• Zombie@feddit.uk
    22·
    9 days ago

    I sometimes fear that
    people think that fascism arrives in fancy dress
    worn by grotesques and monsters
    as played out in endless re-runs of the Nazis.

    Fascism arrives as your friend.
    It will restore your honour,
    make you feel proud,
    protect your house,
    give you a job,
    clean up the neighbourhood,
    remind you of how great you once were,
    clear out the venal and the corrupt,
    remove anything you feel is unlike you…

    It doesn’t walk in saying,
    “Our programme means militias, mass imprisonments, transportations, war and persecution.”

    • Michael Rosen

    https://michaelrosenblog.blogspot.com/2014/05/fascism-i-sometimes-fear.html?m=1

  • technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    9·
    9 days ago

    10000000%.

    As someone who was raised among maga pale skins, this is soooo true. Those brainwashed dummies were partying in the suburbs for the 4th of july, while gestapo ICE was kidnapping people from my city. Fucking gross.

    • lugal@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      2·
      9 days ago

      I find your usage of “maga” interesting (in a non judgmental analytical sense). The term “maga” is much less than a decade old. Is it commonly used retrospectively for the roots of the movement (which certainly existed decades ago)?

  • merc@sh.itjust.works
    5·
    9 days ago

    Conservatism loves hierarchies. There’s a strong belief that people are where they’re meant to be in that hierarchy. They freely acknowledge that the hierarchy exists, but they insist it’s actually a meritocracy. This explains why the most conservative people are the ones who happen to find themselves at the top of that hierarchy. Conservatism lets them believe that they’re there because that’s how things are supposed to be.

    Fascism is all about actively enforcing that hierarchy. With regular conservatism it’s enough to keep people down by putting obstacles in their way. For example, there’s no rule about hiring a woman, but the hiring decisions are all made by straight, white, christian men, and they just happen to see other straight, white, christian men as the most qualified. Think Mad Men. The best thing about that system is that, according to the laws and rules, it’s “fair”. There are no hiring quotas, no preferential treatment, the rules say everybody has the same chance. It’s just that in practice the people getting hired and promoted happen to look like the people hiring and promoting them.

    Progressives then make rules trying to get rid of this bias. Because white, male, christian men can’t be trusted to pick the best people and instead keep picking their buddies and people who look like them, rules are put in place to make sure other people get a shot. If you believe that the hierarchy that exists is right and natural, this feels like an attack. It feels like they’re forcing hiring managers to hire unqualified people and take the jobs from the people who deserve them. So, they go fascist.

    Fascism is basically a way to enforce the “natural” hierarchy. Now, instead of relying on a “fair” system where those at the top of the hierarchy were given a free choice and expected to choose people who looked like them. Now, the choice is removed. So, the state ensures that everything is returned to “normal” and “traditional” values are upheld.