on a more serious matter.
Jan. 28th, 2018 02:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vlionI need to sit down and reread my histories of life under Nazi rule, along with a few new ones I bought on the matter.
And then I should take copious notes and share them out. I don't particularly like doing that kind of thing, because I read very fast and stopping to take notes is slow. But I think it's highly relevant, since Trumpism is genuinely a neo-fascism.
It's not the same, of course - it's American (all fascisms differ by nationality) - and the ideology hasn't been adequately worked out - and the glorification and exercise of violence simply has not
tipped over yet into reality (although it's been looming for a long time).
The distinguishing factor here I want to draw is that Trumpism is a neo-fascism. Possibly it's a protofascism, but the concept of a man embodying the American people(das Fueherprinzip, to be precise) isn't in my sense of what's going on. Further, historical fascisms arose in a quasi organized street violence mileau. I want to be very careful here: the historical violence occurred by people considered sane, by relatively respectable people. Similar to the KKK, as a matter of fact. That is not occurring, although one-offs by wingnuts do happen. It's incorrect to think it couldn't happen. As a matter of fact, the Charlottesville situation should be considered as a fork in the road - if it had been more acceptable to march in parade, my opinion is that we would have had the nice white boys in khakis out on the streets across the US. Nor, to be clear, are the nice white boys conceptually against violence. Shane Bauer has reported enough on the milita movement in the past 2 years that it's clear they're ready to play street thug.
But America resists.
And that, I think, is part of the distinguishing factor here. In disarray, the Democrats and those committed to classic liberal democracy do resist, and this resistance limits Trumpism in many, many ways. And it is important to realize that the conditions are not fertile enough for a true conversion. What is extremely clear from reading the books written about the "common folk" during the Third Reich is that they supported Hitler. In Italy, the Fascists were more limited, because many Italians didn't support Mussolini, or just sort of went along for the ride. And the Italian Fascism did not become the total state sought. Call it "national character" if you like, although that's biologically bogus.
It is when the State is supported by most that the terror begins for the resistance, because your neighbor is probabalistically your enemy.
So I will write up my notes, so that others can parse through and understand from a non-military, non-Holocaust, perspective on what living in Fascism was like, so that we can roll it back in the USA, stake it, cut its head off, and bury it at a crossroads at noon.
And then I should take copious notes and share them out. I don't particularly like doing that kind of thing, because I read very fast and stopping to take notes is slow. But I think it's highly relevant, since Trumpism is genuinely a neo-fascism.
It's not the same, of course - it's American (all fascisms differ by nationality) - and the ideology hasn't been adequately worked out - and the glorification and exercise of violence simply has not
tipped over yet into reality (although it's been looming for a long time).
The distinguishing factor here I want to draw is that Trumpism is a neo-fascism. Possibly it's a protofascism, but the concept of a man embodying the American people(das Fueherprinzip, to be precise) isn't in my sense of what's going on. Further, historical fascisms arose in a quasi organized street violence mileau. I want to be very careful here: the historical violence occurred by people considered sane, by relatively respectable people. Similar to the KKK, as a matter of fact. That is not occurring, although one-offs by wingnuts do happen. It's incorrect to think it couldn't happen. As a matter of fact, the Charlottesville situation should be considered as a fork in the road - if it had been more acceptable to march in parade, my opinion is that we would have had the nice white boys in khakis out on the streets across the US. Nor, to be clear, are the nice white boys conceptually against violence. Shane Bauer has reported enough on the milita movement in the past 2 years that it's clear they're ready to play street thug.
But America resists.
And that, I think, is part of the distinguishing factor here. In disarray, the Democrats and those committed to classic liberal democracy do resist, and this resistance limits Trumpism in many, many ways. And it is important to realize that the conditions are not fertile enough for a true conversion. What is extremely clear from reading the books written about the "common folk" during the Third Reich is that they supported Hitler. In Italy, the Fascists were more limited, because many Italians didn't support Mussolini, or just sort of went along for the ride. And the Italian Fascism did not become the total state sought. Call it "national character" if you like, although that's biologically bogus.
It is when the State is supported by most that the terror begins for the resistance, because your neighbor is probabalistically your enemy.
So I will write up my notes, so that others can parse through and understand from a non-military, non-Holocaust, perspective on what living in Fascism was like, so that we can roll it back in the USA, stake it, cut its head off, and bury it at a crossroads at noon.
