Don’t Say It
Our modern society sanitizes this discussion. We use words like right-wing or authoritarian or populist or nationalists to describe politicians who believe in the power of a single leader of the government to “protect” society from “bad influences”. Those “bad influences” often include race – that is, the majority protecting its own influence against other races. If that sounds racist, so be it.
“Godwin’s Law” is an internet discussion term. It states: “…(I)f you mention Adolph Hitler or Nazis within a discussion thread, you’ve automatically ended whatever discussion you were taking part in.” We won’t sully this essay by violating that rule.
But there is a demonstrable commonality among names like Bannon and Bolsonaro, Trump and Netanyahu, Orban and Putin. They all are beyond “traditional” conservatives. They espouse and represent all those terms mentioned before: right-wing, authoritarian, populist, nationalist, even racist. Without violating Godwin’s Law – they are neo-Fascists. Godwin didn’t say anything about Mussolini.
January 6th
The date January 6th evokes strong memories in the United States; of police officers beaten with poles, the Capitol violated with intruders carrying Confederate battle flags, the very processes of our Constitutional democracy under attack. It was part of the “Fascist handbook”: to convince the masses to distrust the government, then send them to destroy the symbols of that government. Mussolini used that tactic to take control of Italy (and the unspoken to control Germany).
It’s branded into our national history, along with July 4th and December 7th and September 11th.
And now January 6th is not only a date of infamy in the United States. The neo-Fascists in Brazil used that exact same plan, encouraged by ousted President Bolsonaro. The images were eerily familiar: the smashed windows, the crowd control barricades turned into battering rams, the seemingly endless wanderings of the mob. And the words: “rigged electronic voting machines” and a “stolen election” are straight from the Steve Bannon script.
Noticeably absent from the Brasilia mobs were the authorities. They didn’t have their battle on the steps of the Capitol; the police didn’t show up. Today the Brazilian authorities are questioning the police and state governing leaders. Where were they?
Bannon supplied the Bolsonaro crowd with the playbook. He was a cheerleader for them as they stormed the capital and desecrated their government buildings. And Bolsonaro himself: he hung out in Kissimmee, Florida, feigning ignorance of the violence committed in his name. It must have given him a tummy-ache; he checked into the hospital. Not surprising he’s in Florida, it puts him under the “auspices” of Trump and Governor Ron DeSantis.
City on the Hill
Ronald Reagan famously quoted the Bible in describing America. He said we were “the shining city on the hill”, the example of democracy for the whole world to see. But today, our example has eroded. Even before the Trump era, the failure of the Supreme Court to protect our democracy from partisan gerrymandering and voter suppression made us “less free”. And with the election and actions of Donald Trump; authoritarian views gained a stronger grip on American politics. That culminated in the myth of “Stop the Steal” and the reality of January 6th. And it’s not over – witness the far-right wing power of a small number of Republican Congressmen. America will see plenty more evidence of neo-Fascism in the next two years.
Today that “Shining City” is now tarnished by the grime of Fascism. We are not only threatened internally by neo-Fascists, but exporting the ideology to the world. It’s not like the “old days”, with ships loading guns in the harbor. American Fascism today is transmitted through the algorithmic magic of social media. Almost three billion people in the world are on Facebook, two billion on Instagram and What’s App, three hundred million on Twitter. The American social media trends are worldwide, and the mathematical equations that make money for Meta and Twitter are geared to create discord. It’s not that Zuckerberg and Musk (well, maybe Musk) are neo-Fascists themselves, it’s just the best way for them to make money.
Like the German industrialists of the 1930’s, who found that supporting authoritarianism was “good for business”, the social media giants of today are counting their cash through the unrest they create. They are exporting America’s version of neo-Fascism.
And they are doing it for the profit.
