Thread by @docrussjackson

#Fascist politicians typically gain support by appealing to people’s nationalism & racism, especially by promoting suspicion or hatred of people that they label as foreigners or otherwise cast as 'illegitimate citizens' — as Hitler did with the Jews.

Do you understand? 🇬🇧

There are a number of general characteristics that fascist movements from 1922 - 1945 tend to have in common, many of which will feel eerily familiar to anyone living in Britain today. 🇬🇧

britannica.com/topic/fascism/…

I'll just list a few. Draw your own conclusions.

Opposition to Marxism, wealth redistribution, & liberalism.

Racism, sexism & misogyny.

Conservative economic programs.

Unquestioning obedience to authority.

Anti-urbanism. Anti-intellectualism. Anti-individualism.

Fascist educators discouraged critical independent thinking that challenged fascist ideology.

Intolerance, repression & violence directed at “decadence”, associated with rationalism, skepticism, atheism, humanitarianism, & political, economic & gender equality & democracy.

Extreme nationalism & cultural parochialism - national identity was seen as the foundation of individual identity & should not be corrupted by 'foreign influences'. Fascists accused their political opponents of being less “patriotic” than they, sometimes labeling them “traitors.”

Fascists often blamed their countries' economic, social & political problems on scapegoats.

Jews, Marxists, & immigrants were prominent among the groups that were demonised.

Fascists praised 'the Volk' & pandered to populist anti-intellectualism.

Nazi art criticism, for example, upheld the populist view that the common man was the best judge of art & that art that did not appeal to popular taste was decadent.

Fascists also pandered to antiurban feelings. The Nazis won most of their electoral support from rural areas & small towns. In Nazi propaganda the ideal German was not an urban intellectual but a simple peasant - uprooted intellectualism was considered a threat to the Volk soul.

Under fascist regimes women were urged to perform their traditional gender role as wives & mothers & to bear many children for the nation.

Most fascists portrayed themselves as defenders of Christianity & the traditional Christian family against atheists & 'amoral humanists'.

Many fascist ideas derived from the reactionary backlash to the progressive revolutions of 1789, 1830, 1848, and 1871 and to the secular liberalism and social radicalism that accompanied these upheavals.

Fascist ideas prospered politically only when perceived economic threats increased their appeal to members of certain social groups.

In 1928, before the onset of the Great Depression in Germany, Hitler received less than 3% of the vote.

After 1930, far more voters—many of them middle and lower-middle class individuals fearful of “proletarianization”—gave Hitler their support.

Nazi party membership was drawn disproportionately from economic elites & other high-status groups—especially leadership positions.

Although in principle there were significant differences between fascism & nonfascist conservatism, the two camps shared some of the same goals, which in times of crisis led some nonfascists to collaborate with fascists.

Concerning right-wing extremism, without necessarily becoming party members or accepting the entire range of fascist principles themselves, aristocratic landlords, army officers, Govt officials, & important industrialists in Italy & Germany helped bring fascists to power.

During the Great Depression, thousands of middle-class conservatives fearful of the growing power of the left abandoned traditional right-wing parties & adopted fascism, since many of the ideas Hitler exploited in the 1930s had long been common currency within the German right.

Although fascism was largely discredited in Europe at the end of WWII, neofascist movements were founded in several European countries beginning in the late 1940s. Similar groups were created outside Europe as well, primarily in Latin America, the Middle East, & South Africa.

Neofascists advocated militant nationalism & authoritarian values, opposed liberalism, attacked Marxist & other left-wing ideologies, indulged in racist/xenophobic scapegoating, portrayed themselves as protectors of 'traditional culture' & promoted populist right-wing economics.

Neofascist parties differed from earlier fascist movements in several significant respects, many of them having to do with the profound political, economic, & social changes that took place in Europe in the first decades after the end of the war.

For example, whereas fascists assigned much of the blame for their countries’ economic problems to the machinations of bolsheviks, liberals, & Jews, neofascists tended to focus on non-European immigrants.

Neofascists. Tended. To. Focus. On. Non-European immigrants.

Understand?

Most neofascists abandoned the outward trappings of earlier fascist parties, such as paramilitary uniforms and Roman salutes, and many explicitly denounced fascist policies or denied that their parties were fascist.

“Beware of men—& women—wearing smart Italian suits: the colour is now gray, the material is cut to fit the times, but the aim is still power. Fascism is on the move once more, even if its most sophisticated forms have learned to dress to suit the times.” - Roger Eatwell, 1996.

Following the end of WWII, scholars of fascism had adopted various terms to describe certain contemporary political parties and leaders who were not clearly fascist or neofascist but who displayed some characteristics of historical fascist movements & regimes.

Such scholars generally agreed that Trump himself was not a fascist or neofascist. Yet he was arguably a borderline fascist, insofar as his behaviour & attitudes, resembled in some respects those of historical fascist leaders.

Such similarities included contempt for democratic values & the rule of law, demagoguery, appeals to racism, incitements to mob violence, attacks on the legitimacy of the press & of established institutions of Govt, & the exploitation of scapegoats. 

Exploitation of scapegoats.