Essay: “Encampments” on my Free Patreon Blog

NinaIllingworth June 20, 2019November 5, 2022 a history of fascism in America, American Bund, American history, American left, Amerikan Musik, anticommunism, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, civility politics, Clintonism, COINTELPRO, cold war, contrarian left, Deep Dives, Democrat fascist enablers, Democratic Socialists, Democrats, Donald Trump, Encampments, Essays, FA1, fake resistance, far right, fascism, FDR, FDR liberals, George Wallace, GOP, J Edgar Hoover, JA5, LBJ, liberalism, liberalism enables fascism, McCarthyism, neoliberal, neoliberalism breeds fascism, Nina Illingworth, Offsite Writing, paleoconservatism, Patreon, Patreon Blog, pig empire, Political Theory, Politics, Pork Reich, radical left, reactionary thought, Reaganism, Republican, Republican Party, rich fascists, Richard Nixon, right wing populism, right wing terrorism, Russiagate, Socialism, the American Tea Party, The Resistance, Theory, Trumpism, Trumpism is fascism, united front against fascism, Volkish populism, War on Terror, WD7, white nationalism

Editor’s note: as part of a project to turn ninaillingworth.com into a central hub for all of my writing (thanks to ongoing censorship of my work by giant tech companies) I’m spending the next little while cross-posting older material from other platforms. Please accept my apologies for any potentially unwanted email notifications in advance.

This article is part of the “Amerikan Musik: Fascism Ascendant in the USA” collection on ninaillingworth.com.

Pleading for a United Front Against Fascism & Capitalist Enablers

One of the few benefits of going back and cross posting a bunch older essays I’ve written on another platform, is that it affords me an opportunity to kind of review my work and perform a little self criticism in light of events that have occurred since I originally wrote the piece. What I’ve learned from reviewing today’s piece, entitled “Encampments” and originally published on June 20th, 2019 over on my (free) Patreon Blog, is that I have wasted far, far too much time and energy pulling my punches and coddling the so-called “contrarian left.” In fact, I might still be doing so today in light of the reality that folks who call themselves leftists continue to downplay the fascist violence spawning within American politics, and advocating for alliances with crypto-fascist militia nuts who’ve named themselves “Boogaloo Boys.”

The plain truth is that this is a decent enough, meticulously sourced essay that makes solid arguments about why we’re definitely experiencing a fascist creep in the Pig Empire, how the imperialist history of America has fueled that creep, and why loathing liberals, while completely justified, was not an excuse to ignore fascists and fascism; including the one in the White House at the time. But if I could rewind time, the one thing I’d change about it is that I wouldn’t call the folks whining “it’s not fascism” the radical left; because they aren’t radical, and increasingly I’m not all that sure they’re left either – they act like reactionaries who just happen to want healthcare. Radical leftists and especially the Marxists, had no problem opposing fascism in the streets when the time came. It was rather the “populist” contrarian “left” who ignored and even defended the fascists; lead by millionaire YouTube show hosts and ex-Intercept writers who continued to (and still continue to) defend the militant Volkish takeover by casting anti-fascism of all things, as a milquetoast, shitlib position.

That cannot be forgiven, and it should not be forgotten just because Palooka Joe Biden and a global pandemic took Downmarket Mussolini out at the last possible moment.

“Furthermore I understand why the American radical left is fundamentally resistant to the formulation that Trump brought the fascism; because it implies that returning to the wise technocratic management of the neoliberals who delivered us into the arms of the Pork Reich represents a real solution. Clearly, it does not. By that same measure however, isn’t there something entirely myopic about subtly denying that the tenor of America’s relationship with fascism has clearly changed since the election of Trump? Even if we’re arguing that Trump proudly does in the open what previous fascist American presidents have done with little publicity, doesn’t the fact that the reactionary right no longer feels the need to operate in secret represent an acceleration of fascism in its own right? Isn’t it entirely possible, even plausible that Trump could at once represent an existential fascist threat while also being the byproduct of a decades-long “fascist creep” in American ideology?”

Check it out on my (always free to read) Patreon Blog by clicking on the quotation block above, or the title header below:

Encampments (on Patreon)

nina Illingworth

Independent writer, critic and analyst with a left focus. Please help me fight corporate censorship by sharing my articles with your friends online!

You can find my work at ninaillingworth.com, Can’t You Read, Media Madness and my Patreon Blog

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