Climate, technology and chaos Blog

Intro: Categories

To describe, or define fascism, you have to understand something about categories in the world. Categories are human constructs and ideas. They are not inevitably pointing to a definite ‘thing/process’ in that world. This is not a statement that they can never point at something independent and real.

The first point is that nothing exists alone. Humans exist because of the sun, the physical properties known and unknown of the universe, billions of years of genetic accidents, interactions between creatures, the presence of photosynthesis, the temperature range, the huge amounts of non-genetically related bacteria and viruses in our bodies much of which is essential for our function. Things/processes overlap and constantly change, so a human is entangled with many other processes. This makes definition a process of abstraction from a context.

The second point is that as human constructs categories do not necessarily, refer to things/processes that are all the same in the same way. This has been known since Wittgenstein and Vygotsky, but does not permeate much of our thinking. Wittgenstein talked of family resemblance – people in a family do not always resemble each other in the same way.

So when we are looking at things we can call fascism, they will probably not all be the same in the same way. Italian Fascism was not identical to German Nazism. Mussolini was not Hitler. Spanish and Hungarian fascism were different. In an earlier age, Mussolini might even become regarded as a national hero, along with the Medicis etc.

So there is a family of points which they may, or may not have in common, and which they may have in different degrees. The more of these points they share strongly, the more they have in common and the more ‘ideally’ fascist they are.

Fascism involves

Authoritarianism.

People must be loyal to the leader and the party. The leader knows what is best for you. Discipline must be maintained. Disobedience and disagreement will be punished.

The glory of the leader

The leader has mystical powers of genius. People may not understand his reasons but the reasons will be completely sure. You could follow them if you had equal genius. Faith in the leader is required. [If you don’t share that faith the leader can look crazy].

The leader is chosen by God, or some other mystical force like Fate, Destiny, or National spirit. The leader is the exemplary force of the people and the Nation.

Positions in government are allocated by loyalty to the leader, because loyalty and obedience is paramount.

Contradicting the leader is close to blasphemy.

Religion

Fascism is not anti-religion at all. It supports religions which support it and its policies, declare it to be good and the will of God, and justify the fascist hierarchy and heroic striving to be a better part of that hierarchy. As with everything, religious people who challenge them will be suppressed.

Nationalism

The home Nation is supreme and better than any other nation. It is inherently good, and its real culture has no flaws. If there are things/processes the leader or party declares to be flaws this comes from the power of degenerate others, who must be confined, deported, removed or killed. With the degenerates and other enemies of the leader, or Party, heroically removed, then the nation will be restored to its true glory. It will be Great Again.

Heroism

Heroes are prepared to suffer and lay down their lives for the nation and the leader. Heroism is the great calling for men in particular, but women who have huge numbers of children, and devote themselves to family and nation are also heroes. The nation and the leader are one. Disagreements with the leader are displays of degeneracy (lack of heroism), or deliberate subversion. Heroism in the service of the leader is the supreme virtue.

Racism

Certain people are ideal representatives of the real people of the Nation, by skin colour, facial structures etc. They are superior by way of birth. Other people are ideal representatives of degenerate races, who pollute the blood of the dominant race. They must be confined, deported, removed or killed.
Nothing should be done to further racial equality because racial inequality is a fundamental truth and a real basis of life.

Eventually inferior races will be enslaved, die out or be helped to die out

Sexism

Women and men are completely different creatures. Women exist for the pleasure of superior males, and to bear children. This makes women content and families strong. Women who want a different life are degenerate and threaten the stability of the nation. and must be confined, deported, removed or killed.

Lives of superior race fetuses are far more important than the lives of women.

Hatred of Degeneracy

Disagreement with the leader or a lack of heroic enthusiasm for the leader is a mark of degeneracy and physical and spiritual corruption and decay. Degeneracy must be purged. It is vile.

Prime examples of degeneracy are people who do not embrace their heterosexual gender roles, the more vile and inferior races and mentally or physically deficient people even if of the superior race.

Degenerates are people who lead us to revert to the primal and unheroic slime.

Scapegoating

Fascism depends on purging enemies within. Everything that goes wrong is the fault of degenerate and evil people, who are not the ideal loyal race, gender or politics. In reality, they must belong to a fairly non-powerful group in the Nation, so they can be destroyed with ease, but they are portrayed as powerful and corrupting. Everyone is to be unified in hating the scapegoat. When the scapegoat group is purged, it is probable that another degenerate group will made to replace them, to keep the unity forged going.

Life

True life is obedience. Obedience via one’s free will is true freedom. Dedicated obedience may lead heroes to rise up the party hierarchy to their true level. Everyone occupies the position they do because of their natural abilities or because of degenerate corruption. The latter must be purged.

The lives of those who oppose the Party or the Nation are not sacred at all. They are to be exterminated.

Militarism

Heroism for the party is valued. Beating up opponents is valued. Being in pro-party militias is good.
Military order is good. Everyone must obey their superior without question as long as the instructions do not conflict with the leaders.

Fascists will increase military spending even if cutting spending on everything else.

Eventually the nation will have to reveal its destiny in war and conquest as God plans. The best system must rule its neighbours because of the power of destiny and superiority.

Suspension of Elections

Fascists are suspicious of elections. The only genuine elections are the ones that they win. Eventually they will suspend elections, as elections give the forces of degeneracy a way back in. They might have votes to determine the leader’s acclaim, and the leader will get at least 95% of the vote, but that’s it. The need for elections is essentially a liberal fallacy. Being voted out is an impossibility in a fair system as the leader knowns the people, and they know him, and could not vote him out.

Riches

The rich elites and corporations who support and fund the Party are treasures. They will receive cheap and disciplined labour and regulations favourable to them.
However, they must stay obedient to the leader to maintain their positions. While personal and business profit is expected, business is for the good of the leader and the nation.
The rich initially think they chose and control the party but they soon find out that the party cannot be challenged. It has a life of its own, but they generally accommodate.

***

There may be other features of fascism, but these seem to be the basic points. The more some movement has of them, the more strongly identifiable as Fascist it is.

Summary:

Fascism involves self hatred, directed at outgroup others under the guidance of a leader seeking total power and total support. The leader generates hatred of the outgroup, in order to build cohesion in the ingroup, and stop members of the ingroup talking with members of the outgroup, and getting different perspectives. This hatred may further help to reduce anxiety by distracting people from the real challenges their society faces and which the established elites don’t want to face either.

The Fascist leader

The fascist leader is always important. The leader tends to claim that he is insightful and clever, and able to benefit the nation through mysterious means; maybe God, fate, or The sacred Market is on their side? However, beyond raising hatred their actual policies and means of implementation of those policies are usually not very clear, or involve vague feel good statements: “We will build the economy to be strong again,” “we will restore true liberty,” “We will bring unity and might back to the country,” “We will avenge our fallen,” “We will stop [outgroup X] from destroying the country” etc.

The people who support the leader become special by supporting the leader’s heroic work and imagining they belong to that leader’s ingroup. Through this bonding and sense of shared labour, they become essential to the recovery of the pure Nation. They have purpose and meaning in their lives.

One certain thing is that although the Leader may attack the elites who he claims are persecuting and holding the populace down, the Leader will always seek the support of a large part of the establishment by rewarding them, and showing people what will happen to people who don’t support him. The wealth and power elites will be fine, as long as they don’t inspire his hatred, by challenging him or mocking him. They will also support him financially as it’s a worthwhile investment, if they judge he has any hope of winning.

Background to Hatred

The important thing is hatred. The Leader identifies those who are to be hated, and justifies that hatred along with the followers, who support the hatred. This builds the ingroup and its loyalties through dismissing other people.

There is always a background to the hate. Hatred does arise out of nowhere. The people have to be desperate, or motivated to embrace hatred against fellow citizens.

However, as well as vague hatred towards the elites who have failed in their job of helping the people, there may well be widespread and painful self-hatred.

In the contemporary USA, for example, the promise is that everyone can get rich. That promise is no longer true, if it has ever been true. However, at one time upwards mobility was possible for a lot of the population so it is part of the story and of people’s experience or their parents experience. Nowadays many of the middle classes may perceive their status as precarious and that they are facing a downward trajectory, or their children will be going down, due to education debts, increasing housing prices, costs of medical procedures, costs of energy, lack of wage increases above inflation, etc.

The only common explanation allowed by mainstream capitalist politics for this perceived decline in possibilities of prosperity, is personal failure or lack of hard work, not economic structures, not the real power and wealth elites, not ecological collapse, not business failure, not ‘free markets’ leading to plutocracy, or whatever. So they main option to explain things is self-hatred for that failure. They have failed their families and in their lives, by not doing what is expected or demanded for survival. If they are religious, then they may have to hate themselves for sinning, of for not getting God to bless them with money, as well. Personal failure often generates self-hatred, which acts to reinforce this resolution, and it is likely to be common in this kind of situation. Self-hatred is a powerful, discomforting and unacceptable force.

Formerly reasonably well off people may also see, or think that they see, that minorities are receiving help and gaining a status that they feel they were never offered. Employers may say, “you did not get the job because you are white”, rather than you did not get the job because we wanted to give it to the boss’s nephew, or because you did not have any experience. This ‘pleasant’ excuse builds added resentment against outgroup members. Or people may see that those who would not have received work, such as women, can now get better work than they do. The formerly well off have gone downhill, and hatred is easily shifted from self to others if people are given an excuse, or if the hatred against others is shared and reinforced by the ingroup.

The Force of Hatred

The fascist leader relieves people by saying the problem is not the result of personal failure but because of outsiders: communists, gay people, transgender people, feminists, Jews, immigrants, Muslims, atheists, Black People, Chinese people, etc. These people as groups, realistically have almost no influence on what happens in society, they are minorities. However, the leader tells their followers that the presence of these foul people explains why their prosperity has declined, their survival is threatened, and why they feel displaced from their own culture. The leader may also attack some people who might be real obstacles to the leader such as opposition parties, the media that is not 100% behind them and so on. These people can also be threatened and used in order to create the sense of a vast noxious conspiracy from which the leader will save ‘us’ good Americans (or whatever).

Self-hatred transformed

Under the Leader’s direction self-hatred can be suppressed, transformed and projected onto the scum he has identified, while the faithful validate themselves by working to reclaim the country’s glorious past. The point of projection, and why it works as a defense mechanism, is that it allows people to stop feeling self-hatred through feeling hatred for others.

As the leader keeps harping on how the outsiders are corrupting, destructive and evil, and need to be removed, no one need feel guilty about their hatred or about attacking the scum themselves. Attacking these people is perhaps distasteful as people might rather not engage with the vile creatures at all, but it is heroic. People who fight against the outgroups are glorious self-sacrificing martyrs to the great cause. If supporters are arrested and convicted it is because the minorities have corrupted the legal system, into a system of witch hunts, or they are really hostages to the corrupt order, held captive until the leader can free them, and welcome them back into the fold. Judges who convict well-intentioned fellow fascists are among the real enemies of the Country, and will have their comeuppance under the new regime of the Leader.

The Fascist leader promises to break the destructive power of these minorities, to restore the image of the perfect citizen, male, straight and of the right race and religion.

Women

Women who are affiliated with the brave and honorable men who attack corrupting scum are acceptable, as long as they recognise the prime function of women is motherhood and caring for the family. They too must show their purity by supporting their men, hating the minorities, oppositions and women who support minorities, or who want other things than motherhood and family and who are not chaste.

Hatred serves the movement and blocks communication

The hatred not only builds a more relaxed psychology for the haters (they are now justified and hating others not themselves), and they have been given a promising (if vague) imagined future, but it forges ties between the faithful and gives them a simple unity of purpose to get rid of (or break the power) of those the Leader has identified as evil. This purpose fills the previous self-hating aimlessness of their lives. As said previously, the hatred they share for these outsiders bonds them to the leader, to the ingroup, and to the vision of the future they choose.

This hatred further blocks communication as the fascists know that the outgroups have nothing worth listening to, and that anything people in the outgroups might say would, at best, be corrupting, and therefore to be rejected automatically. Likewise, people in the outgroups refrain from trying to communicate with fascists, because they think fascists are vicious and stupid. Fascists name call the opposition and the opposition responds similarly.

The abuse may trigger existing self-hatred, but this time the fascists know they are in the right, and can strike back transferring their hatred onto the abusers. This kind of action reinforces the lack of communication and the lack of mutual respect or mutual empathy. It keeps groups apart.

Calling fascists names serves the fascists, and helps them to build and rigidify the ingroup and outgroups and helps justify their cause – people will not listen to their real grievances. When outsiders call the Leader names, this also shows that the Leader is one of ‘us’ suffering the same condemnation and persecution as ‘we’ do. This abuse shows the greatness of the cause, and its necessity, and justifies action against other citizens.

The cycle of hatred becomes a positive feedback cycle, which then helps reinforce and justify the hatred, which is one of the bases of the Leader’s power.

Political Hatred as Defense Mechanism

The mutual hatred may also distract people from real and overwhelming challenges the society faces, such as climate change, predatory capitalism, growing differentials in wealth, alienation from the state etc. allowing the situation to get worse, and allowing the elites to avoid doing anything to solve the problems that people face. The elites may encourage the fascism, precisely because it allows this avoidance, and the Leader does not appear to face up to the real problems either. This also helps reduce the stress of fascist followers. They can relax, knowing that their are no problems the leader cannot solve, by getting rid of the evil outgroups that arouse anxiety.

See also: Techniques of Fascism

There are a number of equally important procedures, so these are not in order of importance. A tyrant has to work at all of them simultaneously if possible.

1) Creating fear is important. Unfortunately, this is not a trait which enables you to recognize tyranny. There are things to be frightened of which have to be dealt with as a society – the black death, fascism, take over of the state by the wealthy, war with people who really do threaten you, etc..

2) Creating a narrative that the tyrant can solve the problems, nobody else can, and that anyone who disagrees is a traitor. No policies are really needed except vague things like “make the country great again”, “free the workers”. Common narratives involve Nationalism (we are the best in the world just by being born here, we have the best culture, the best people, etc. we must fight outsiders who corrupt us), Militarism (we need to fight those who would fight us and we need discipline), hatred of some relatively powerless minority (they are evil) – all of these narratives give the ‘good’ members of society something to join with the tyrant in fighting.

3) Stirring anger. You are being oppressed by university professors, feminazis, Bill Gates, black racists, radio hosts, shopkeepers, etc… The f$%%n rude opposition never gives you a break they can’t listen to reason, they are stupid, weak, red neck slabberdicks… Shock people, numb them, crush empathy with the others….

4) Cultivating blame. The subhuman evil ones are to blame for everything bad; the Chinese, the Jews, BLM, Antifa, people with green eyes, etc…. it is always good to have an easy source to blame for everything that goes wrong.

5) Excluding people – foreigners, outsiders, gay people, women whatever…. that way you become superior, and closed off from other ideas. Make the categories between the “we group” and the “out group” as sharp as possible. There is to be no overlap which allows people to talk out of place, or which allows sympathy.

6) Constantly telling people how wonderful the tyrant is. What a genius he is (and its usually a he). How he knows everything. How the tyrant has mysterious sources of knowledge. How decisively he acts. How the tyrant is one with the people, even if he is a billionaire, or a monk….. How the tyrant is holy. How he is the tool of God, or of Providence etc. with the implication that anyone who objects to the tyrant is objecting to God’s choice. Have pictures of the tyrant everywhere.

7) Lying constantly. This helps set all the other points in motion. Lying constantly, and moving from crisis to crisis can cause excitement and involvement. If people have to show their loyalty by believing whatever they are told by their side, then they loose the ability to think critically and just go along with the mob and the party media. This is kind of the ‘Orwell point’.

To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulne­ss while telling carefully constructe­d lies, to hold simultaneo­usly two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradict­ory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it, to believe that democracy was impossible and that the Party was the guardian of democracy

Truth is what helps the tyrant and his party, but this truth is eternal, and everyone who cannot directly see this truth is to be condemned.

Being focused on the latest crisis (always caused by the other side), also distracts people from a coherent criticism of the tyrant.

8) Controlling some Media. Take control over, or alliance with, significant sections of the media, so that by repetition, people think that the lies are the truth, and the leader really is wise, interested in them, and being constantly attacked by the evil ones. Have wealthy allies set up ‘think-tanks’ which spout the tyrant’s truth. Partly this is about controlling and reinforcing the narrative. Aim to discredit oppositional media. Threaten oppositional media. All history leads to the Tyrant, and the rebellion against the old order. More Orwell:

And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed—if all records told the same tale—then the lie passed into history and became truth. ‘Who controls the past’ ran the Party slogan, ‘controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.

9) Instigating big social projects. It is a good idea to have some magnificent social projects which honour the tyrant and give people the sense that something good is happening that they can be involved in: making living space; building buildings that show the glory of the Nation; having mass political rallies or displays; building the economy; fighting for the revolution; preparing to defend the Nation. People get annoyed if they have to sit at home, and the economy goes downhill as well – much better they get out as a group…

10) Law is a matter of the Tyrant’s will. The tyrant should honour the law and the constitution in speech, but remember these are only effective as conventions and interpretations secondary to the Tyrant’s will. The law is whatever the tyrant says. If the tyrant obstructs justice, threatens election results, or threatens those who would hold them to account then, in the US for example, this can be excused as ‘free speech’. If no one prosecutes a crime, or they excuse the tyrant, then what is allowed to happen is the new interpretation and the new law, and the only people who object will be traitors. Repeat that the tyrant’s will expresses the true beliefs of those who wrote the laws and the constitution.

11) Violence is an old fashioned necessity for tyranny. Always say the other side used violence first. But hit enemies decisively. It does not matter who, just make examples. Sort them out later. This will also help people to stay loyal, because they know it goes from expulsion to violence quickly so they will follow their instructions and probably think the violence they participate in is simply revenge on their oppressors and gives them freedom from previous and superseded restrictions. They are free!

12) Manufacturing Enemies. This is implicit all the way through these overlapping points, and if I had to say which is the most important point it is this one.

If you persuade people that a particular group of people are the enemies of every true, patriotic person, then you have frightened them, got them angry and ready to use violence. They will refuse to listen to those others, blame them, approve the violation of conventions because of necessity, approve lying and so on. You have sharpened divisions between the ‘we-group’ and the ‘out group’, and applied it to every aspect of life. People become trapped in the language of war. Anything is fair, anything is acceptable to preserve their own lives and the lives of others of the right type. The enemies are out to get you. The enemies attacked you first, by definition. They cannot be trusted. They cannot be dealt with. You have to go along with the tyrant even if you don’t like him, too much is at stake not too. Criticism of the tyrant is evidence of siding with the enemies and betraying the lives of precious others… You are gone.

Tyrants require enemies.

Again the problem is that some level of enmity is always present in reality. This is why the lie appeals to people, it’s based in reality. But usually people inside your own nation are not deliberate enemies, however organized you are told they are, but potential tyranny is organized to prevent people realizing this.

13) [hidden] While being officially opposed to the ruling class (usually a fake ruling class that has no real power), it is a great advantage for the tyrant to side with the established ruling class, as they are usually the wealth elites and can provide money, contacts in the establishment, help bend the laws and constitution, and control at least some of the media to give the tyrant support, and cultivate the lies he needs. This is not always essential, sometimes the rulers can be purged. In either case, eventually the tyrant will establish a new ruling class alongside the wealth elites who are dependent on him and loyal to the project.

Conclusion

These are the processes of tyranny. However, the tyrant eventually has to produce order and predictability, and a sense of progress, so that people can organise their daily lives and hope for the future, or the things that undermine tyranny will come into play too destructively.

War helps postpone the Tyrant’s problems, and is a logical consequence of the process of constructing the tyranny. However, war rarely allows stability – especially war without compromise which is what tyranny encourages. Modern warfare in particular enables destruction, but seems to make it hard to hold gains. The expenses of holding onto gains, usually outweigh the gains being made.

I’d like to say, that while easy to start, a tyrannical state is eventually doomed, unless it can learn to leave people alone most of the time and live in peace. Hitler failed at the latter, the Romans and the Chinese Emperors largely succeeded. Mussolini was doomed the moment he allied with Hitler and joined World War II. The Russians succeeded for a while, and Putin succeeds most of the time.