Resisting the Fascist Creep in Our Circles

Jewish political philosopher Hannah Arendt, whose work has a whole new and crucial resonance these days, wrote of fascism that “under conditions of terror, most people will comply, but some will not.”

The difference, she argued, between the many who become complicit with fascism and those few people who resist its pull is the ability to think critically and judge for oneself, “unsupported by law and public opinion.” It is to “make up one’s mind anew” when faced with a world being reshaped by fascism and determine that one can’t “live with themselves” if they conform to its logic.

This is no small feat. Which perhaps sadly explains why the further we slide into Christofascism—the US flavor—the more “fascist creep” is evident among those we used to see as our progressive or even liberal allies, and more disturbing, our radical and even anarchist accomplices.

The more fascism takes firm hold, the more that the “unthinkable” becomes uncritically thinkable. Then the “thinkable,” which still felt “undoable,” becomes doable. And the more one does, inch by inch, the more what would have seemed “abnormal” and even “abhorrent” becomes “normal” and acceptable. Until everything is turned upside down, awash in bloodlust and then blood.

This isn’t some far-off slippery-slope.

It’s increasingly palpable within our own circles, from the deepening of an essentialism that weaponizes “identity politics” to “other” and oust those who should be fighting side by side for liberation and freedom, to withholding solidarity from those facing state repression because we aren’t friends with or may not like them, to doing the cops’ work by bad-jacketing “anarchism,” including with accusations of sticking too much to anarchistic principles and practices.

“Most people will comply,” alas, when such uncomradely behavior becomes more thinkable, more doable, and more “normal” so-called radical behavior.

Under fascism, one has to be ever vigilant to stay antifascist, to resist the creep, not merely in words, but in daily deeds. Under fascism, that becomes harder and lonelier by the day, precisely when we need more of us who are willing to not comply.

(photo: aspirational sticker seen on a #FuckFascism stroll in so-called Asheville, NC—aka be an “antifascist allstar” and “freedom fighter” for life)