“Fascism is when the violence that the imperialist nations have visited upon the world over the course of the development of the modern, parasitic capitalist world-system comes back home to visit.” -Kesīqnaeh

This is a revised version of an old thread re: fascism (1/20)

I often talk about the current moment as if we're in the middle of a fascist project. Stage 2 of 3, if you will. But there is actually nothing innovative or unique about fascism. No single component of fascism is unprecedented in US History. (2/20)

The Nuremburg Laws were inspired by Jim Crow laws. Concentration camps were used by the Spanish during the Ten Years' War and the US during the Philippine Insurrection. Sterilization of so-called "undesirable people" was pioneered by American eugenicists. (3/20)

As an aside, there is nothing "alt" about the alt-right. They are what the right always has been. Their ideas are the logical conclusion of right-wing ideology as it has existed for my entire lifetime. (4/20)

"The principal threat...of fascism to colonized peoples is not one that we would move from a state of having not been subjected to violence from every angle to one where we would, but rather [the acceleration of the pre-existing violence of settler colonialism.]" Kesiqnaeh (5/20)

In "Discourse on Colonialism", Aimee Cesaire says the brutality of colonization primes the colonizer to wreak that same brutality against their own people. After decades of torture abroad, it's not much of a stretch to torture at home. (6/20)

"No one colonizes innocently. A civilization which justifies colonization — and therefore force — is already a civilization that is morally diseased. Irresistibly, from one consequence and repudiation to another, it calls for its Hitler." -Cesaire (7/20)

Fascism can be understood in a variety of ways. If someone asks me what fascism is, I will give them Griffin's definition: paligenetic ultranationalism. Fascists exalt the nation above all else, but believe it is corrupted and must be restored to a mythologized past. (8/20)

This definition helps one understand the individual fascist, and the worldview of parties that advocate for fascism. (9/20)

It also helps explain fascists' policy inconsistency. Fascists believe their nation threatened, and so will do or say anything to achieve power and strike first at those who they see as threats to the nation. They will thus take contradictory, changing political stances. (10/20)

Fascists usually believe their enemy is fundamentally weaker, but will require extreme measures to defeat. This is how they sell authoritarianism to their followers. (11/20)

This perspective is useful as an introduction to fascism, but it isn't systemic, and it is important to understand it in the context of anti-colonialism and anti-capitalism. (12/20)

Western antifascists in the early 20th century dismissed fascism as simply the capitalist class using more violent means to protect its interest. (13/20)

There is some truth to this: most early-20th century (and modern) fascists primarily sold themselves as anti-communists and aligned very closely with big business. The anti-capitalist perspective on fascism is important. (14/20)

An aside: the fascist regimes that arose after World War II were installed and maintained as bulwarks against communism by the US. Notice fascist regimes are inherently prone to corruption and instability, and must be propped up by the US to last longer than a few years. (15/20)

The early Western antifascists ignored anti-colonial perspectives at their peril. They knew violence would escalate, but they didn't understand the extent of the violence their previously liberal states were capable of - the violence already wrought in their colonies. (16/20)

Foucalt wrote about how the material means used to control colonized societies (and to resist colonization) are often reproduced in the society of the colonizer. The tactics used by and against imperialist powers abroad are inevitably brought home. (17/20)

We see this in the contemporary US with so-called "counter-terror" assets used against protestors. We saw this in Germany with the concentration camp. (18/20)

The type of escalating violence we see in a liberal society sliding toward fascism is all too familiar to people living under colonialism, and to people living on the extreme margins. (19/20)

To ignore their perspective is to fail to see the real threat of fascism. It will also deprive of us the experience of those who know how to counter this kind of violence. (20/20)