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?
54:22
for family issues back in Ohio and I
54:25
would go through rural Ohio but I see no
54:27
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
54:37
always say follow the money and there’s
54:39
no money in the rural areas and
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globalism works in Boston and San
54:43
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
54:59
that doesn’t that that doesn’t seem to
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have happened I was I was in southern
55:04
Ohio and a family gathering in Lebanon
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Ohio and the fireman was talking to me
55:09
in there was part of the group and he
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said he’s retiring early because he
55:13
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
55:25
so yeah and this is little little
55:29
hometown you know Warren Ohio is dead so
55:37
you’re raising a couple different relate
55:39
related points but both very important
55:41
first of all we haven’t talked much
55:42
about political economy and I think it’s
55:45
very important to talk about political
55:46
economy as as a factor also in the
55:50
factor in the far-right movement like
55:52
what’s happening it’s all right now
55:55
fascism is not fascist politics not
55:57
being used to like buttress military
56:00
empire as much as its used to other one
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other than Yemen and so it is but but it
56:07
it’s being used to like funnel money
56:10
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
56:17
OPA
56:18
I mean it’s not just the rural Midwest
56:20
like my partner is a doctor physician in
56:23
New Haven New Haven Connecticut has a
56:25
horrific OPA opioid problem I mean the
56:27
pharmaceutical companies I mean they
56:31
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
56:41
I mean opiates horrific it’s like what
56:44
60,000 deaths last year 70,000 deaths so
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so but and it’s it’s tricky figuring out
56:53
you know Carl Hart’s work would say it’s
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it’s mainly an economic problem you
56:56
solve people’s economic issues and
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they’re not gonna be opioid addicts but
57:02
but but you’re you’re I mean one thing
57:06
about the economic anxiety point is that
57:09
if you look at who was affected by the
57:12
Great Recession the group that was most
57:15
affected by the Great Recession I think
57:16
were people of color but they didn’t
57:18
flee into the arms of fascism you know they
57:20
didn’t start voting for or you know they
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didn’t vote for Trump so I I don’t think
57:27
so it can’t I think that economic and
57:31
and then you look worldwide my book is
57:33
about the world and you look at Poland
57:36
like the Civic Platform in Poland
57:38
like the Civic Platform expanded the GDP
57:41
radically Poland was doing really well
57:43
economically and then law and justice
57:45
came in and did all these tactics and
57:48
one look at Bavaria one of the richest
57:51
areas in the world Bavaria is filled
57:53
with this you say oh say offer so the
57:57
economic anxiety does not match all the
58:00
areas it can explain it can explain why
58:03
some groups in some areas fall prey to
58:06
this politics but looking
58:09
internationally the politics gets a grip
58:13
and even looking nationally because it
58:15
gets a grip on some groups and not the
58:17
other others and if you look at if you
58:19
look at and my book is about why it gets
58:21
a grip when it’s so obviously a false
58:24
promise and so in the United States when
58:26
we talk about the poor working class we
58:28
– we – the white working class we forget
58:31
a chapter and Du Bois as black
58:33
reconstruction is a poor white you know
58:35
we have to talk about the psychological
58:37
wages of whiteness we have to talk about
58:39
and and the response is of course an
58:41
economic response is a labor movement a
58:43
labor movement you know when they smash
58:46
the labor movements in the Upper Midwest
58:48
suddenly people felt much more prey to
58:50
this kind of politics and so you know so
58:55
I think we do face this crisis we need a
58:57
labor movement that’s why they went
58:59
after the labor movement we’re in a
59:01
crisis after the Janice decision and and
59:05
so we have to rebuild the labor we
59:07
wouldn’t give people economic hope I’m
59:09
not sure it’s as globalization as much
59:10
as it’s the lack of a of a of a labor
59:13
movement in the United States
59:14
I mean German manufacturing is doing
59:17
fine and German labor is doing fine
59:22
history and making history no but I
59:26
guess how do you make it known
59:29
given that the I mean given what you’re
59:32
talking about you know the attack on
59:34
truth the discrediting of sources the
59:37
control of educational boards or
59:39
institutions by people who might not be
59:42
in their interest a place you know I
59:43
mean so what I don’t know if that’s I
59:50
mean if doing it’s having conversations
59:54
like this I mean I think it’s it’s it’s
59:56
really up to us and this is like in
59:59
terms of thinking about what is the role
60:00
of academics right now I mean people who
60:03
do research is – it’s one I think that
60:07
qualitative research in general is just
60:09
D legitimized and it’s it’s dismissed as
60:13
not being true despite the fact that you
60:16
know my I don’t use my data doesn’t come
60:18
from surveys it’s not in document since
60:24
the ways in which I’m interpreting those
60:25
documents just like it’s the ways in
60:26
which other people are interpreting
60:27
their quantitative data and so I think
60:30
that you know right now the other kind
60:32
of struggle going on in universities is
60:34
the growing attack in many ways on the
60:39
liberal on liberal arts in general which
60:41
is tied to the developments that Jason
60:43
described so eloquently in the book so I
60:45
think part of it is you know doing the
60:48
work of having discussions like this
60:50
it’s amazing that there’s so many people
60:53
here and we’re having this really engage
60:55
an important discussion that takes a lot
60:57
out of us but that’s I think part of our
61:00
responsibility as as researchers as
61:03
scholars as intellectuals to try to
61:06
write in accessible ways Jason was just
61:08
telling me that he’s been on the radio
61:10
for like ten hours this week that’s
61:13
doing the work that’s doing that
61:14
important work and I think part of the
61:17
difficulty is in many in in many
61:19
instances we we end up kind of preaching
61:21
to the choir you can only go on Berkeley
61:25
radio so many times I mean
61:29
– is also kind of moving into different
61:34
spaces where we might be less
61:35
comfortable when I get invited to speak
61:38
with libertarian or white ring groups
61:40
are I’m happy to go because knowing that
61:44
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
61:55
undeniable and that’s how I think we can
61:58
begin to think about re-educating
62:01
correcting the false narratives and
62:04
erasing the untruths the mythic past
62:07
that’s been created in history is I
62:09
think really historical work is really
62:12
key to that we don’t know how we got
62:14
here unless we really really understand
62:16
the past yeah I just want I just want to
62:23
say you know that’s why do boys ends
62:26
ends black reconstruction at the
62:28
propaganda of history and that’s why
62:29
he’s so corny and capitalizes truth you
62:32
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
62:39
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
62:48
dude you know Dubois is always so corny
62:50
about truth see like he’s like you know
62:52
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
63:01
of like at Yale what happened the I mean
63:04
I could have told my colleagues the
63:05
English department they added googy Wafi
63:07
Unga this this goes back to you they had
63:08
a GUI hua Theon go to one course and and
63:12
there were like 20 articles from
63:14
right-wing media about how they’re
63:15
eliminating Shakespeare at Yale and it
63:18
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
63:23
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
63:34
here they can tell you about this but
63:36
there’s there’s you know the very ID so
63:39
true like multiple perspective
63:41
which doesn’t mean multiple perspectives
63:43
doesn’t mean there’s many truths there’s
63:45
only one truth that’s why Dubois
63:47
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]
64:07
[Applause]
The 10 tactics of fascism | Jason Stanley | Big Think
Fascism is a cult of the leader, who promises national restoration in the face of supposed humiliation by immigrants, leftists, liberals, minorities, homosexuals, women, in the face of what the fascist leader says is a takeover of the country’s media, cultural institutions, schools by these forces.
Fascist movements typically, though not invariably, rest on an urban/rural divide. The cities are where there’s decadence, where the elites congregate, where there’s immigrants, and where there’s criminality.
Each of these individuals alone is not in and of itself fascist, but you have to worry when they’re all grouped together, seeing the other as less than. Those moments are the times when societies need to worry about fascism.
Read the video transcript: https://bigthink.com/videos/what-is-f…
Loyalty to the dominant group means law-abidingness.06:00And the minority group is by its nature not law-abiding.06:06Law and order in fascist politics means the members06:10of a minority group who accept their subservient role,06:15they’re law-abiding,06:16and the members of the dominant group06:18by their very nature are law-abiding.06:20By definition, the leader can’t violate law and order.06:24So law and order doesn’t mean justice.06:27Law and order doesn’t mean equality.06:29Law and order structures who’s legitimate and who’s not.06:35Everywhere around the world,06:36no matter what the situation is,06:39in very different socioeconomic conditions,06:42the fascist leader comes and tells you,06:44“Your women and children are under threat.06:46You need a strong man to protect your families.”06:50They make conservatives hysterically afraid06:53of transgender rights or homosexuality,06:57other ways of living.06:58These are not people trying to live their own lives.07:02They’re trying to destroy your life,07:03and they’re coming after your children.07:05What the fascist politician does is they take conservatives07:09who aren’t fascist at all, and they say,07:11“Look, I know you might not like my ways.07:14You might think I’m a womanizer.07:16You might think I’m violent in my rhetoric.07:18But you need someone like me now.07:20You need someone like me ’cause homosexuality,07:23it isn’t just trying for equality.07:25It’s coming after your family.”07:29Fascist movements typically, though not invariably,07:33rest on an urban/rural divide.07:36The cities are where there’s decadence,07:38where the elites congregate, where there’s immigrants,07:42there’s criminality, there’s Sodom and Gomorrah.07:45In the city, there’s not real work.07:48The pure, hard-working, real members of the nation live07:53in the rural areas, where they work hard with their hands.07:57When our politicians talk about inner-city voters08:00or urban voters, we all know what they mean.08:05Arbeit macht frei, “Work shall make you free.”08:08This was written on the gates of Auschwitz.08:11The idea is that the minority group, they’re lazy,08:16and they need to be made to work.08:17Free labor.08:19The minority group and the leftists,08:21they’re lazy by their nature,08:23and it gives them a work ethic.08:25Labor unions are run by communists08:28who are trying to make things easier.08:30Hard work is a virtue.08:32In liberal democracy,08:34we don’t value people by how hard they work.08:37What would happen to disabled people who can’t work?08:40They would then have no value.08:41It’s why the Nazis had the T4 program to murder the disabled08:46because the disabled were Lebenunwertes Leben,08:50life unworthy of life,08:52because to be valued was to be capable of hard work.08:56Each of these individual elements is not08:58in and of itself fascist,09:00but you have to worry when they’re all grouped together,09:03when honest conservatives are lured into fascism09:06by people who tell them, “Look, it’s an existential fight.09:09I know you don’t accept everything we do.09:12You don’t accept every doctrine.09:14But your family is under threat.09:16Your family is at risk.09:17So without us, you’re in peril.”09:20Those moments are the times09:23when we need to worry about fascism.
The Green Deal Will Make or Break Europe
The European Union’s new leadership has decided to invest much of its political capital in a plan to position Europe as the global leader in the transition to a carbon-neutral economy. But if too many constituencies feel as though they are being sacrificed on a green alter, the plan will never even get off the ground.
The Last Chance to Defeat China and Win Back the Cyber Domain?
Two months ago, when Zooming In did a story on Huawei and global 5G deployment, Huawei was poised to take control of much of the world’s cyber domain. We talked about the national security implications of that prospect. And we observed the U.S. efforts to raise awareness of that risk. Two months later, when we did another story on this topic, we realized the world knows Huawei a lot better through these efforts, but Huawei’s momentum has not stopped. In fact, Huawei and China are playing a grander game. They have a brilliant strategy that is working well with the very nature of a crony capitalism. Can this battle still be won by the free world? And what does it take to win? Let’s find out in this edition of Zooming In.
F
BERLIN – European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s ambition to lead a “geopolitical commission” is about to face its first big test. European heads of state are meeting to discuss her proposed European Green Deal, a sweeping project that could either unite the European Union and strengthen its position on the world stage, or generate a new intra-European political cleavage that leaves the bloc fractured and vulnerable.
The need for concerted action is clear. The Green Deal is a response to accelerating climate change, which poses an existential threat not just to Europe but to the entire planet. The problem does not observe national borders, and thus requires collective global action. But the transition to a carbon-neutral economy also offers far-reaching opportunities. With the right strategy in place, Europe can boost its own technological innovation and deploy carbon pricing and other fiscal policies to protect European labor markets from being undercut by lower-cost production in China and elsewhere.
Moreover, through the European Investment Bank, the EU already has a tool for mobilizing massive stores of capital for investments in infrastructure, research and development, and other essential areas. And, as Adam Tooze has argued, by issuing green bonds and other “safe assets,” Europe can secure greater economic independence from other powers and start to establish the euro as a global currency.
But alongside this positive vision are more dystopian scenarios in which the climate-policy debate creates geographic and socioeconomic divisions and fuels a populist backlash. Although climate change touches everyone, its effects are asymmetric, as are the costs of undertaking a transition to a carbon-neutral economy. The danger for Europeans is that the unequal distribution of the costs and opportunities will fuel a culture war between
This European debate is an echo of a broader global challenge. Many Eastern European countries still depend heavily on coal for energy generation, and thus fear that the push for carbon neutrality is an underhanded form of protectionism by advanced economies like Germany. Poland’s energy minister, Krzysztof Tchórzewski, has dismissed as “a fantasy” the notion that Poland – which relies on coal for 80% of its electricity – could achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, and estimates that the costs of such a transition would approach €1 trillion ($1.1 trillion).
But, in addition to the east-west divide, the Green Deal could also create political rifts within every EU member state. French President Emmanuel Macron has tried to position France as a global climate leader. But his government’s attempt to raise taxes on fuel last year backfired when millions of gilets jaunes (“yellow vests”) took to the streets in protest in late 2018.
The European Council on Foreign Relations has conducted in-depth polling to understand policy preferences across Europe, and we have found climate policy to be a particularly divisive issue. On the surface, around two-thirds of Europeans in most countries polled think that tackling climate change should be a priority, even if it means curtailing economic growth. But up to one in four people do not think that climate change is a real threat, and are far more worried about Islamic radicalism and the rise of nationalism.
The gilets jaunes are not an isolated phenomenon. Recent elections have shown how a program like the Green Deal could become a useful punching bag for populists and parties like the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) in Germany and Rassemblement National (National Rally, formerly the National Front) in France.
Critically, once you move from asking people whether climate change is a problem to how it should be addressed, concerns about socioeconomic fairness and the distribution of costs prove hugely divisive. Even in the European Parliament, where 62% of MEPs were elected on green-inspired platforms, only 56% agree that the EU should be pursuing a rapid transition to a low-emissions economy. Moreover, only one-third of MEPs are prepared to take tough action against companies with large carbon footprints.
Generally speaking, then, there are two possible futures for European climate policy. The Green Deal could become Europe’s chief new cause, lending momentum to European integration and strengthening the EU’s global position vis-à-vis China and the United States. Or, it could become the next “refugee crisis,” a singularly potent issue that divides Europe between east and west, and that mobilizes populist forces within countries across the bloc.
To make the first scenario more likely, EU leaders need to listen less to moralists like the young climate activist Greta Thunberg, and more to pragmatic realists who understand that paying off reactionary forces has long been part of the price of progress. The only way to shepherd the Green Deal to successful implementation will be to offer large fiscal transfers to the laggards, so that they, too, will have a stake in the clean-energy transition. Without European unity, there can be no effective European response to climate change.