Reposted from Medium
There’s a simple fact that I don’t think Americans are reckoning with. That Americans are maybe even capable of reckoning with. It’s this. They’re living in what’s becoming a fascist society. And that fact raises the simple question: how do you live in a fascist society?
Yes, really. There’s little doubt that America’s becoming a fascist society by now. It’s developing all the institutions, norms, and values of one. Concentration camps? Check. Kids tortured in them? Check. Gestapos checking papers and detaining citizens? Check, check. Demagogue as head of state? Check. Dehumanization and demonization? Check. Expropriation and the denial of personhood? A supine, appeasing opposition? Check, check, check.
America has all the budding institutions, norms, and values of a fascist society now, and they grow in power, size, and strength by the day. That’s a fact — not an opinion. The UN recently noted, for example, that America has the largest number of kids in the world in concentration camps. The last living Nuremberg Prosecutor has called that a crime against humanity. None of that is ever reported on the nightly news, and it’s not part of impeachment — both are forms of appeasement. The average American simply shrugs and looks away politely — that’s normalization. I could go on endlessly with eerie, shocking, disturbing parallels to history’s darkest moments. But if you don’t get it by now — you’ll never get it.
That’s the first way to live in a fascist society. In denial. That’s where the good Americans are, mostly. It’s much, much easier to deny such a terrible truth than it is to face it. Than to allow the shame and guilt and anxiety it would involve. Who’s in that kind of denial? Who isn’t? There are the usual suspects — the junior members of America’s patriarchy: Chris Hayes and Ezra Klein and Nate Silver and so forth. They’re good guys. They’re good guys who can’t say the word fascism. They’re good guys who’ve failed the test of the moment. How many Americans are like them? The vast majority, it seems to me.
Denial, as easy as it is to understand psychologically, is still a kind of cowardice. And that is where the good American is. “My God!”, he or she cries, day after day, “What even is this? Why are they doing?” — the same old rhetorical question. Yet the answers couldn’t be more obvious. This is fascism, and they are fascists. They are bona fide fascists, from the advisors who dreamed up policies of “family separation”, to the minions who enforce them. What else is history going to call them? What else do you think the world calls them? The good American is displaying in a kind of profound cowardice — what Arendt called the banality of evil, shrugging it away — and that’s the first way to live in a fascist society. To never the say the words you’re not supposed to say — so they don’t come after you, too. To LOL at it. To make it a joke. To quip about it on Twitter. Yet Arendt’s banality rules that way. Wait — isn’t that the good American, almost exactly?
But cowardice verges on complicity. And that’s the second way to live in a fascist society: to be complicit, either through silence, or appeasement . I make fun of Morning Joe — that useful dope — on Twitter a lot. The reason is that he supported Trump all election long. And he hasn’t really owned up to the moral horror of it. That, my friends, is complicity. Complicity doesn’t just mean that around the dinner table you say: “My God! They’re fascists, aren’t they!” — and then in public, you go on in the polite social pretense that all is well. Complicity is exactly failing the test of using what power one has to fight fascism.
We all have different levels of power. I can write. I have “an audience”, as they say. So I do. Morning Joe has a bigger audience. Ezra Klein and Chris Hayes and whatnot do, too. But they fail the test of using their power not just responsibly — but in the way that it’s necessary to use it. To first point out that this is fascism, and then to remind people how dangerous and repugnant it really is. Cowardice verges on complicity. The junior pundits of America’s intellectual class are cowards — who remain silent. The senior members, though, I think are all too often genuinely complicit. They enabled these horrors — and still do. Take impeachment, for example. Why isn’t the Prez being impeached for…crimes against humanity? Because the Democrats are appeasing fascism. That’s not my opinion — at this point, it’s more or less an objective fact, that the world is aghast at.
Complicity’s a nice way to live, though. When you’re complicit in a fascist society, you don’t lose what power you have. So complicity is a kind of strategy to keep your power, by toeing the line. Hence, Morning Joe still has his dopey show, and so do the rest of the MSNBC gang. They’ve got their million dollar salaries and their adoring fans and whatnot. And yet…
Why is it that all the 20th century’s great thinkers were vehement anti-fascists? Have you ever wondered? From Einstein to Orwell to Camus to Sartre. Every single one knew fascism was the most repugnant attitude, thought, action, idea, in modern history. That is because they understood that for a human being to dehumanize another is the truest moral crime of all. Once that happens — then anything is possible. Our thinkers are not great thinkers. They are not even thinkers at all, really. What they are, mostly — if we are frank — is cowards and appeasers, who have chosen the comfort of complicity over the discomfort of telling or knowing life and history’s difficult truths.
That brings me to the third way to live in a fascist society: enthusiastically. Relatively speaking, though, the Morning Joes and Ezra Kleins and Nancy Pelosis aren’t the bad guys. They’re just cowards who can’t stand up to bullies. There’s worse. The Megyn Kellys and the Bill O’Reillys and so on. The Faux News gang, the Trumpists who are their zombie fascist army, and so on. Their strategy isn’t just complicity. It’s participation.
I think that many Americans are effectively fascists — only they don’t know it. Oh no! Am I allowed to say that? LOL. Imagine a person who thinks all the following things aren’t just grudgingly OK — but good and proper and just and noble:
- Concentration camps
- Kids in cages in them
- Gestapos separating them from their parents
- States who make it all happen
- Demagogues who dream these horrors up
If that’s not the precise definition of a fascist…then what is? Surely a person doesn’t need to be a member of the Nazi Party to be a genuine and enthusiastic fascist. One just needs to endorse the idea that some people are humans, and others are subhumans, and the role of the state is to eliminate the subhumans, and elevate the humans. Yet surely being a member of the Republican Party these days is something very, very close to the razor’s edge of being a member of the Nazi Party. Why do I say that?
America isn’t at the stage of full-blown fascism yet. It’s more like Nazi Germany in the early to mid 1930s. The time when the infrastructure for true horror was built. When the new laws were passed. When the Gestapos and SS’s were populated with eager young things. When the government was reshaped. When the Jews were terrorized. When the good German began to learn how to look the other way.
Do you see the parallel? In the early to mid 1930s, Weimar Germany became Nazi Germany proper. The institutions of a truly fascist society were built. Social institutions, like teaching the good German never to cross the Nazis, obedience, punishment, conformity, surveillance. Government institutions — like the law becoming a weapon. Economic institutions — like good and fine jobs for party members. Military institutions — all those new paramilitaries with strange and now all too familiar names, like Gestapo. And soon.
That is exactly the stage America is at now: the stage where fascists institutions are built, solidified, invested in, made real. Hence, a network of concentration camps that grows by the day. Hence, increasing surveillance. Hence, hate becoming normalized, and the state increasingly becoming an arbiter of violence, not justice.
That brings me to the fourth way to live in a fascist society. You don’t. You go into exile. Either of the body, or the mind. You resist — genuinely. Of the body: you leave. Of the mind: you resist with your moral core, with your ideas, with your social power, with your network, what resources and means you have. Maybe you see all the above coming. Where it’s going. What it points to. And you decide this can’t happen — and you write, act, speak, organize, whatever. Or you get the hell out before it’s too late. I know many people who are making that choice. Many of them are women and minorities.
I myself made that choice — both ways — long ago. I went into a kind of self-imposed exile in Europe, knowing with a kind of utter certainty that a fascist collapse was coming in America. That was simply by reading the economic tea leaves — middle class implosion, next stop, fascism. And I began to write about it, which cost me my career in America — I was never published in America again, the precise second I crossed that line.
In those days, there was a poem by Brecht — that great chronicler of Germany’s fascist implosion — that haunted me, especially. It was about the grief he felt, and the anger he felt at himself for feeling even that grief, because he’d gone into exile, and it had made him feel lost and alienated from his own country, people, history, society. I’d read it, over and over again, crying. I was baffled at myself. I didn’t know why this little poem seemed to see straight into my heartbreak, when no one and nothing else could.
Now I do. I was a lost and lonely boy becoming a man in exile. In exile from fascism. Just like Brecht. He was telling me about my future. About what it feels like to be the kind of person who can’t live in a fascist society. Who must refuse. And turn his back on it. Even if doing so means not being a part of your society at all, ever again. I was haunted by a memory of what was to come to pass.
I knew what was coming then. I’d see it every night, sometimes. Concentration camps and kids and mothers torn apart spinning through my head. That was a decade ago. Would you like to know what spins through my head now? Don’t ask, my friend, don’t ask.
I know what’s coming next, too. You do, too. Or at least I do if nothing much changes. Not because I’m a genius. But because it’s obvious. America is Nazi Germany in the early to mid 1930s right now. In eerie, precise, exacting ways. No, the death camps haven’t been built. But the concentration camps have. But the Gestapos are. But the papers are being checked. But the intellectuals pretend none of that’s happening. But the opposition appeases it and lets it happen. But the good American is learning to look the other way.
America is becoming a fascist society. So how do you live in one? Ah, my friend. In denial. In cowardice. In complicity. With cheerful enthusiasm. Or you don’t, because you can’t live with yourself that way at all. You resist, in exile. Whether the exile of the body, or the mind, or both — but it will cost you everything.
Those are your choices. There are no others.
I say that gently, with love. Not to condemn you. But to help you make the difficult decisions that lie ahead, for each and every one of us, in this lost and wounded nation that once used to be an idea called America.
Umair
December 2019
WOW! I am educated enough to know that these changes that we are experiencing are shadows of what is feared. Just watching our political leaders see the facts but double-speak is not only scary, but horrific. Reading the article I can see exactly where I am and I hate it. I know that being quiet is to empower. . . I will need to rethink so that I can do what I can.
I could have written this, I have railed wept and implored for years asking people to see what In saw, to not let it happen here. I often thought about leaving, but my husband a good republican would not, my children became Democrats, but they could not really see what I saw. I am old now, and much of what I feared is here. I still speak out, most people think I am crazy. To late to leave, all,I have left is my anger and my voice, and the hope of Bernie Sanders. Though I fear Trump will not go peacefully and we will truly repeat what befell Germany. I would that everyone read this article, and think long and hard. Those children ripped from their parents arm are human beings, they are our children. Please, please help put a stop to this lunacy, and hope it’s not too late.
I am with you 100%. I’ve been writing about the parallels for years and been either challenged (“but it isn’t the Holocaust”) or chided. I too am old. I can’t go anywhere. But this article encourages me to keep talking, keep writing and keep begging people to see it and to living stop life as usual, rather to take every opportunity to resist by speaking out.
“One just needs to endorse the idea that some people are humans, and others are subhumans, and the role of the state is to eliminate the subhumans, and elevate the humans.”
This is fundamental part of current Trumpublican base. It is the basis of the Evangelical support and of the right’s defense of the Electoral College. E(lectoral)C(ollege)-they believe their views and way of life is superior to urbanites’, so their votes are worth more and they are not going to apologize about it. E(Evangelical)C(hristians) believe their religion and way of life is superior to liberals’ and non-believers’, so they will vote for those who claim to support them. Coincidence that the initials of two elitist systems are the same, but oddly satisfying.
The parallels between the urbanites’ worldview and the Trumpians’ is more complicated than the coincidence of their labels’ initials.
“The ‘Trumpublican’ voters believe “their views and way of life [are] superior to urbanites’ … “.
Reverse the order of this sentence.
Thank you for expressing my thoughts, concerns, and fears. I’ll never be complicit again. Voting for the cage-builder Obama was my last act of compliance. When we Jews said, “Never again,” we meant it for everyone. At the moment, I’m putting all of my efforts into electing Bernie Sanders, who is the only candidate offering us a choice that isn’t Fascism or Fascism-adjacent. If that fails, I, too, am out of here. My husband is a Danish citizen. We have several options of countries to settle in without much difficulty.
I read it twice . It reinforced my belief. My thoughts of hitlers brown shirts and trumps Trump
red shirts. Hitlers auto To make Germany great again. Things load.
Thank you
Such a powerful and necessary article. I sobbed for weeks after the 2016 election. My grandparents, who were born in Vienna, came to the US in 1938 to escape the Nazis. I was certain we were also heading towards Fascism and that I would need to escape one day.
What i write is the exact way that i live. Truth -Telling,is the way i live. I have always been exiled by society. For one reason or another,i have been verbalizing,and feeling,the build of fascism since”Ronny the Commi”. I have always been different,Turtle Island Holocaust Survivor,Two-Spirit,survivor of sexual terrorizing,as an infant.Bottomline is that i know,i have have alway’s been an outspoken Truth Teller.I cannot survive,being silent. I have decisions to make about a future. Love and Freedom of Spirit,as a choice for all….
A Facebook acquaintance sent me your essay regarding my post pertaining to being kind to those who may need a smile, etc. A friend wrote back in anger that she objected to our country being labeled “fascist” and refuted the use of “Nazi” to describe people. She said it was unkind and did I not believe in “kindness” for all people? She said our country has never been in better shape and everyone was doing better than ever as a result of the administration and the POTUS we have. Needless to say my first response was to fire back with facts – Neo Nazis marching in the night with torches shouting “Jews will not replace us!” Incarcerated families and children in pens, (many believe they deserve this because they are illegally entering our country.) Neo-Nazis marching again just this past week- their faces covered except for their eyes in black fabric- In Kentucky a group of men in camouflage military attire carrying AR15 semi-automatic weapons entered into the Capitol of Kentucky to let the government know they are pro-guns- how did they gain entry armed as they were? Trump telling his rally groups they could demand he be able to serve another (or additional years) as POTUS- Steve Miller, POTUS’ advisor telling the media that POTUS’ power will “no longer be questioned”…as though he is a dictator and those who question his actions will be penalized or worse? Who knows what punishment they are planning…Constantly saying the news is FAKE, the media is the enemy of the people…women’s rights are being taken away- their bodies belong to the government…these are but a few of the current things happening- I repeatedly say to no avail at times, that history repeats itself and all the warning signs are in full bloom…and yet…and yet. People are anguished over what’s happening….vowing to vote for any nominated candidate of the Democratic party…I among them. But there is now a concerted effort to make sure 45 is re-elected by any means possible- and I fear he will not leave the White House even if he loses- that he will claim it was rigged and until proven through the courts he did not win, he’ll remain in the White House as POTUS. Who then will defy him? The military will have to defend him as Commander in Chief. Private militias who are anti-government will come to his aid- I can see a civil war happening… Noble humble honor integrity leadership qualities- presidential civility …45 has none of these attributes. What he and his family members are are akin to criminals- grifters- carpetbaggers. The GOP is the Tea Party – it no longer exists as we once knew it. Our very Constitution is disabled and our people are being lied to…every day the environment has come under attack with legislation meant to preserve and protect, overturned for the sake of profit. So here is my assessment- 45 has borrowed money from Russia and Saudi Arabia and any country that would give it to him for projects that ended in failure/bankruptcy- he is doing everything he can to do their dirty work to take America down- Kruschev told Kennedy- “We will never take you by bullet but we will take you from within.” He was right. It’s happening….45 and his family are making a fortune while he serves with licensing agreements (Ivanka) and other ventures he should not be involved with as POTUS. Where are his tax returns? We’ll never see them. He projects on others what in fact he is guilty of. His vitriol and low-class bullying is reprehensible. Melania’s fake “Be Best” and anti-bullying campaign are jokes- what is her real background? Not what the White House says it was… I suspect her motives as well. I may sound paranoid but there are many others who feel similarly…we have become very wary of our government and rightfully so. I appreciate your essay and have shared it with my friends on FB. Thank you…
I agree with your comment. Every critical thinking American (is this a euphemism for intelligent?) should be very concerned with the direction the US is going. It does the country damage to be tupperware insular — it always has — and it creates a skewed pov almost nationwide about the realities, history and the present day world. The lack of an educated vision outside of their own borders will certainly be a factor in America’s downfall should this go that far.
Well said Penelope.
As a Canadian I have seen the trees and the forest clearly, and it’s very disturbing.
Several month’s after Trump was in office, the pattern became very evident. Startlingly evident!
I had mentioned in a few forums that this was starting to look like the fall of the Roman empire. You could almost taste the rot in the air!
Fast forward a couple of years, and you’re correct in comparing the present as early 1930s. For Canadians who don’t have their head in the snow, it is disturbing to say the least, that this is occurring with the only country we share a border with! A lot of us are wondering where that leaves us!
What kind of damage will my country sustain as the US strolls merrily down this road? How will it affect us as a people, and what influence is going to slime it’s way across that invisible line?
Clearly if the inevitable should happen, I think that we should be very concerned about our sovereignty! One day, once the dust has settled I know damn well that their eyes would fall on Canada. We are not exactly “ripe for the pickin”, but it could get heartbreakingly messy.
When I was younger (and well into my 20s) I used to think we were exactly the same. As I have grown I now see that the only thing we really have in common is that we’re all human beings!
We are so different in everything from our democracy, our values as a country, how we are seen on the diplomatic stage, how the US is so insular in their knowledge and are under-educated as a whole, and the way our culture has not been fragmented nearly as badly as the States. For the most part we have been able to ignore the differences, but in the here and now, they are difficult to miss and make most Canadians very uncomfortable.
It is frightening to think that North America is potentially entering a no win era.