THE FANATICAL FASCIST FUNGUS IS UPON US: Please America, Wake Up and Smell the Jackboot Polish

“If American democracy ceases to move forward as a living force, seeking day and night by peaceful means to better the lot of our citizens, fascism will grow in strength in our land.” ___ Franklin Roosevelt

“Fascism is capitalism in decay.” ___ Vladimir Ulyanov (Lenin)

“Communism and socialism, programs for intellectual control over society. Fascism, a program for the social control of intellect. ___ Robert Pirsig

“In an ever-changing, incomprehensible world the masses had reached the point where they would, at the same time, believe everything and nothing, think that everything was possible and that nothing was true. … Mass propaganda discovered that its audience was ready at all times to believe the worst, no matter how absurd, and did not particularly object to being deceived because it held every statement to be a lie anyhow. The totalitarian mass leaders based their propaganda on the correct psychological assumption that, under such conditions, one could make people believe the most fantastic statements one day, and trust that if the next day they were given irrefutable proof of their falsehood, they would take refuge in cynicism; instead of deserting the leaders who had lied to them, they would protest that they had known all along that the statement was a lie and would admire the leaders for their superior tactical cleverness.” ___ Hannah Arendt

Things Go Better Without Nazis

In a recent episode of the immensely wonderful NPR program, This American Life (https://www.thisamericanlife.org/751/audience-of-one) they use the pretense of escaping the current chaos of society by inserting personalized lessons from a few favorite movies (popular and obscure). The magical impresario, Ira Glass, is actually providing his usual rich insights into our humanity amid a malfunctioning society. Producer, Sean Cole (Act 2) tells us of an obscure pandemic movie he watched during the apex of lock down for Covid. It has a toucan as an odd vector for a virus that makes people more friendly and happy, and government responds with extreme measures (incivility enhancing vaccine spray) to avoid the negative political and economic consequences of people becoming too kind to one another. As it turned out, very few individuals actually had the virus, and merely chose to reciprocate for the nicer behavior of their fellow citizens.

However, for me, the much more profound portion was provided by producer, Diane Wu, who describes her discovery that as a child she had only seen the first half of the Sound of Music. Upon finally, as an adult, viewing the entire film, she concludes that it was better with only the first half. In essence, it is better without the romance between Rolf and Liesl, as well as Maria and the Baron. As Wu describes it, “like Mary Poppins, Maria just fixes the Von Traps and then leaves.” Plus, she suggests, like all things in life, they go very much better without the Nazis. Then she concludes by observing that we all want to have a rose-colored respite from our current reality. However, fascists never rest and neither should we.

Godwin’s Rule Revisited

I once subscribed to Godwin’s rule, which I understood as the edict that whomever introduces Nazis or fascists into an unrelated argument automatically loses. Recently, however, I learned that Godwin himself did not hold this view. He maintains that the evocation of fascism should NOT end a confrontation, but should initiate a deeper discussion about items like the monumental tragedy of the Holocaust, etc. Plus, as it turns out, the original Godwin rule, or law was merely a quasi-mathematical equation that contends that the longer a debate continues the probability that someone will mention fascism dramatically increases. Some type of rule is still needed since of late the term Nazi or fascist has become a slur synonym for any completely unrelated viewpoint that someone doesn’t like. Not to mention the generally low level of discourse generally. Perhaps we could change it so that anyone who evokes fascism without actually knowing what it is, automatically loses the argument. But that would certainly get you labeled a Nazis these days.

Fascism American Style

Wikipedia defines fascism as follows: “Fascism (/ˈfæʃɪzəm/ FASH-iz-əm) is a far-right, authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology and movement, characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy, subordination of individual interests for the perceived good of the nation or race, and strong regimentation of society and the economy”.

Given its various other basic elements: imperialism, ethnocentrism, and anti-intellectualism we can see that fascism is no stranger to America (Note: https://readmedium.com/fascism-is-more-american-than-apple-pie-3a0291b4bac4). In fact, fascism in its extreme Nazi version, has had its own adherents in high places for generations. In fact, during the Great Depression (1930s) the US had a burgeoning Nazi Party, and several national leaders, for example, Senator Lindbergh (the famous flyer’s father) and Papa Joe Kennedy (the scion of the clan), sought to have the US side with Hitler’s Germany, prior to Pearl Harbor. As an aside, Trump’s semi-famous real estate mogul father was a member of the hooded terrorist group the KKK, and some have labeled Donald’s dog-whistle laced speeches as “klansplaining”.

Nevertheless, American has generally lacked one key ingredient, a charismatic supreme leader. Wall Street types attempted to get Retired Marine General Smedley Butler (recipient of two Congressional Medals of Honor) to lead a coup against FDR, but Butler (a true patriot) turned the tables on them. None of the conspirators ever met justice, and the entire episode was pretty much lost to history. The recent movie Amsterdam was crudely based upon the “Business Plot” and a typical Hollywood hash-up, but generally entertaining (Note: https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2022-10-11/amsterdam-movie-american-fascism-smedley-butler-true-story).

In the absence of a fearless Fuhrer, American developed its own unique corporatist version of fascism, which Princeton Professor, Sheldon Wolin labeled “Inverted Totalitarianism” (Note: https://www.kettering.org/wp-content/uploads/Wolin-Inverted-Totalitarianism-KREVIEW-2010.pdf0). Herbert Marcuse referred to this emergence as the “warm un-freedom” and the “one dimensional society”, where if someone has a revolutionary notion, it will be absorbed and on sale at on Amazon in fairly short order. But I digress, for we are presently on the verge of reverting to the good ole fashion version, which I label FULL FRONTAL FASCISM (or FFF, Note: https://readmedium.com/full-frontal-fascism-what-is-really-at-stake-in-the-trump-trial-a74d8c3503a4).

What to Look Out For

What makes FFF so pernicious is that by the time you see the clear signs, it is already too late. It is so completely alien to our standard operating procedures, that many begin to question their own experience until jackbooted thugs are kicking down their doors. Its propaganda is overloaded with so many falsehoods, that reasonable people are at a loss of where to begin to question its illogical reasoning. Well established facts don’t seem to hold much currency anymore. Consider all the false equivalences one hears from the hate media on a nightly basis, it is as if someone is telling you: “see this steaming pile of excrement we have for you, it’s really the same as that bowl of ice cream you’ve enjoyed for years that made you fat”…. “Well, his son is bent, so Biden must be is just as criminally corrupt as our guy with his 2 impeachments, 91 indictments.” Not to mention Trump’s 6 bankruptcies and numerous civil convictions.

Yes, our current crop of politicians are bloody mediocre, but the burgeoning brown shirts among them are genuinely a breed apart. Furthermore, the Great Orange One, would, given the chance, make Pol Pot look like a piker. The Democrats should have T-shirts that say, YES, WE’RE NOT PERFECT, BUT WE’RE NOT TOTALLY INSANE. Sure, the Democratic Party is merely Republican Lite (in terms of its commitments to oligarchy), but the GOP has become the Gestapo Operatives Party.

Fascism so completely replaces most legitimate political discourse with unbridled and indiscriminate rage (and the constant threat of domestic terrorism), that cherished institutions of constitutional democracy are thrown out like “the baby in the bath water” (Note: https://readmedium.com/seriously-what-the-hell-is-going-on-the-perverse-political-economy-of-rage-ab506e962877). Also note: https://readmedium.com/fascism-defined-and-observed-8647fdeb4527. Religious extremism, the assault on public education, book burning, the suppression of voting and other civil liberties, etc. are merely preludes to genocidal political violence. Not to mention the total disregard for the ecological principles that govern our fragile survival as a species.

If you still cannot believe it could happen here, wake the hell up. It is already happening. Read Hannah Arendt, famed philosopher/journalist who just barely escaped the Nazis. Her tome, The Origins of Totalitarianism, is back on the best sellers lists, and sold out a couple of times on Amazon. In it she chronicles how Stalinism and Nazism began with imperial misadventures, the vicious scapegoating of racial/ethnic minorities, and the “inversion of politics” (away from open debate, compromise, and shared aspirations), and ends with mass surveillance, mercurial political violence, and total transformation of the basis of thought. Also note Trump’s plans for totally obliterating the Federal Bureaucracy, and establishing his Ministries of Truth and Retaliation: https://www.axios.com/2022/07/22/trump-2025-radical-plan-second-term.

Totalitarian fascism abdicates the consent of the governed to raw unadulterated power. Occult imagery, mythical past glories, and pseudoscience (e.g., eugenics) replace the advances of The Enlightenment and the pillars of scientific achievement. It is this shift in the basic organization and trajectory of society that Arendt represents so well. Furthermore, her well researched volume is not only a rich historical and ideological analysis, but it has, of late, become a perverse play book for the far-right in several nations (particularly the US). Only now we have propaganda and surveillance capabilities that would make Goebbels giddy.

FFF is a vast societal fungus which obliterates rational thought and fuels unmitigated mass hysteria. Most of our tools of reason are rendered ineffective before it. Moreover, as Adolf Hitler observed, “the great strength of the totalitarian state is that it forces those who fear it to imitate it”. Don’t be suckered into this Faustian Bargain. While our present political processes pander to predatory plutocrats, at least we have a modicum of avenues for redress. They are in need of serious repair, but there is no valid comparison with repressive fascist institutions.

Under Full Frontal Fascism, gulags and gas chambers are the most obvious options for those who seek to diverge from the brutally enforced new status quo ante. It would be like Gary Larsen’s Far Side comic with the penguins puzzling where/how their friends disappeared, when there is a polar bear wearing a poorly fitting penguin mask in their midst. So, shake off your befuddlement and act to protect the remnants of self-government and progressive policies, before they are snatched away without your notice.

If you are not terrorized yet, you may be very soon. We could experience an updated version of the adage, “I was not a Jew, not a Communist, not a LGBTQ, not a Muslim, not non-white, nor all that woke, so when they came for them I said nothing. But now they are coming for me and there is no one left to speak up.” Our current feckless Fuhrer openly implies that anyone who does not worship him is either a communist, a traitor (“deserving of death”), or “VERMIN” to be irradicated. If he returns to power, who will attempt to dissuade him on your behalf.

In sum, while the dangers of FFF seem remote, it is merely its incongruities that cloud our perception. More importantly its extreme exploitation of our general malaise and malcontent makes it seem novel, if not more heroic. But please trust me, as bad as things might be, they really do pale in comparison with what the fascists have in store for us. Let us put this terrible specter back in the dust bin of history where it belongs.