As many of us, I have been thinking about the similarities between MAGA and fascism and I see many people in the media referring to Trump as a fascist (often clearly lacking the understanding of fascism as we know it) I am realizing that there are nuances to be considered. I come from Spain and my family was persecuted, arrested and tortured by Franco’s fascist regime during and after the Civil War, so this shit cuts deep for me.
Obviously, what we are facing cannot be fascism as we saw it 100 years ago in Spain, Italy, and Germany. Society has changed and so has the ideology. On the surface, it is easy for me to connect the dots from what I have seen, read, and studied about Spain’s history. But I admit that so far, I have over-simplified the facts. I now understand that it is a mistake to simply compare these raising ultra-right wing extremist ideologies with 1930s fascism. We live in a global society, the economy is different and the geopolitical sate of things is also different. So far, I have clearly identified some of the obvious similarities: the messages riddled with hate, the common enemy that has ravaged what once was a thriving empire, the demagoguery intensified by fearmongering, the authoritarian figure who is the only one able to correct it, the disappointment in the establishment, etc.
So, let me correct my rhetoric while I find the updated terminology for this fascist-like regime that we face for the next foreseeable future. If any of you have book recommendations on sources in the matter, please let me know. Link them in the comments if you don’t mind.
For example, will Trump make the leap from being an authoritarian leader to a totalitarian one? This is important to identify because it will dictate the way in which we, the people, will resist. Will news outlet who investigate their administration be attacked, discredited and antagonized as we have seen so far, or will he move towards straight up censorship? What is the extent to which freedom of speech will be limited or will it be completely eliminated?
I think we all need to start delineating some of these nuances to be able to better try to predict how we fight what’s coming and, more importantly, staying safe and free while doing so.
And lastly, it is also very important to recalibrate our noise filter. Again, there will be chaos. But this chaos won’t stem as much from his shitty management style of pitting his leaders against one another. I think this team will be more cohesive and unified. The chaos will come from their message and rhetoric. They are going to throw so much literal shit our way that we are not going to be able to deal with all of it. We must learn to pick the fights that are important and winable. In other words and stated simply there will be a lot of trolling to distract from the real dangerous and undemocratic stuff.
