alright folx, letd talk fascism -- what is it and what's not it

there are a variety of definitions people have come up with over time and im not going to talk about all of them, just my particular take, so ymmv, but

first, the definition (ie pile of words) that i think works best at identifying fascists is roger griffin's. he defined fascism as palingenetic ultranationalism

lets break this down in reverse order:

ultranationalism is extreme nationalism, and nationalism a political form which emphasizes the nation, ie an ethnogroup's political dimension

some nationalisms are more benign than others, meaning little more than anti-colonialism/anti-imperialism. for instance, the nationalism of the Scottish National Party is little more than "England Out!", helped in no small part by a rather expansive conception of scottishness

but many many nationalisms have focus on more traditionally conceived ethnogroups, and typically have rather nasty tendencies

ultranationalism is a nationalism that places the nation in question above all else

that is to say, ultranationalists' first priority is The Nation, not any particular person or economic system or governmental system

ultranationalists will sacrifice anything to save The Nation

again, what that nation is can be somewhat broad and inclusive. many european ultranationaliss are oriented around cultural definitions, and so you get a focus first and foremost on cultural hegemony. others are blood-based so you get blood purity laws, etc

ultimately the nation is a fiction, so there's no real point in trying to give a deeper meaning to it other than that there is a conception of The Nation that is operative and which is the most important thing

now what about palingenetic?

palingenetic is just the adjectival form of palingenesis, which means "rebirth"

in the context of "palingenetic ultranationalism", what is meant specifically is national rebirth

a palingenetic movement is one that emphasizes a rebirth, resurgence, a new flourishing of previously waxed-and-waned things etc etc

lots of things qualify as palingenetic movements. any kind of retro stuff is basically palingenesis. you're bringing back the past!

but palingenesis in the context of nationalisms is a rebirth of the _nation_, which according to the presupposition, was once important, triumphant, glorious, etc etc but who's now fallen and decayed

a palingenetic ultranationalism is one in which the main narrative around the political project is to bring back the old glories of the nation, to make it powerful and strong and important again

for Italy, the glory was Rome, and so you saw in Italian fascists a lot of references to Roman imperialism (think laurels on mussolini). a lesser influence was post-Roman italian city states, hence "il duce" (the duke)

for german fascists it was ancient teutonic mythology, so you got a lot of references to old german folk stories, teutonic gods, etc etc

for American fascists, the reference points are more scattered but you get a lot of fetishization of both the period around the Revolution, and also around post-WW2 supremacy and 1950s boom times

of course southerners have the whole South Will Rise Again, as well

but whatever the particular period is that constitutes the reference point for American fascists, the point is to Make America Great Again.

Trump's team picked the perfect fascist slogan for a fascist movement. palingenetic ultranationalis in four words

now, let's talk about non-definitional aspects of fascism

from an economic perspective, fascists historically have been willing to do things that normally are considered far left and also far right

this is partly why they historically consider themselves both anti-communist and anti-capitalist, or "third position" or whatnot

they'll support corporate capitalist but also strong unions, wealth accumulation but social programs, etc

fascism itself grew out of Mussolini's own frustration with anarcho-syndicalism's failures in italy, for instance

this may seem confusing at first, if you're stuck in the mindset of left-vs-right, but remember:

Nation Above All

if it benefits The Nation, then a fascist is for it

if that's capitalism, or unions, or social programs, or wealth accumulation, they'll do it. they don't care

in the end, everything is subservient to the needs of the nation

now of course, many of these fascists grow out of capitalist social contexts and so their beliefs about what make The Nation what it is often smuggle in capitalism. this is especially true of american fascism, and so that particular flavor is rather pro-capitalist

but historical fascism, and even today in some more euro-influenced forms of american fascism, are explicitly anti-capitalist in their narratives, saying that capitalists end up being selfish and egocentric, and not sacrificing their profits for The Nation

there are other cultural aspects to fascism as well tho, some less well defined things

fascists are often, but not always quite future-looking hyper-modernists. while they seek a rebirth of the formerly glorious nation, they typically don't seek a regression in technology etc

same for cultural factors. fascists are often not precisely cultural traditionalists, and tend to be willing to abandon traditions and remake the world and their culture in service of the palingenetic ultranationalist project

sometimes that LOOKS like traditionalism -- neo-romanism, neo-teutonism, etc etc -- but none of these people practice these things and they're not *their* traditions, until they re-introduce them, so its not the usual sort of traditionalism

fascists often love to build new and fancy shit, tho

italian fascism loved fast cars and highways, so did german fascism, they loved new better planes, tanks, military toys, etc

some people have argued that Nazi Germany's emphasis on techno-futurism in its military hardware is why they lost -- new tech rarely deploys well, compared to tried and true older tech

modern American fascists are all about hightech too. they're leaders in surveillance technology, AI-based predictive policing, virtual reality

Peter Thiel and Palmer Lucky are perfect examples of this

on to more hard to notice cultural aspects of fascism: masculinism and irrationalism

masculinism isn't too hard to notice actually but it's not obviously political in the same ways as other components of fascism

fascists tend to be very much male supremacists and sexists

the Men-vs-Women dichotomy with men on top is *the* dominant fascist perspective on gender, almost to the point of seething derision of women

in the fascist mind, men are strong, smart, historically important. they make and shape the world, they impregnate, they dominate

its a very macho world view and you can see it all over the place in fascism

but precisely what the DETAILS are of that stuff is very nuanced and dependent on the background culture

euro-fascism tends to be way more open to a kind of civilized businessman-like masculinism

american fascism, especially these days, is very heavily machismo-influenced, to the point of considering euro-businessman fascism to be effete and womanly at times

real men kill mammoths with their bare hands sort of stuff

the details are always culturally dependent

but what about irrationalism? that ones REALLY hard to notice

irrationalism is the tendency to prize actions and behavior that originates not in rational forethought but in spontaneous, gut-instinct desires

this manifests in all sorts of ways. italian fascists, especially early on, were quite thrill seeking, falling in love with cars because you could go Real Fast and it was all so dangerous and spontaneous and thrillingly irrational

it also manifests as an obsession with war and pseudo-darwinian social processes -- war and "evolution" are perfectly arational processes, they're big tumults of passion and instinct, not reasoned forethought

it also manifests in a kind of deep vitalism, a kind of pseudo-religious or spiritual fixation on Feeling Alive and acting in ways which demonstrate how Lively one is. you end up getting cults of health out of this in euro-fascists

vitalism mixed with masculinism also gets you a cult of virility, where manliness is measured by the vitality of his sex life, his stamina, his blind sexual urges, and how potent his cum is

but another, much more recent and currently relevant consequence of the fascist tendency toward irrationalism is an embracing of ones deep emotional responses to things, in particular, ones that are linked to the ethno-national project

this is why, for instance, modern american fascism is so utterly obsessed with political correctness:

political correctness asks that we a) hold our tongues and not speak whatever horrible, racist, sexist, homophobic shit pops into our brains, and b) fix those thoughts

if you're an irrationalist, being told to hold your tongue and not speak without a filter is bad enough, but being told to change your THOUGHTS? your GUT INSTINCTS? no thats out of the question

which is why so so so so so much of modern american fascism focuses on PCness

american fascists have recognized the fundamental conflict between irrationalism and political correctness and actually WEAPONIZED this conflict, by making it a core feature of their political program that they WANT you to say all the shit that comes to mind, they WANT you to...

..be able to be openly racist, racist, homophobic, etc.

they've used this opposition to tongue-holding and so forth as a recruiting mechanism

this is why modern fascism has so many tendrils into the nastier parts of the internet, eg 4chan and 8chan

4chan and 8chan are places that not only abhor political correctness and self-censorship but actively encourage and cultivate a culture of transgression against dominant social mores

now of course, the transgressivity is highly relative to the culture that the fascist finds himself in, but usually its transgression against *visible* things

a sexist, racist, homophobic culture has invisible oppressive forces because they're already accepted as truths

the transgressions that fascists tend to embrace are the ones that are based on visible forces, eg. feminism, queer rights, anti-racism

these are all movements which are visible against the background oppression, and so when those become common tendencies, they are transgressed

but that's not to say that transgressions in fascism must be in support of the dominant system

remember the past glories and re-birthing of past cultural artifacts? in a culture that is dominantly christian, that tends to mean fascists, esp. core groups, get into paganism

or into occultism. roman fascists dabbled in roman religious revitalization. the german thule society, which birthed the nazi party, was big into teutonic mysticism. later nazi politics even involved some explicitly anti-christian tendencies because christianity derives from..

..judaism, and thus when mixed with germanic nationalism, you get the idea that christianity is itself a force that is counter to "true germanic nations"

the transgressivity lead to opposing the dominant religion

transgressivity mixed with masculinism and vitalism got you the nazi SA, the brown shirts who street battled communists by day, and had lots of gay sex by night, because Men > Women, Sexual Prowess = Good, Transgression = Good, so gay sex = good

the interplay of all of these cultural components is complex and there is no hard and fast rule for determining fascism from them alone, they're just cultural tendencies

the palingenetic ultranationalism definition is most useful for identification

but these cultural tendencies are useful to keep in mind when trying to understand how fascists "make sense" politically, and what their political programs look like

its also useful when looking at the american landscape and trying to parse the alignments of groups

if you don't have a good framework for thinking about things, you might just be inclined to lump Amon Bundy in with the Proud Boys and you miss the fact that Bundy is pro-BLM

Proud Boys love the state and white supremacy and cop enforcement thereof while Bundy is, while not anti-racist, certainly very opposed to state imposition and reinforcement of racist situations, and especially opposed to the cops, so hes in favor of Black Lives Matter rebellions

that doesnt make sense to you if you don't have a conceptual framework within which you can analyze the politics of fascists like the proud boys, or people like bundy

if all you can see is Fascist, then you cant comprehend the american political landscape adequately

and if you dont understand that landscape then you have no ability to cope with whats coming

if, or when, the US collapses into civil war, and you're on the left, it's probably wise to actually ally yourself with Bundy and those ideologically like him, because he'll fight w/ you

he'll be on the same side of the barricades as you, as the Proud Boys march arm in arm with cops in protection of the state

and so if you go into that situation thinking Bundy's your enemy in all things, b/c "fascist", well, you probably wont last long

i dunno if bundy's a fascist, incidentally, but whatever he is, he's a very different sort of thing that the Proud Boys, and you have to have the conceptual tools to understand these movements, because they're not single, whole, undifferentiated masses of Fascism