Thread by @WholePicture_

Here a Thread about #Fascism and #Capitol:

The leader had called and tens of thousands had come to the capital.

#Trump #Italy #Italian #Hitler #History
nzz.ch/international/…

Now they stood ready, many of them clad in the uniforms of their sentiments, showing flags, armed and determined to attack the hated symbols of parliamentary order. And so they stormed off.

The scene occurred almost a century ago, in October 1922, in Rome. And the coup d'état of the Black Shirts succeeded. Impressed by the march on Rome, King Victor Emanuel III. on October 30, 1922 the leader of the fascists, Benito Mussolini, with the formation of a new government.

When supporters of Trump stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, commentators were quickly on hand with historical analogies and comparisons.

There was talk of a “March on Washington”, an attempted coup on the fascist model: Trump, the fascist or at least the pioneer of fascism in the USA.

Such speculations were already circulating in the media immediately after his election victory at the end of 2016. Experts, on the other hand, were far more cautious.

But now some important voices have changed their minds. Including the historian Robert Paxton, for whom a red line was crossed with the storming of the Capitol: The label fascism is now not only acceptable, but even necessary, he says with conviction.

In the media, the predicate “fascist” is usually used to end discussions. Fascists are the others with whom one no longer speaks and no longer wants to have anything to do with.

But from a historiographical perspective, the findings are often complex and more like the beginning than the end of the discussion.

The March on Rome is an example of this: the scenes described at the beginning are faded into the fact that at the end of October 1922 much was chaotic and was based on deception.

At most a few thousand took part in the march itself, who by no means marched off but waited obediently at the gates of Rome until King Mussolini had appointed Prime Minister.

The triumphant images of the march that we have were only recreated days later. So the Duce came to power primarily because the old elites allowed it. If the king had let the army march, the miserable, poorly armed heap of black shirts would have happened quickly.

Seen in this way, the march on Rome was a propaganda trick, as anti-fascists liked to emphasize in the interwar period.

Fascist agitation seeks the rebirth of the nation. But this requires a national revolution. In this revolutionary impulse, fascists still differ today from other enemies of democracy - whether autocrats, oligarchs or populists.

The latter also challenge the existing order, but do not want to fundamentally overcome it.

In Italy in 1922 and a decade later in Germany, a few months were enough to destroy the republican order. Trump certainly damaged American institutions, but failed to overcome them.

It was only thanks to the upheavals in Italy that Hitler found his leadership role and the courage to take action, as the attempted coup a year later in Munich shows.

Even now, right-wing extremists around the world have not only carefully observed the events in the USA, but also applauded them loudly.

In the interwar period, two factors favored the triumph of fascism: first, a temporary weakness of the other great powers. It was not just a consequence of the global economic crisis - but also of a political, ideological and social nature.

During this period, fascists easily achieved a series of successes that made them appear stronger than they really were.

Second, the fascists had like-minded people internationally.

In the last ten years the crises on a global level have increased: a financial crisis that led to a great recession, signs of weakness in democracy, the rise of autocrats, polarization in domestic political struggles that rhetorically tended towards civil war.

Finally, a pandemic that arouses the desire in many to put globalization in its place. The world order has started to move and is malleable again.