By uncovering disturbing patterns that are as prevalent today as ever, philosopher Jacob Stanley reveals in How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them that the stuff of politics—charged by rhetoric and myth—can quickly become policy and reality. Only by recognizing fascist politics, he argues, may we resist its most harmful effects and return to democratic ideals.
For this conversation Stanley is joined by Harvard associate professor of History Elizabeth Hinton.
Racism makes societies vulnerable to fascism
37:36
look I’m white but it’s in my
self-interest to fight against racism
because it opens my society to fascismAre economics responsible for fascism?
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for family issues back in Ohio and I
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would go through rural Ohio but I see no
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feline annex and I’d see poverty and
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nobody Cambridge you about under and and
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it wasn’t covered you know and so I
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always say follow the money and there’s
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no money in the rural areas and
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globalism works in Boston and San
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Francisco but it doesn’t seem to work in
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rural America and so I always think that
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globalism is doomed and democracy is
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doomed if they can’t figure out a way to
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put rural Americans into this economy
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that doesn’t that that doesn’t seem to
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have happened I was I was in southern
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Ohio and a family gathering in Lebanon
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Ohio and the fireman was talking to me
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in there was part of the group and he
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said he’s retiring early because he
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can’t stand picking up opioid addicts in
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a little talons Ohio with 10,000 people
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he’s got a five six calls a day take
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care of over those people and people
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shooting out in cars
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so yeah and this is little little
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hometown you know Warren Ohio is dead so
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you’re raising a couple different relate
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related points but both very important
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first of all we haven’t talked much
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about political economy and I think it’s
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very important to talk about political
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economy as as a factor also in the
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factor in the far-right movement like
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what’s happening it’s all right now
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fascism is not fascist politics not
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being used to like buttress military
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empire as much as its used to other one
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other than Yemen and so it is but but it
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it’s being used to like funnel money
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into oligarchs hands and blah and sort
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of like throw sand in the face of people
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with genuine economic concerns but the
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OPA
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I mean it’s not just the rural Midwest
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like my partner is a doctor physician in
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New Haven New Haven Connecticut has a
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horrific OPA opioid problem I mean the
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pharmaceutical companies I mean they
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delivered a whole bunch of opioids to a
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lot of people and and it’s a problem
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that is the dhih industrialized areas
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I mean opiates horrific it’s like what
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60,000 deaths last year 70,000 deaths so
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so but and it’s it’s tricky figuring out
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you know Carl Hart’s work would say it’s
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it’s mainly an economic problem you
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solve people’s economic issues and
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they’re not gonna be opioid addicts but
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but but you’re you’re I mean one thing
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about the economic anxiety point is that
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if you look at who was affected by the
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Great Recession the group that was most
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affected by the Great Recession I think
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were people of color but they didn’t
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flee into the arms of fascism you know they
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didn’t start voting for or you know they
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didn’t vote for Trump so I I don’t think
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so it can’t I think that economic and
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and then you look worldwide my book is
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about the world and you look at Poland
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like the Civic Platform in Poland
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like the Civic Platform expanded the GDP
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radically Poland was doing really well
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economically and then law and justice
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came in and did all these tactics and
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one look at Bavaria one of the richest
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areas in the world Bavaria is filled
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with this you say oh say offer so the
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economic anxiety does not match all the
58:00
areas it can explain it can explain why
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some groups in some areas fall prey to
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this politics but looking
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internationally the politics gets a grip
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and even looking nationally because it
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gets a grip on some groups and not the
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other others and if you look at if you
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look at and my book is about why it gets
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a grip when it’s so obviously a false
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promise and so in the United States when
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we talk about the poor working class we
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– we – the white working class we forget
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a chapter and Du Bois as black
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reconstruction is a poor white you know
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we have to talk about the psychological
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wages of whiteness we have to talk about
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and and the response is of course an
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economic response is a labor movement a
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labor movement you know when they smash
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the labor movements in the Upper Midwest
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suddenly people felt much more prey to
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this kind of politics and so you know so
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I think we do face this crisis we need a
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labor movement that’s why they went
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after the labor movement we’re in a
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crisis after the Janice decision and and
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so we have to rebuild the labor we
59:07
wouldn’t give people economic hope I’m
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not sure it’s as globalization as much
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as it’s the lack of a of a of a labor
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movement in the United States
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I mean German manufacturing is doing
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fine and German labor is doing fine
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history and making history no but I
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guess how do you make it known
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given that the I mean given what you’re
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talking about you know the attack on
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truth the discrediting of sources the
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control of educational boards or
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institutions by people who might not be
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in their interest a place you know I
59:43
mean so what I don’t know if that’s I
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mean if doing it’s having conversations
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like this I mean I think it’s it’s it’s
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really up to us and this is like in
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terms of thinking about what is the role
60:00
of academics right now I mean people who
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do research is – it’s one I think that
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qualitative research in general is just
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D legitimized and it’s it’s dismissed as
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not being true despite the fact that you
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know my I don’t use my data doesn’t come
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from surveys it’s not in document since
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the ways in which I’m interpreting those
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documents just like it’s the ways in
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which other people are interpreting
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their quantitative data and so I think
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that you know right now the other kind
60:32
of struggle going on in universities is
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the growing attack in many ways on the
60:39
liberal on liberal arts in general which
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is tied to the developments that Jason
60:43
described so eloquently in the book so I
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think part of it is you know doing the
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work of having discussions like this
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it’s amazing that there’s so many people
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here and we’re having this really engage
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an important discussion that takes a lot
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out of us but that’s I think part of our
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responsibility as as researchers as
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scholars as intellectuals to try to
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write in accessible ways Jason was just
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telling me that he’s been on the radio
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for like ten hours this week that’s
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doing the work that’s doing that
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important work and I think part of the
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difficulty is in many in in many
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instances we we end up kind of preaching
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to the choir you can only go on Berkeley
61:25
radio so many times I mean
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– is also kind of moving into different
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spaces where we might be less
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comfortable when I get invited to speak
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with libertarian or white ring groups
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are I’m happy to go because knowing that
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I might be walking into an abrasive
61:45
situation you know I tried to make my
61:49
book and my research as undeniable as
61:52
possible and I think the argument that
61:53
you’ve laid out in this book is also
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undeniable and that’s how I think we can
61:58
begin to think about re-educating
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correcting the false narratives and
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erasing the untruths the mythic past
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that’s been created in history is I
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think really historical work is really
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key to that we don’t know how we got
62:14
here unless we really really understand
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the past yeah I just want I just want to
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say you know that’s why do boys ends
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ends black reconstruction at the
62:28
propaganda of history and that’s why
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he’s so corny and capitalizes truth you
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know that’s that’s that’s what gets me
62:34
upset when people attack for instance
62:36
african-american studies as as has been
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happening a lot or Gender Studies
62:41
because they’re trying to tell the
62:42
actual truth of a story that’s not told
62:45
and you know and that that’s that’s why
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dude you know Dubois is always so corny
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about truth see like he’s like you know
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when you know erasure and erasure is
62:55
never truth you know so and of course
62:59
the backlash is always like a little bit
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of like at Yale what happened the I mean
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I could have told my colleagues the
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English department they added googy Wafi
63:07
Unga this this goes back to you they had
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a GUI hua Theon go to one course and and
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there were like 20 articles from
63:14
right-wing media about how they’re
63:15
eliminating Shakespeare at Yale and it
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hit them so by surprise I was like my
63:21
colleagues in the English department
63:21
like what happened what happened we’re
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gonna go as death threats I’m like yeah
63:25
you added an African writer to a
63:28
required course you know so that’s the
63:32
and we we have academic administrators
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here they can tell you about this but
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there’s there’s you know the very ID so
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true like multiple perspective
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which doesn’t mean multiple perspectives
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doesn’t mean there’s many truths there’s
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only one truth that’s why Dubois
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capitalizes it but the truth involves
63:49
you know that the Nate what happened to
63:52
the indigenous populations as well as
63:55
what happened to Dale Carnegie
64:02
[Music]
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[Applause]
Israel’s Jewish Nation-State Law
In 2018, the Israeli parliament approved the Jewish Nation-State Basic Law that enshrines Jewish supremacy over Palestinian citizens. The law has distinct apartheid characteristics and requires racist acts as a constitutional value.The Israeli Knesset voted on 19 July 2018 by a margin of 62 to 55 to approve the Jewish Nation-State Basic Law, constitutionally enshrining Jewish supremacy and the identity of the State of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people.
This law – which has distinct apartheid characteristics – guarantees the ethnic-religious character of Israel as exclusively Jewish and entrenches the privileges enjoyed by Jewish citizens, while simultaneously anchoring discrimination against Palestinian citizens and legitimizing exclusion, racism, and systemic inequality.
Despite the foundational nature and far-reaching scope of the Jewish Nation-State Law, however, it contains no commitment to democratic norms, or a guarantee of the right to equality, or a prohibition of discrimination on the basis of race, nationality, ethnicity or any other category for all people living under Israeli sovereignty.
This law denies the collective rights of Palestinian citizens of Israel, who comprise 1.5 million people or 20 percent of the population Israel and constitute a homeland minority group under international human rights law.
Click below to read the full text of Israel’s Jewish Nation-State Law
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