Fascism in a modern American context
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17 years old. 18. 19. 20. Bottled-up anger. Aimless. Tired of the Machine. Middle class upbringing, staring at the wall for eight hours a day, no outlets to let it all out. Fatigued of the fakeness of it all, the obnoxious McDonald's cashier gig that drains your battery and leaves you hating every fatass in sight clamoring for a Big Mac. Isolated spaces online, validation, counterculture, worlds where the same tired egalitarian scourge isn't present. Something's wrong. The world is sick, and we're the doctor.
The origin
Fascism stands out as a reactionary populist movement centered around a fundamental anger. Unlike other right-wing frameworks, it's explictly all for violence, brutality, contempt, and acting as a good force against evil. It seems counterintuitively leftist from a certain lens, deeply invested in toppling an established world order and upper class leading to moral decay. Historically, it finds roots in left-wing approaches to challenging power. During Italy, in the WW1 days, fascism grew out of the budding syndicalist movement. Syndies believe in a world where workers via unions are able to control the means of production. It seems like a natural progression from vague socialism to populist anger at the status quo.
Italy's conditions at the time (and later, countries like Spain) sprouted fascism and allowed it to spread like a virus across Europe. But, if you haven't noticed, contemporary politics and deeply interconnected living aren't quite the same. The simple Marxian understanding of class relations crumbles when you consider most white-collar normies are noticeably distanced from the cherished means of production. The proletariat as a group isn't as easy to define. This is actually a struggle I believe modern leftism deals with as well, bound to somewhat dated understandings of modern capitalism. Fascism finds itself refreshingly effective at scale, especially in America.
The 90s up to now
Fight Club is a story deeply invested in the pent-up anger and frustration of Modern Man. It paints a mythos of an angry man staring at the billboards driving past work and reclutantly taking orders from a low-T manager or coworker. It's anger at the churn and decadence of modern day, projected through alternative personae and unregulated boxing clubs. I think back in the 90s, it was able to perfectly nail this mindset. X-ers, millennials, and even Gen Z finds themselves lost and confused without any major war or conflcit to center their lives around, and the desire for a shift manifests in the book. When the Fight Club metamorphosizes into something more sinister, injecting itself into world politics as a capable body of furious white folks in solidarity, what will you do? It's a result of the continuing existence of capitalism as the dominant order. Will you let the brown shirts take ahold of a so-called revolution or build power around the world, or should we take the reins instead?
People understate how effective Donald Trump's populism was back in 2016, and the culture it was able to spur on. He himself has some fascistic tendencies but leans comfortably into the neocon camp. However, the consistent rhetoric around keeping the out-group OUT resonated with a lot of people. When you're grasping for straws, at any kind of tangible identity, having a sense of national pride seems like an obvious progression. These people want an out, they want a proper revolution -- an overturning of the liberal social order for something grander.
The futility of revolution
This is not the 20th century. If you attempt a proper "revolution" in the middle of New York, somebody's going to sic the entire National Guard on your ass. Hell, some fed from a three-letter agency probably saw your exact meet-up date before it happened. The reality is traditional revolution is largely imppossible to pull off in a modern information age in developed countries. This is something I generally tell fellow lefties, but it applies to overzealous Neo-Nazis as well. Liberal democracy is so deeply embedded and has such a rock-solid foundation in countries like the US that you'd have a really hard time breaking out of it.
And this, I'd say, keeps fascism a largely online phenomenon, isolated to angry Facebook screeds and unpleasant threads on imageboards that went to shit. Sometimes it manifests in reality through sinister pockets of violence -- a black neighborhood being ravaged or a blood-and-soul tiki torch meetup. But the discomforting thing is liberalism consistently creates the conditions for this culture to manifest and does not do nearly enough to mitigate it. Neo-Nazis have become an unfortunate consequence.
I can't give people big, sweeping answers to these problems. I can't in good faith tell you to form some kind of guerilla warfare strategy when it will probably leave you dead or dejected. What I DO believe is a strong independence from the state, capitalism, and the rules imposed on you is a great first step. Building community, building mutual aid, and constructing a real, tangible community defense. Making sure those you care about are armed, have meaningful exit, and the resources to reach out to others in times of need. Building dual power, creating a world in which the most angry and frustrated with what's going on around them have those willing to embrace them. COVID has obliterated our sense of mutuality and building systems to reinforce it again is probably the most effective tool against the violent right.
This is somewhat of a scatterbrained rant, but I hope you can see where my train of thought is. The strongest tool against a budding reactionary sentiment is taking matters into your own hands and eschewing the gross hivemind. Try to see past the lies.