Responding to Nicholas, because Substack's editor is garbage and I can't respond directly:
Just imagine how I felt writing it, LOL!
The answer to your question is actually quite simple. It's impossible to oppose the system and BE fascist. Why? Because, historically, fascism was a way to channel the desire for reform while keeping the underlying social relations intact. It was a way to convey the appearance of reform while not really changing anything. Historically, the supporters of fascism weren't the downtrodden masses, but rather the middle-class bourgeoisie. It is an inherently conservative movement, despite its rhetoric and outward appearance. On this, historians agree.
Think of what makes fascism, fascism (some earlier posts talk about this). It's scapegoating other groups for our problems--the bankers, the Jews, the immigrants, the gays, the leftists, the "woke" and so on. It's turning elements of society against each other instead of encouraging solidarity, which threatens those at the top. It posits a national "rebirth" once those people are eliminated, but keeps the existing social relations intact for those deemed worthy of life (the right race, religion, citizenship, sexuality, political beliefs, etc.). It abandons interrogating our own government and its institutions for slavish devotion to a leader and his cult of personality. It's also explicitly hierarchical. This, of course, preserves the existing social relations, and it uses shocking violence to preserve those relations. I caution you against seeing fascism as a genuinely revolutionary movement. If you think that fascism is desirable; or that its inevitable end results of war, violence, mass murder, the rejection of human rights, and political repression are desirable, than I really have failed in my job.
Despite all its alleged antipathy for "the Establishment," look at who's going to be calling the shots in the new administration. Elon Musk. Peter Thiel. Mark Andreesen. Wall Street bankers. Silicon Valley venture capitalists. The Heritage Foundation. All together, the billionaires tapped for the Trump administration are worth at least $344 billion — higher than the GDP of 169 countries.
They bill themselves as "counter-elites" when the "elite" part is the problem. Say what you will about the Henry Fords of yesteryear, at least they were trying to create jobs for the masses instead of destroying them with AI, automation, robotics, and so on. Did inequality decrease under Trump's first administration? No, it increased. Will it decrease? Highly doubtful. During the original rise of fascism in Europe, the US chose a different path--the New Deal--which created the most prosperous middle class in history. That created a counter-revolution by elites starting in the 1970s which has hollowed out civil society and culminated in where we are today--Neo-fascism--instead of a return to those values.
As Karl Polanyi pointed out, fascism is the end result of suborning all social relations to market logic. It was the end result of the demolition of society by free market fundamentalism 1870-1918, World War One, and its aftermath. He thought that after the horrors of World War Two (which he lived through) we had learned our lesson. But clearly we did not. Instead we're repeating the same mistakes, except this time with nuclear weapons, emerging viruses, environmental collapse, and climate change.
I should also add, people who hold paleoconcervative beliefs are not fascists, which I think a lot of people misunderstand. I personally don't consider myself a paleoconservative, but I think it's a valid philosophy which should be part of any dialogue. I also don't think reactionaries are fascists. Fascism is a reactionary movement, but not all reactionaries are fascist. If one thinks that some elements of modernity are harmful or not beneficial, then I would consider myself a reactionary (although I don't think we need to roll back the Enlightenment). Rather, fascism is a particular political style, one which has broad appeal, as we've seen. Read the first post in this series which describes what that style is.
Got to apologise for my slow reply here. I have now gone back and read your original post, though not the whole series yet. You make a compelling case and I'm not arguing with it.
Just to note that this post is called 'anatomy of neo-fascism' and begins with talking about 'crunchy cons' / palaeoconservatives and says things like ' the patchouli oil crowd has turned fascist as well.' So I hope you can forgive me for thinking you were saying these people were all fascists.
Still, I asked if it was possible, in the current moment, to be against the system and not either a fascist, or a supporter of fascism. The 'supporter' part was key because, if MAGA is fascist (as you argue well) then palaeoconservatives and reactionaries in general are indeed being pushed to support fascism because they see it as less bad than the alternative. Rod Dreher, who you mention, is an example.
I think also a lot of people who support Trump (for example) see him as insufficiently radical; not really likely to seriously oppose the system. I've heard them go further and say things like "Trump is a Deep State plant." But that seems very similar to the attitude I've seen from Marxists in the UK towards the Labour party.
As far as I can see, MAGA people really do see themselves as threatening 'those at the top' but they have a different (if overlapping) idea of who 'the elites' are.
I guess what you are saying is that, if you're against the system, you can avoid being a fascist or supporting fascism if you are truly anti-capitalist. Is that right? But then, if you were American (which I'm not) who would you vote for?
Look, I've been reading your essays for a while now and enjoyed them a lot, but upon reading this one, and coming to the conclusion that I'm a Neo-Fascist, I'm more and more convinced that no matter what you try to do, there'll always be someone that takes offence to it, is angered by it, or simply hates you for being you.
It seems like you're concluding that anyone that tries to attempt a path outside of the status quo is an extremist? The status quo is not working. What are we left with?
Boy, you really have misread this, haven't you? The essence of fascism--not anti-fascism--is hating people for who they are.
Do you want a dictatorship? Do you want to eliminate elections? Do you think people different from you are what's wrong with society? Are you a racist/Social Darwinist? Do you think secret police area good idea? Do you think the media needs to be controlled? I mean, maybe you are a fascist, I don't know. But if you don't agree with those things, then you probably aren't. Which is too bad, because that's what you're going to get.
This being Sub$stack, I know a lot of people hate "the Establishment" and have paranoid conspiracy beliefs. I think a lot of them felt personally offended, LoL.
What has happened to you? I still remember when you wrote the Ghost Dance article, you weren't deceived thinking the economy was great then. You wrote defenses of the white working class then and talked openly about what happened to their lives. I weas impressed because someone was being honest, and then I come on and read this crap and brainwashed boomers defending the lie that the economy is great. You were an independent thinker. I shared the Ghost Dance article with endless people.
I didn't support Trump and still don't but your slavish devotion to the status quo as evident in this article, has me very unsettled to the max. You sound like just another brainwashed normie.
What the hell happened to you? And why did you take your article down? At my link I quoted some of it.
No questioning of the Democratic party especially with their Covid tyranny and hatred of freedom of speech. Now everyone who questions the system is a "paranoid conspiracy theorist". How hard is it to figure out billionaires even on the left aren't your friends either.
As someone that's living in the Philippines I've unfortunately become very familiar with this idolisation of strong leaders, it's all around me. My remark about being Neo Fascist was completely tongue in cheek, the way I read this last essay I just seemed to tick all the boxes of the groups of people that were leaning that way.
If you haven't already, have a look into what's happened in the last decade of Philippine politics, unfortunately could be a sign of what's to come in the US.
I found this quite interesting and also quite exhausting. The overview of different constituencies was interesting in itself.
However I'm left with a question - inspired by the person who initially led me here. In the end, in your analysis, is it possible (now) to see the global or national system as an enemy, and not to be a neo-fascist or a de facto supporter of neo-fascism? If so, how?
Both parties run by the billionaires and trillionaires, tell me why you still believe in the Democrats, WHY? I remember you wrote an article talking about Corporations abusing the WOKE stuff, well, look today, any ideas of economic justice have been thrown overboard. They co-op everything. Yes the right wing labeled itself as the "counter-elites" but I consider them liars, but the left is just as elite run. Soros et al. Already on Twitter the medical freedom community is getting a clue that Daddy Vaxx/Mr. Operation Warp Seed doesn't really care about them. His appointees are all Big Pharm etc. I expected as much. Of course the left wing, wanted to mandate by force, vaccines that don't even work and caused endless health problems and want to push mRNA into every medicine. Google "Internet of Bodies", fill in some holes here. I always appreciated your website greatly but a bit worried about your blind spot regarding Covid and technological advances with mRNA. Sadly our goverment is bought out and owned. They will out do the gilded age with technological oppression to the max. [both parties] I will never trust the party that tried to force a vaccine that gave people blood clots, myocarditis and worse. I'm not too keen on demociders who have their "gain of function" labs humming. That's as fascist as one can get.
Both parties are taking us to fascism. I wish you saw through the Covid debacle and what they plan to do with mRNA. I was done with the left when they embraced tyranny to the max. Realize with Trump and Vance, Vance was financed by Thiel, founder of Palantir, which ran the whole the Covid vaccine distribution during Covid, so all those medical freedom people who love Trump are being betrayed. Funny how Trump still praises the Covid vaccine while appointing RFK. Seems like a lot of double-talkers out there. Do you realize how mRNA is related to transhumanism, and the role CRISPER plays? I'd look into that a bit more. BOTH PARTIES want to take us to biofascism. What do you think the debacle of Covid was about?
The left left me, don't ignore what the left hand is doing while focused on the right and Trump the actor, and lightening rod/just like Goldstein from the book 1984. All our top politicians are up to no good. The left paved the way for Trump's second term with all their endless betrayals of real democracy and human rights. Who gunned for war in the Ukraine and paid for genocide in Gaza?
Responding to Nicholas, because Substack's editor is garbage and I can't respond directly:
Just imagine how I felt writing it, LOL!
The answer to your question is actually quite simple. It's impossible to oppose the system and BE fascist. Why? Because, historically, fascism was a way to channel the desire for reform while keeping the underlying social relations intact. It was a way to convey the appearance of reform while not really changing anything. Historically, the supporters of fascism weren't the downtrodden masses, but rather the middle-class bourgeoisie. It is an inherently conservative movement, despite its rhetoric and outward appearance. On this, historians agree.
Think of what makes fascism, fascism (some earlier posts talk about this). It's scapegoating other groups for our problems--the bankers, the Jews, the immigrants, the gays, the leftists, the "woke" and so on. It's turning elements of society against each other instead of encouraging solidarity, which threatens those at the top. It posits a national "rebirth" once those people are eliminated, but keeps the existing social relations intact for those deemed worthy of life (the right race, religion, citizenship, sexuality, political beliefs, etc.). It abandons interrogating our own government and its institutions for slavish devotion to a leader and his cult of personality. It's also explicitly hierarchical. This, of course, preserves the existing social relations, and it uses shocking violence to preserve those relations. I caution you against seeing fascism as a genuinely revolutionary movement. If you think that fascism is desirable; or that its inevitable end results of war, violence, mass murder, the rejection of human rights, and political repression are desirable, than I really have failed in my job.
Despite all its alleged antipathy for "the Establishment," look at who's going to be calling the shots in the new administration. Elon Musk. Peter Thiel. Mark Andreesen. Wall Street bankers. Silicon Valley venture capitalists. The Heritage Foundation. All together, the billionaires tapped for the Trump administration are worth at least $344 billion — higher than the GDP of 169 countries.
They bill themselves as "counter-elites" when the "elite" part is the problem. Say what you will about the Henry Fords of yesteryear, at least they were trying to create jobs for the masses instead of destroying them with AI, automation, robotics, and so on. Did inequality decrease under Trump's first administration? No, it increased. Will it decrease? Highly doubtful. During the original rise of fascism in Europe, the US chose a different path--the New Deal--which created the most prosperous middle class in history. That created a counter-revolution by elites starting in the 1970s which has hollowed out civil society and culminated in where we are today--Neo-fascism--instead of a return to those values.
As Karl Polanyi pointed out, fascism is the end result of suborning all social relations to market logic. It was the end result of the demolition of society by free market fundamentalism 1870-1918, World War One, and its aftermath. He thought that after the horrors of World War Two (which he lived through) we had learned our lesson. But clearly we did not. Instead we're repeating the same mistakes, except this time with nuclear weapons, emerging viruses, environmental collapse, and climate change.
I should also add, people who hold paleoconcervative beliefs are not fascists, which I think a lot of people misunderstand. I personally don't consider myself a paleoconservative, but I think it's a valid philosophy which should be part of any dialogue. I also don't think reactionaries are fascists. Fascism is a reactionary movement, but not all reactionaries are fascist. If one thinks that some elements of modernity are harmful or not beneficial, then I would consider myself a reactionary (although I don't think we need to roll back the Enlightenment). Rather, fascism is a particular political style, one which has broad appeal, as we've seen. Read the first post in this series which describes what that style is.
Got to apologise for my slow reply here. I have now gone back and read your original post, though not the whole series yet. You make a compelling case and I'm not arguing with it.
Just to note that this post is called 'anatomy of neo-fascism' and begins with talking about 'crunchy cons' / palaeoconservatives and says things like ' the patchouli oil crowd has turned fascist as well.' So I hope you can forgive me for thinking you were saying these people were all fascists.
Still, I asked if it was possible, in the current moment, to be against the system and not either a fascist, or a supporter of fascism. The 'supporter' part was key because, if MAGA is fascist (as you argue well) then palaeoconservatives and reactionaries in general are indeed being pushed to support fascism because they see it as less bad than the alternative. Rod Dreher, who you mention, is an example.
I think also a lot of people who support Trump (for example) see him as insufficiently radical; not really likely to seriously oppose the system. I've heard them go further and say things like "Trump is a Deep State plant." But that seems very similar to the attitude I've seen from Marxists in the UK towards the Labour party.
As far as I can see, MAGA people really do see themselves as threatening 'those at the top' but they have a different (if overlapping) idea of who 'the elites' are.
I guess what you are saying is that, if you're against the system, you can avoid being a fascist or supporting fascism if you are truly anti-capitalist. Is that right? But then, if you were American (which I'm not) who would you vote for?
Look, I've been reading your essays for a while now and enjoyed them a lot, but upon reading this one, and coming to the conclusion that I'm a Neo-Fascist, I'm more and more convinced that no matter what you try to do, there'll always be someone that takes offence to it, is angered by it, or simply hates you for being you.
It seems like you're concluding that anyone that tries to attempt a path outside of the status quo is an extremist? The status quo is not working. What are we left with?
Boy, you really have misread this, haven't you? The essence of fascism--not anti-fascism--is hating people for who they are.
Do you want a dictatorship? Do you want to eliminate elections? Do you think people different from you are what's wrong with society? Are you a racist/Social Darwinist? Do you think secret police area good idea? Do you think the media needs to be controlled? I mean, maybe you are a fascist, I don't know. But if you don't agree with those things, then you probably aren't. Which is too bad, because that's what you're going to get.
This being Sub$stack, I know a lot of people hate "the Establishment" and have paranoid conspiracy beliefs. I think a lot of them felt personally offended, LoL.
What has happened to you? I still remember when you wrote the Ghost Dance article, you weren't deceived thinking the economy was great then. You wrote defenses of the white working class then and talked openly about what happened to their lives. I weas impressed because someone was being honest, and then I come on and read this crap and brainwashed boomers defending the lie that the economy is great. You were an independent thinker. I shared the Ghost Dance article with endless people.
https://fivehundredpoundpeeps.blogspot.com/2016/10/the-decline-of-american-society-ii.html
I didn't support Trump and still don't but your slavish devotion to the status quo as evident in this article, has me very unsettled to the max. You sound like just another brainwashed normie.
What the hell happened to you? And why did you take your article down? At my link I quoted some of it.
No questioning of the Democratic party especially with their Covid tyranny and hatred of freedom of speech. Now everyone who questions the system is a "paranoid conspiracy theorist". How hard is it to figure out billionaires even on the left aren't your friends either.
As someone that's living in the Philippines I've unfortunately become very familiar with this idolisation of strong leaders, it's all around me. My remark about being Neo Fascist was completely tongue in cheek, the way I read this last essay I just seemed to tick all the boxes of the groups of people that were leaning that way.
If you haven't already, have a look into what's happened in the last decade of Philippine politics, unfortunately could be a sign of what's to come in the US.
I found this quite interesting and also quite exhausting. The overview of different constituencies was interesting in itself.
However I'm left with a question - inspired by the person who initially led me here. In the end, in your analysis, is it possible (now) to see the global or national system as an enemy, and not to be a neo-fascist or a de facto supporter of neo-fascism? If so, how?
See my response, separate. For some reason I can't leave it here.
Both parties run by the billionaires and trillionaires, tell me why you still believe in the Democrats, WHY? I remember you wrote an article talking about Corporations abusing the WOKE stuff, well, look today, any ideas of economic justice have been thrown overboard. They co-op everything. Yes the right wing labeled itself as the "counter-elites" but I consider them liars, but the left is just as elite run. Soros et al. Already on Twitter the medical freedom community is getting a clue that Daddy Vaxx/Mr. Operation Warp Seed doesn't really care about them. His appointees are all Big Pharm etc. I expected as much. Of course the left wing, wanted to mandate by force, vaccines that don't even work and caused endless health problems and want to push mRNA into every medicine. Google "Internet of Bodies", fill in some holes here. I always appreciated your website greatly but a bit worried about your blind spot regarding Covid and technological advances with mRNA. Sadly our goverment is bought out and owned. They will out do the gilded age with technological oppression to the max. [both parties] I will never trust the party that tried to force a vaccine that gave people blood clots, myocarditis and worse. I'm not too keen on demociders who have their "gain of function" labs humming. That's as fascist as one can get.
Both parties are taking us to fascism. I wish you saw through the Covid debacle and what they plan to do with mRNA. I was done with the left when they embraced tyranny to the max. Realize with Trump and Vance, Vance was financed by Thiel, founder of Palantir, which ran the whole the Covid vaccine distribution during Covid, so all those medical freedom people who love Trump are being betrayed. Funny how Trump still praises the Covid vaccine while appointing RFK. Seems like a lot of double-talkers out there. Do you realize how mRNA is related to transhumanism, and the role CRISPER plays? I'd look into that a bit more. BOTH PARTIES want to take us to biofascism. What do you think the debacle of Covid was about?
The left left me, don't ignore what the left hand is doing while focused on the right and Trump the actor, and lightening rod/just like Goldstein from the book 1984. All our top politicians are up to no good. The left paved the way for Trump's second term with all their endless betrayals of real democracy and human rights. Who gunned for war in the Ukraine and paid for genocide in Gaza?
https://fivehundredpoundpeeps.blogspot.com/2021/09/will-usa-turn-ultra-right-wing-utter.html
https://fivehundredpoundpeeps.blogspot.com/2022/02/the-modern-left-has-turned-fascist-for.html
The left turned fascist too, they BOTH are.