political violence

Fascism is a specific type of authoritarianism. Both are forms of government characterized by tightly centralized power, either under a sole dictatorship or a small cadre typically of wealthy oligarchs, where rule is absolute and the vast majority of people have little say in policy-making or national events. Identifying authoritarianism vs. fascism isn’t always a clearcut distinction, particularly given that one of the hallmarks of fascism is often that fascist leaders tend to conceal or hide their ideological aims until they achieve power and sometimes even beyond — so as not to alert the public to their true plans until it’s too late for people to fight back.

Under both authoritarianism and fascism, there is little or no political freedom or individual rights. Authoritarian governments often use force or coercion to maintain control, dissent is typically suppressed, and political violence is tacitly encouraged so long as it is in support of the ruling regime.

Fascism is one type of authoritarian political system

Fascism is a type of authoritarianism with distinct ideological features that emerged in the early 20th century. In addition to the core characteristics of authoritarian government, fascism is typified by extreme nationalism, a belief in the superiority of one’s own race or nation (a form of collective narcissism), and propaganda about both a mythical past and a promised utopian future. Fascist regimes often promote aggressive foreign policies and use violence and intimidation to suppress opposing views. Other key features of fascism include a cult of personality around the leader, a focus on traditional values, and the use of propaganda to control public opinion.

Fascist regimes of the 20th century

  1. Italy (1922-1943): Italy was the birthplace of fascism, and under the leadership of Benito Mussolini, it became the first fascist regime in the world. Mussolini and his National Fascist Party came to power in 1922, and ruled Italy as a one-party state until he was deposed in 1943.
  2. Germany (1933-1945): Nazi Germany, led by Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, was a fascist regime that came to power in 1933. The Nazi regime was known for its extreme racism, antisemitism, militarism, and aggressive expansionism, which ultimately led to World War II.
  3. Spain (1939-1975): After a bloody civil war, General Francisco Franco established a fascist dictatorship in Spain in 1939. Franco’s regime was characterized by authoritarianism, repression, and a focus on traditional Catholic values.
  4. Portugal (1932-1974): Portugal was ruled by a fascist regime under the Estado Novo (New State) government, led by Antonio de Oliveira Salazar, from 1932 until 1974. The Estado Novo government was characterized by authoritarianism, nationalism, and corporatism.
  5. Romania (1940-1944): Ion Antonescu, a military dictator and fascist sympathizer, came to power in Romania in 1940. Antonescu’s regime was characterized by anti-Semitism, political repression, and a close alliance with Nazi Germany.
  6. Hungary (1944-1945): Hungary was ruled by a fascist government under Ferenc SzΓ‘lasi and the Arrow Cross Party from 1944 until the end of World War II. The Arrow Cross regime was known for its extreme anti-Semitism and brutality.

Authoritarian regimes in world history

Authoritarianism is an older and more prevalent form of government than fascism, given its origins over 2000 years ago with the Roman Empire. Some of the most notable authoritarian regimes are as follows:

  1. The Roman Empire (27 BC – 476 AD): The Roman Empire was a vast and powerful empire that was ruled by an authoritarian government, after Julius Caesar overthrew the Roman Republic shortly before the turn of the millennium in 27 BC. After his son Octavian emerged victorious from a series of civil wars that followed, a succession of Roman emperors who had almost unlimited power ruled the Empire, and dissent was often suppressed with violence.
  2. The Mongol Empire (1206-1368): The Mongol Empire was one of the largest empires in history, and it was ruled by a series of authoritarian leaders who conquered and subjugated vast territories across Asia, Europe, and the Middle East — most notably Genghis Khan.
  3. The Ottoman Empire (1299-1922): The Ottoman Empire was a vast and powerful Islamic empire that was ruled by a series of sultans who held absolute power over their subjects.
  4. The Soviet Union (1917-1991): The Soviet Union was a communist state that was ruled by the Communist Party and its leaders, including Joseph Stalin. The Soviet regime was characterized by totalitarianism, repression, and the suppression of political dissent.
  5. China under Mao Zedong (1949-1976): Mao Zedong was the founder of the People’s Republic of China and the leader of the Chinese Communist Party. During his rule, China was transformed into a socialist state, but the regime was also characterized by repression, mass killings, and the suppression of political dissent.
  6. North Korea (1948-present): North Korea is a communist state that is ruled by the Workers’ Party of Korea and its leader, currently Kim Jong-un. The North Korean regime is known for its extreme repression, propaganda, and human rights abuses.
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Freedom is freedom from the fear of death.

Freedom is freedom from fearing you’ll be gunned down at school.

Freedom is freedom from fear your kids won’t come home from school.

Freedom is freedom from fear of going to the grocery store.

Freedom is freedom from senseless violence.

Freedom is freedom from murderous rampages replayed night after night.

Freedom is freedom from domestic warfare.

Freedom is freedom from weapons of warfare in our communities, in our churches, in our schools, in our stores, on our playing fields, on our streets.

Freedom is freedom from injustice.

Freedom is freedom from inaction.

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The Republican National Committee, in perhaps the most stunningly stupid self-own in the history of modern politics certainly in my lifetime, finally said the quietest part out loud: that in their official pronouncement, the events at the Capitol on January 6 constituted “legitimate political discourse.” Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger were censured by the RNC in the statement as well, for their role on the January 6 Committee and their investigation into these “legitimate” events involving a murderous attempt to stop the peaceful transfer of power.

Yale historian Joanne Freeman had this to say about the RNC statement:

Democracy vs. Authoritarianism is on the ballot in 2022

If there’s any upside to the dark situation we’re in, it’s these gifts Republicans keep on giving — further debasing themselves each time you think they can’t possibly stoop any morally lower — that we can use to our advantage to turn out our base in record numbers in these upcoming midterms. We did it in 2018, and there’s no reason to believe we can’t do it now. Trump’s support is waning, not growing — and the fractures within the GOP are widening, not tightening. Plus, we’ll have 8 million new 18-year-old eligible voters we can potentially reach — the vast majority of whom statistically speaking, are going to be progressive Democrats.

None of the other policy questions or culture wars will matter if we cannot solve the most fundamental question at the heart of our democracy: do we still believe in the ideals of the Constitution, the rule of law, and the vision of a self-governing people shared by the Founders? Or do we want to hand over the keys to the nation to the erstwhile billionaires, old money heirs, and trust fund playboys who want to drag us back to some perverted nostalgic fantasyland that’s part Leave It To Beaver, part wild west, and part Silence of the Lambs?

Do we want democracy, or authoritarianism?

Do we want to choose our leaders, as citizens — or do we want politicians to choose our leaders?

It’s the only question in 2022.

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Or capital vs. labor, oligarchs vs. plebes, plutocrats vs. proles, rich vs. poor — however you want to narrate it, the property vs. people struggle continues on in new and old ways, each and ere day.

Here in America, the plutocrats have devised many clever methods of hiding the class struggle behind a race war smokescreen, that is both real and manufactured — instigated, exacerbated, agitated by the likes of schlubby wife abusers like Sloppy Steve Bannon, wrinkly old Palpatines like Rupert Murdoch, and shady kleptocrats like Trump and Putin.

The United States has nursed an underground Confederacy slow burning for centuries, for sociopathic demagogues to tap into and rekindle for cheap and dangerous political power. Like The Terminator, racist and supremacist troglodytes seem always to reconstitute themselves into strange and twisted new forms, from slavery to the Black Codes to sharecropping to convict leasing to Jim Crow to Jim Crow 2.0 — the psychopaths want their homeland.

The political left loves people, and our extremists for the most part destroy capital or property that insurance companies will pay to make shiny and new again — unlike the right wing extremists who bomb federal buildings, killing hundreds of people and costing taxpayers’ money to replace.

Meanwhile, the right wing claims to be the righteous party for its extreme fixation on life before birth, yet its regulation-allergic capitalists destroy people and the natural world more broadly, from factory farming to deforestation, the destruction of habitats, strip-mining and other toxic extraction practices, and on into climate change itself. Being in fact the chief architects of manmade atmospheric devastation, they have managed to make themselves invisible from the deed by simply (wink wink!) denying it exists.

WWJD?!

Certainly, not anything the Republican Party is up to. Jesus would be sad.

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It feels like the 1930s all over again — and with good reason. The rise of American fascists and right-wing extremism around the world has been a known trend for decades, and America’s past flirtations with fascism had been largely swept under the rug by the then anti-semites who tried to put a stop to FDR’s New Deal and prevent the U.S. from getting into World War II.

They fought against labor unions and labor organizers, often using private militia as henchmen to do their dirtywork with plausible deniability for themselves. The Ku Klux Klan — the principle paramilitary organization formed during Reconstruction to undo egalitarian gains from the Civil War — was just one of many instruments put to use in service of plutocratic aims to quell any “communist awakening” amongst their workers, lest they get any uppity ideas for themselves. They fell for the popular conspiracy theories of their time, which included Hitler’s bogus assertion that Jewish bankers controlled the world and had to be stopped before they destroyed the white race.

Fascist revanchism

Those fascists, butthurt over America’s overwhelmingly popular decision to enter the war and stop Hitler from exterminating the Jews, seethed with jealousy at the post-war “liberal consensus” that flourished alongside the booming US economy, propelled first by the war effort and later by the peacetime success of the New Deal‘s long shadow and the burgeoning of the American middle class.

The American fascists turned into the John Birch Society, and the McCarthyites, and the Libertarians, and the Moral Majority, and the Gingrich Revolution, and the Tea Party, and the MAGA / QAnon stew sloshing around mass media. The kooks on the far right — the kind of ilk so cray cray that even William F. Buckley excommunicates you from the Republican Party — have taken over the hen house now. Outrage sells, as Facebook well knows — and as two-bit dictators around the world have bribed Mark Zuckerberg to brainwash the masses using the most inanely illogical propaganda prolefeed, the world tilts dangerously towards authoritarianism and the end of our democracy as we know it. And with it, all hope for truth and light into the future for some time to come — the equivalent of a political meteor hitting the Earth.

The American fascists are still around, and now they have tools of propaganda that Goebbels could never have even wet dreamed of. They’re more powerful and more well-connected — to other sociopaths, malignant narcissists, and other pathological cult-leader types who might be of transactional service to each other from time to time. Many of them cling to ideas of Christian nationalism and Strict Father Morality. We’d be wise to keep an eye on these folks.

NameTypeLocationKnown for
Greg AbbottPoliticianTexas
Roman AbramovichForeign agent
ACU Strategic PartnersForeign agent
Sheldon AdelsonBusinesspersonLas Vegas, NV
AggregateIQCorporation
Roger AilesMedia personalityDeceased
Todd AkinPoliticianMissouri
Nelson W. Aldrich
Ali AlexanderExtremist
Samuel AlitoJudgeWashington, DC
American Energy AllianceNon-profit
American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)Non-profit
Americans for ProsperityPAC
Philip AnschutzBusinesspersonColorado
Michael Anton
Lee AtwaterPolitical Operative
Michele BachmanPoliticianMN
Steve BannonMedia personalityHouseboats
Ross Barnett
William BarrPublic Sector
Maurice BarresAuthorFrance
Louis BeamWhite Supremacist
Roy BeckWhite Supremacist
Andy BiggsPoliticianAZ
Black LegionExtremistMichigan
David BogatinOligarchNYC
Jacob BogatinOligarch
John Wilkes BoothCriminalDeceased
L. Brent BozellExtremist
Harry and Lynde BradleyKochtopus
Andrew BreitbartMedia personality
Anders BreivikExtremistOslo, Norway
Mo BrooksPoliticianHuntsville, AL
Brother's CircleCriminal
Michael BrownFerguson, MO
Pat BuchananPoliticianWashington, DC
William F. Buckley JrMedia personality
Doug BurleyPolitical Operative
Cambridge AnalyticaCorporationLondon, UK
Renaud CamusAuthorFrance
Tucker CarlsonMedia personalityNYC
Doug CaseyBusinessperson
Michael CatanzaroLobbyist
Cato InstituteThink Tank
Madison CawthornPoliticianNC
Center to Protect Patient RightsKochtopus
Mike CernovichMedia personality
CGCN GroupLobbyist
James ChaneyActivistNeshoba County, MS
Jeremy Joseph ChristianExtremistPortland, OR
Chris ChristiePolitician
Michael CohenBusinesspersonNYC
Steven A. CohenBusinessperson
Roy CohnPolitical OperativeDeceased
Competitive Enterprise InstituteThink TankWashington, DC
Continental ResourcesCorporationOklahoma
Coors brewing familyKoch InvestorColorado
Council of Conservative Citizens (CoC)
Ted CruzPoliticianTexas
Jefferson Davis
Kim DavisPublic SectorKentucky
Devos familyKoch Investor
Amadou DialloNew York
James DobsonMedia personality
Chester Doles
Rod DreherExtremist
Dinesh D'SouzaMedia personality
Doug DuceyPoliticianAZ
Aleksandr DuginExtremistRussia
David DukeWhite Supremacist
John EastmanPolitical Operative
Myron EbellPolitical Operative
Election Integrity Project CaliforniaExtremist
Larry EllisonBusinessperson
Cassandra Fairbanks
Jerry Falwell, JrTelevangelist
The FamilyLobbyist
The Federalist SocietyExtremist
Scott FitzgeraldPoliticianWI
Michael FlynnCult Leader
For AmericaPAC
Nathan Bedford Forrest
Fox NewsCorporation
Free Congress Foundation
Freedom CaucusPolitician
Freedom PartnersKochtopus
FreedomWorksExtremist
Matt GaetzPolitician
Kevin GentryKochtopus
Greg GianfortePolitician
Newt GingrichMedia personality
Tim "Baked Alaska" GionetWhite Supremacist
Rudy GiulianiPoliticianNYC
GiveSendGo
Barry GoldwaterPoliticianAZ
Seb GorkaPolitical Operative
Billy Graham
Madison GrantPolitical Operative
Chuck GrassleyPolitician
The Great Awakening
Marjorie Taylor GreeneQAnonGA
Eric GreitensPoliticianMO
Harold HammKochtopus
James Henry HammondExtremist
Warren G. HardingPolitician
Billy James HargisExtremist
Orrin HatchPolitician
Josh HawleyPoliticianMO
Matthew HeimbachExtremist
Jesse HelmsPolitician
Leona Helmsley
Diane HendricksWI
Heritage FoundationThink TankWashington, DC
Honest Elections ProjectExtremist
Herbert HooverPoliticianWashington, DC
Mike HuckabeePolitician
Laura IngrahamMedia personality
Andrew JacksonPoliticianDeceased
John Birch SocietyExtremist
Andrew JohnsonPoliticianDeceased
Chuck JohnsonMedia personality
Ron JohnsonPolitician
Alex JonesMedia personality
Jim JordanPoliticianOH
Judicial Education ProjectExtremist
Islam KarimovOligarchUzbekistan
Alex KaschutaMedia personality
Brett KavanaughJudgeDC
Dr. D. James Kennedy
John F. KennedyPoliticianDeceased
Robert F. KennedyPoliticianDeceased
Anna Khachiyan
Martin Luther KingActivistDeceased
Charlie KirkMedia personality
Walter KirnAuthorMT
KKKWhite Supremacist
Bill KochBusinessperson
Charles KochKochtopusKansas
David KochKochtopusDeceased
Fred KochKochtopusKansas
Frederick KochBusinesspersonNew York
David KoreshCult LeaderWaco, TX
Ku Klux Klan (see KKK)White Supremacist
Kylie Jane Kremer
David LaneWhite Supremacist
Ken LangoneBusinessperson
Lyndon LaRoucheCult Leader
Robert LeFevreKochtopus
Leonard LeoExtremist
Marine Le PenPoliticianFrance
Honor Levy
Liberty Counsel
The Liminal Order
William S. LindPolitical Operative
Kelly LoefflerPoliticianGeorgia
Dana LoeschMedia personality
Sen. Huey LongPoliticianDeceased
Thomas MairExtremist
Paul ManafortLobbyist
Clarence Manion
Blake MastersPoliticianAZ
John McAfeeBusinesspersonDeceased
Sen. Joseph McCarthyPoliticianDeceased
Kevin McCarthyPoliticianCA
Michael McKennaKochtopus
Timothy McVeighExtremistOklahoma City, OK
Andrew MellonBusinessperson
Rebekah MercerOligarch
Robert MercerOligarch
MicroChip
Stephen MillerExtremist
Michael Milken
Cleta MitchellExtremistOK
Semion MogilevichCriminal
Stefan MolyneuxMedia personality
Sun Myung MoonCult Leader
Roy MoorePoliticianAL
JP MorganBusinessperson
Rupert MurdochOligarch
Jack Murphy
Benito Mussolini
MWR StrategiesKochtopus
Dasha Nekrasova
neo-NazisExtremist
Terry NicholsExtremist
Richard NixonPolitician
Ralph NormanPolitician
NRAExtremist
NYPDPublic Sector
Barack ObamaPoliticianChicago, DC, Los Angeles
John M. OlinKochtopus
Viktor OrbanPolitician
The Order
Candace OwensExtremist
Matt ParrottExtremist
Laszlo Pasztor
Norman Vincent PealeBusinessperson
Mike PenceMedia personality
Rick PerryPolitician
Scott PerryPolitician
Jordan B PetersonAcademic
William Pierce
Pioneer Fund
Jeanine PirroMedia personality
Mike PompeoPublic Sector
Jack PosobiecMedia personality
Lewis PowellBusinessperson
Sydney PowellPolitical Operative
Proud BoysExtremist
Thomas PyleBusinessperson
QAnonQAnon
Jean RaspailAuthorFrance
Nancy ReaganMedia personalityDeceased
Ronald ReaganPoliticianDeceased
Kyle Rittenhouse
Pat RobertsonTelevangelist
Dylann Roof
George Romney
Mitt RomneyPoliticianUT
Murray RothbardExtremist
Dave Rubin
Richard Mellon ScaifeKoch Investor
David SchnarePolitical Operative
Stephen Schwarzman
Rick ScottPolitician
Jeff SessionsPoliticianAL
Marc ShortPolitical Operative
Sinclair Broadcasting GroupCorporation
Paul SingerKoch Investor
SNCCNon-profit
Social Contract PressWhite Supremacist
Richard SpencerWhite Supremacist
Balaji SrinivasanBusinessperson
State Policy NetworkKochtopus
Dan SteinWhite Supremacist
Lothrop StoddardWhite Supremacist
Roger StoneLobbyist
Richard StrongBusinessperson
Sen. Robert TaftPolitician
John H. TantonWhite SupremacistMichigan
Tea PartyPAC
Peter ThielBusinesspersonLos Angeles, CA
Clarence ThomasJudgeWashington, DC
Ginni ThomasPolitical OperativeWashington, DC
Three PercentersExtremist
Traditionalist Workers PartyExtremist
Turning Point USAExtremist
UnabomberCriminal
Unification ChurchCult Leader
Unite the RightActivistCharlottesville, NC
University of Texas at AustinAcademicAustin, TX
JD VancePoliticianOH
Ricky Vaughn
Ruben VerastiguiCriminalDC
John VinsonExtremist
George WallacePoliticianAlabama
Joe WalshMedia personality
Kelli WardPoliticianAZ
Ron WatkinsExtremist
Randy WeaverWhite SupremacistNaples, ID
Vicki WeaverWhite SupremacistNaples, ID
WeevWhite Supremacist
Paul WeyrichWhite Supremacist
White Citizens CouncilsWhite Supremacist
Geert Wilders
Darren WilsonPublic Sector
WikiLeaksForeign agent
Milo YiannopoulosMedia personality
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Anger is the defining emotion of the internet.

It’s designed to whip you up into a frenzy in order to foment cheap pageviews. Its interest is in you becoming a histrionic attention whore, such that you suck in as much clandestinely stolen user data to your platform of choice as possible. Turns out, conflict gets attention.

Anger is also notably the “loophole” emotion — it’s the invisible one men get to have, while claiming for generations upon generations that “women are too emotional to be entrusted” with leadership or anything meaningful, really. Meanwhile male anger and aggression have killed hundreds of millions and wreaked destruction upon the earth many times over, as fragile masculinity is repeatably and predictably triggered over any little old thing.

A neat trick.

A story.

A lie.

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We need to bring the fire down from the mountain. We are not on that project — we are still on the opposite project: keeping the wizards behind the curtain.

Too many of the wizards are male, and are busying themselves in playing petty economic and status zero-sum power games instead of recognizing the context they are in — we are all in — as an infinite game in which the enlargement of the participant group to include and, not just reluctantly tolerate, but to avidly welcome women in to the club will massively benefit all the players.Β 

Then there are the white wizards who create pseudoscientific rationalizations for wasting time obsessing over 18th century racial animus as a massive distraction from having to do the work of creating anything useful or contributing any value to the world. They’ve taken their centuries of evolutionary advantage and painstakingly developed economic pie to split hairs over who ought to be denied a few of the crumbs, as a cheap method of papering over the deep well of collective insecurity and ego fragility precipitated by a lack of meaningful individuation and their failure to create anything useful or contribute any value to the world.

We could be playing this game together. Instead, we furtively dart about in Plato’s Cave imagining we are still living in a world of scarcity, rather than leveling ourselves up to behold the vision of the new world of abundance we have the capacity to create.

Not Ready Player One.

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