owned by U.S. Firms; in Cologne the Ford plant was even used as an air raid shelter by German citizens. The Rockefeller family used its Chase National Bank Paris office to launder German money to facilitate Nazi international trade during the war, and Coca Cola invented the brand name Fanta in an attempt to not be associated with Nazi Germany while still selling their products there. Nazi rocket scientists, responsible for designing and building the infamous V1 and V2 rockets, were brought to America after the war and given jobs at NASA. But all of this shouldn't surprise anyone who knows a little bit about America's recent history; the nation's propensity to install or support authoritarian leaders all over the world that serve the needs of its capitalist rulers should be well known by now.
But there's a big difference between now and then. Back in the early to mid 20th century capitalism wasn't as far evolved into global capitalism as it is now. When we used to speak of German or Italian capitalism failing, we now speak of global neoliberalism failing. Neoliberalism is a specific type of political capitalism that is capitalism's end stage. From the brief description of the book "Spectres of Fascism" comes this summary:
Concerns over the rise of fascism have been preoccupied with the Trump presidency and the Brexit vote in the UK, yet, globally, we are witnessing a turn towards anti-democratic and illiberal forces. From the tragic denouement of the Egyptian Revolution to the consolidation of the so-called Gujarat Model in India under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the consolidation of the power of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to the recent election of Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, fascist ideology, aesthetics and fascist personalities appear across the globe. Spectres of Fascism makes a significant contribution to the unfolding discussion on whether what we are witnessing today is best understood as a return to classic twentieth-century ‘fascism,’ or some species of what has been called ‘post-fascism.’ Applying a uniquely global perspective, it combines analyses of historical contexts, theoretical approaches and contemporary geopolitics.
source: amazon
I haven't read that book yet, but I am leaning into agreement with the above stated premise; the "post-fascism" described here encapsulates my fear of the one world government espoused by so many world leaders and given shape by unelected global institutions like the World Economic Forum, the World Trade Organization, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, NATO and the likes. Luckily there's a lot of awareness about this threat in our time of the world wide web, but there's still reason for great concern. My main concern is that, like the Trump supporters, many voices against the upcoming New World Order fall for the same trap used in Nazi Germany. They mistakenly see this threat as world communism instead of what it really is: world fascism, global capitalism in decay.
I'll leave you with a video from a right wing libertarian who recently converted to the Christian religious belief, who perfectly showcases how a large part of the online community makes the same mistake as was made in Germany and Italy of the 1930s, how they are afraid of global communism instead of global fascism, or how they equate the two. It's so sad for me to see this young man being right about so many things, yet being so far removed from reality. His fears are legit, but his anger is successfully diverted against the wrong ideology, yet again. He rightly identifies the global corporations and national governments as his and our enemies in the globalized political economy of neoliberalism, yet somehow fails to identify capitalism as the root cause, like so many capitalist libertarians before him. Unknowingly this young man has become capitalism's ultimate commodity and if asked he'll possibly take up arms against the communist threat of which Antifa and BLM are the perceived vanguards. I recently wrote a piece, a rant really, about the unreasonable mindset of so called "anti maskers" who refuse to wear face masks while appealing to their fundamental individual rights; while the young man in this video has good reasons to stand up against government overreach, he, like so many others, has lost sight of who and what his real enemies are when he rants against face masks. "History Doesn't Repeat Itself, but It Often Rhymes," Mark Twain once wrote; please, let's prove him wrong this one time, and let's show that we understand that the World Economic Forum is NOT a communist institution, despite them using slogans like "You'll own nothing. And you'll be happy"...
If you've made it this far, dear reader, you have my deepest respect and gratitude; I guess I went a bit overboard with the history... Still, I'd like to mention in closing that much of it is inspired by Michael Parenti's brilliant book Blackshirts and Reds: Rational Fascism and the Overthrow of Communism, the audio-book version of which is linked here. Not only does it go into much deeper detail about the stuff discussed in this post, it also has some really good arguments regarding the ongoing struggle within the leftist movements themselves, more specifically between incrementalists on the social democrats' side and the more revolutionary inclined communists, Leninists and Marxists. If you're interested in either of those topics, follow the link to listen to and / or read the entire book; it's only 160 pages long and I finished it in one afternoon. If you prefer just reading, here's a .pdf version. I highly reccomend it.
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