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Federico Finchelstein. Historian & Immigrant. 8 books on fascists & populists. Words @clarincom @washingtonpost @folha @Domanigiornale @Latinoamerica21
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May 4, 2024 7 tweets 1 min read
In fascism, enemies cannot be feared, but they must be hated. This fascist projection of hatred, in turn, breeds more hatred. from my book, The Wannabe Fascists. A Guide to Understanding the Greatest Threat to Democracy , page 196.
@ucpressa.co/d/6vXp34U How does a simplistic idea that the self only exists through the enemy’s hatred work?
Apr 19, 2024 6 tweets 2 min read
A key dimension of fascism deniers: They are not experts on fascism.
In contrast, I have dedicated my academic life to study fascism & populism. Like most historians of fascism, I actually see key links between fascism & the present...Of course, Trumpism belongs to this history. Image They tend to confuse and conflate the distinctions & continuities between past & present by reducing them to a binary between YES and No. They have no clue about the historiography of transnational fascism.
Dec 1, 2023 16 tweets 3 min read
A former Argentine fascist is named as state attorney by the new Milei administration. Everything normal in Argentina 😱 In the 1990s he had to resign as minister when the public learned about his nazi past. But times are different in Milei's Argentina. Fascism is not as toxic as it used to be😱
May 1, 2023 7 tweets 3 min read
This is my list of must read books on fascism.
First the must-read some classics:
Z. Sternhell, Birth of Fascist of Ideology
H. Arendt, Origins of Totalitarianism
V. Klemperer, Language of Third Reich
G. Mosse, Toward the Final Solution
R. Paxton, Anatomy of Fascism ImageImageImageImage More recent works:
Falasca Zamponi, Fascist Spectacle
Enzo Traverso, Origins of Nazi Violence
Ruth Ben Ghiat, Fascist Modernities
Sandra McGee, Las Derechas
Maggie Clinton, Revolutionary Nativism
Fascism and Culture in China
Benjamin Zachariah, After the last Post
Apr 4, 2023 4 tweets 1 min read
In fascism, enemies cannot be feared but they must be hated. This fascist projection of hatred breeds more hatred. Hitler said that Nazism “must not shun the hatred of the enemies of our nationality and our philosophy and its manifestations; they must long for them." (thread) How this simplistic idea that confirmation of the self can only through the enemy’s hatred worked?
Apr 2, 2023 4 tweets 1 min read
Fascist propaganda: the need to unmake the difference betweeen facts (provided by NYT & other key media) & lies (spread by conspiracy theorists, trumpists & Musk).
The so-called unverfication of NYT devalues twitter but is also part of wannabe fascist ideological project. Hannah Arendt explained, fascist propaganda presented a closed body of thinking and argumentation that produced a complete explanation.
Apr 1, 2023 6 tweets 2 min read
What is fascism? In historical terms, it was an ultranationalist, anti-liberal and anti-Marxist politics. Its primary aim was to destroy democracy from within to create a modern dictatorship from above (thead) The state silenced the basic tenets of civil society, while eliminating the distinctions between the public and the private — or between the state and its citizens. Fascist regimes shut down the independent press and destroyed the rule of law.
Mar 31, 2023 8 tweets 11 min read
If you want to read tweets on the history of fascism, populism & xenophobia, please follow me & my colleagues so you can still read after tomorrow! @ruthbenghiat @mabelberezin @milleridriss @Andrea_Mammone @odiloncaldeira @NewFascSyllabus Other key historians to follow on twitter: @levissullam @dirkmoses @drgoeschel @TimothyDSnyder @ppiccato
Nov 21, 2022 4 tweets 1 min read
The vulgarity of the guy belongs to an aesthetics of disruption that reminds of fascism… Musk normalizes racism & antisemitism and more generally a populist anti-democratic electronic landscape which is what Trumpism is about
Nov 10, 2022 7 tweets 1 min read
Trump vs De Santis...all this wanna be fascist infighting reminds me of an ironic comment by Freud re the infighting among Nazis in 1934. I analize it in my book Fascist Mythologies. Freud recognized as having personally enjoyed the fact that Nazis were turning on each other... “[Freud] told Arnold Zweig that his impression of
the event presented a striking contrast to an experience he had had at the Hague Congress in 1920.
Nov 7, 2022 5 tweets 2 min read
In my seminar on history of political myths, we are reading this classic on history of American antisemitism by l Dinnerstein…first Jews reached what is now USA/new Amsterdam (nyc) in 1654 and governor Stuyvesant did not want them here Image Sounds familiar … Image
Nov 5, 2022 5 tweets 1 min read
Perhaps a central problem of the so called fascism debate is how uninformed many participants are about the transnational history of fascism...Fascism existed in Latin America,Asia & Africa without many European features that so many Eurocentrics present as defining elements of f Image and of course this includes assumptions about the US as being different in narratives that are merely crude forms of stereotype. This ignorance is not only of fascist sources inside and outside Europe that saw fascism as existing inside and outside Europe...
Oct 31, 2022 5 tweets 2 min read
Some lessons from yesterday's defeat of the Bolsonaro-Trumpist wannabe fascist project!:
1) Fascist Lies & propaganda can be stopped by real information oabout the crisis & death these leaders generate...reality trumps wannabe fascists. 2) legal institutions & independent courts are key to stop slow motion coups & voter suppression as we saw yesterday during the elections
3) voters need to vote
4) broad center/left/right coalitions need to be created & supported to confront those that want to destroy democracy
Oct 16, 2022 4 tweets 1 min read
This is an old concern in the history of antisemitism. For antisemites, Jews do not appreciate the leader's power/refuse to believe in the leader's cult, etc & thus undermine him. In Mein Kamp, Hitler said, that Jews "destroy faith in the leadership." by concern I mean fantasy/paranoia!
Oct 12, 2022 8 tweets 2 min read
Why wannabe fascist leaders (Trump, Bolsonaro, etc) pretend to personify their people & nations? in my book From Fascism to Populism in History, I explained this way...(thread) In both fascist dictatorship and populist democracy, the leader is constructed as the representative and embodiment of the people, or as the personification of the people, the nation, and the nation’s history.
Oct 10, 2022 7 tweets 2 min read
Muy buen intercarmbio entre Roberto Gargarella y Mariano Llinas...como historiador que trabajo la historia de la dictadura y las politicas de la memoria, me parece interesante que la pelicula de dirigida por @SantiagoMitre ...
'Argentina, 1985' seul.ar/argentina-1985… respeta el contexto vivido por los fiscales. Cuando hice mi investigacion para mi libro sobre los origenes idelogicos de la dictadura, pude leer/consultar en los archivos de memoria abierta los documentos donados x @MorenoOcampo1 ...
Sep 29, 2022 4 tweets 1 min read
Mentiras fascistas. Ejemplos numero 30000000. Cuando los aspirantes a fascistas se presentan como conservadores... Esta afirmación es dudosa pues su coalición electoral, aunque incluye al populista más tradicional y exprimer ministro Silvio Berlusconi, está fuertemente influenciada por fuerzas antiinmigración de extrema derecha.
washingtonpost.com/es/post-opinio…
Sep 29, 2022 5 tweets 2 min read
100 years Mussolini's March on Rome in late oct. 1922, neo-fascists will be leading Italy as main force of an electoral coalition. How did this victory happen & what it means for global extreme righ? my text with @Andrea_Mammone @washingtonpost (thread)
washingtonpost.com/es/post-opinio… Meloni arrives to power thanks to a perfect storm. Things changed in 2022 following the fall of Mario Draghi’s technocratic government supported by almost all other parties with the exception of FDI who was the main party in the opposition.
Sep 7, 2022 13 tweets 3 min read
Bolsonaro just celebrated his own penis in a peculiar speech for Brazil's independence day.
Trump did the same before. As striking as this is, it follows the pattern of fascist trends & machopopulism... as I explained in my book from Fascism to Populism, pp. 241-246 (thread) these type of leaders have articulated a stereotyped and even more reactionary version of the role and image of women in society.
brasil247.com/regionais/bras…
Aug 24, 2022 5 tweets 2 min read
As historian of fascism, populism and dictatorship i think this is what needs to be done against wannabe fascists like Bolsonaro or Trump. Supreme Court Justice De Moraes is fully commited to defense of democracy against Coup planning and promotion...
ft.com/content/c7827f… As this important report (from @bryanhimself for @FT) shows Brazil's Justice System is vigilant of these attemps to support a coup... can we say the same about SCOTUS? I don't think so...
Aug 21, 2022 14 tweets 3 min read
Thanks for the question. I am an historian of fascism & populism. I wrote the book "From Fascism to Populism in History"...we historians disagree on how fascist Trump is but the fact he is close enough should be bad enough for any observer worried about the future of democracy. Let me explain what I explained in some places beyond my book...especially here: washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/0…