Field Notes: It Is Happening Again

 

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Beating Fascism, Capitalism, and Propaganda

Ultimately, the situation we as the left wing labor class find ourselves in here at the literal end of the world is perilous, but not inscrutable. We are facing down mainstream, empowered, and increasingly violent fascist movements all across the Pig Empire. We are dealing with a for profit capitalist media that is actively leading us to our own doom under the propaganda model. And finally we are facing the complete destruction of most life on Earth as the result of an establishment climate crisis plan that absolutely cannot hope to prevent the carnage. May you live in interesting times, indeed.

While the micro-level solutions to manifestations of each of this deadly serious threats are indeed very complex, in a broader sense we can rely on history to help illuminate a path forward for the left wing labor class in this time of intense calamity. History tells us that the only way to beat a fascist takeover of society in progress, is to form a broad united front of antifascists; by uniting with liberals and Soc Dems on this issue, socialists can forge a multi-level resistance strategy to fascism across much of society. Furthermore, we know that history says the way to beat a yellow press steeped in capitalist lies, is to form our own independent media sources; to teach each other the truth, and spread that truth without billionaire fascist interference. This is of course difficult in a tech surveillance society, but the fact that you’re reading this post proves it can be done.

Unfortunately, the final great crisis we are facing down, climate catastrophe, does not have an easy answer that involves uniting with our sometimes political enemies in the center. This is because climate crisis is driven purely by capitalism, and at this point there is no way to save the planet without ending that capitalism. In this fight, socialists may be able to rely on young people who don’t want to die for some septuagenarian fascist’s coffers, but otherwise we will be alone and our allies in the fight against fascism, will actively oppose us.

This my friends, is broadly what solutions look like.

 

A Legacy of Right Wing Political Violence

One of the unfortunate side effects of living in a wholly propagandized, neofeudalist hellhole at the “end of history” is that when your sense of what has happened in the Pig Empire’s past is distorted, it affects your sense of what is possible in both the present, and the future. This is particularly true in America, where some combination of Cold War logic, white supremacy, and corporate propaganda dictate a false, highly sanitized narrative of our collective history. So much so, that when Americans see armed fascist militia members camping out near ballot drop boxes to intimidate voters, the response is “they can’t do that in America” or “this is not us.”

Unfortunately however, election-based political terrorism and the use of violence to decide elections on an individual voter level have a long history in America; a history that is low-key celebrated on the right. Of course, anyone who has seen “Gangs of New York” knows that racialized street violence was used to prevent Irish American immigrants from voting in the pre-Cil War period, but this type of political intimidation and terrorism is particularly prevalent whenever the question of dismantling white supremacy, and allowing African Americans to participate in the political process comes up. In history class, we’re shown burning crosses on the lawn, but never told why those crosses were burnt; because things like “Reconstruction” and “Jim Crow” and the racist Southern uprising against the 1964 Civil Rights Act, are dirty history for influential American exceptionalists and powerful racists alike.

The simple truth is that for the vast majority of our history, the marginalized have had to physically fight against violent reactionaries for their right to vote; banding together for protection against a white supremacist order determined to deny them the franchise no matter what the law says. Our history demonstrates that there are no recounts; if the fascists can win elections by scaring you out of voting, that result will stand and be treated as valid because it always has before. We protect us, including our right to vote – or soon, we won’t have any rights to defend at all.

 

The Violence is the Point

It is important to understand the role of violence in fascist political practices; failure to acknowledge that for the fascist violence has its own purpose, leads to appeasement, which is a losing strategy for anyone trying to do anti-fascism. This isn’t necessarily about meeting force with force, but if your goal is to stop fascist violence, it’s important to understand that negotiating with fascists who explicitly want violence is probably not going to get you anywhere. This is because for the fascist, political violence is a means to gain as well as maintain hierarchical power, and a type of personal or even cultural cleansing ritual.

In terms of using force to gain and maintain power, this isn’t a difficult puzzle. Fascists use violence and intimidation to drive their opposition out of political activities, and ultimately public life. Furthermore, once they have initiated the political violence, fascist leaders will use the fear of continued violence, to justify the accumulation and permanent maintenance of authoritarian powers. Although it is initially impossible for the fascists to eliminate all of their victims directly, the fear of becoming a target for fascist violence is often enough to make “good men stand by and do nothing.” At that point, it really is just a question of time before the actual pogroms begin.

On an individual level however, the street fascist is not just fighting for power. Since fascist politics are built on fear, humiliation, and rigid adherence to group identity, all fascist movements are at least partially self-loathing and unstable. Violent reactionaries respond to this extreme concentration of negative emotions by shifting the blame, for their subservience to the fascist order, and their perceived humiliation. Thus fascist violence against the scapgoated “other,” becomes a way to gain status among other reactionaries, and to excise or cleanse that embedded humiliation. In violence, the fascist perceives himself as pushing all of his weaknesses on the enemy, with his fists. Since he will be a powerless cog even if fascist leaders seize power, surrendering power to fascists has no ability to stop street nazi violence.

 

Neoliberalism and Fascism Reinforce Each Other

Ultimately, it will remain impossible to effectively fight fascism in the Pig Empire so long as the people of this society continue to perceive fascism as both purely ideological, and alien to our existence. Indeed, in a society dominated by free market fundamentalist thinking, it’s utterly impossible to imagine how we could have ended up with any other result. The right to absolute power for the richest, is really just another way of interpreting the right to absolute power for the strongest; lobbyists and fascist gang members probably don’t realize it, but they both more or less understand the world in very similar ways. While these alliances exist beneath the surface of our politics, they are by no means a secret.

This in turn is what I mean when I say that neoliberalism paves the way for fascism. At the end of the day, neoliberal ideology mirrors fascist ideology in numerous important, and terrifying ways. Foundationally, both neoliberals and fascists agree that some people deserve to live free and prosper, while a much larger group of people deserve nothing but slavery and death. Furthermore, even though both ideologies have what appear to be drastically different methods of sorting out who is who, the final tally of which people get the carrot, and which people get the stick, is virtually identical under either ideology; funny that.

This isn’t a reductive argument to imply that center-right “liberal” politicians are the exact same as fascist politicians; there are still questions of speed, violence, and fascist accelerationism that render such protestations false and ultimately repugnant. But if by voting for the “lesser evil” you’re still actively paving the way for a fascist order in the near future, then obviously the answer to this problem must *also* come from someplace beyond the ballot box.

The cavalry isn’t coming, because the cavalry still agrees with the fascists about far too much in our society. We protect us; or no one does at all.

 

• nina illingworth