As democracies around the world slip slowly towards authoritarianism, we must ask ourselves why it is that, in spite of our best efforts, fascism seems to persist. The answer to this question is rather obvious: fascism persists because we enabled the far right to exploit the rules of democracy in their favor. The left’s insistence on playing by the rules has ultimately doomed it to always be one step behind. Watching fascists win victory after victory in recent years is comparable to a game of poker where one side is clearly cheating but all the other players have elected to continue playing, as if nothing is going on. Rather than fall for their tactics, we should all strive to take a more proactive approach to combating fascism wherever and whenever it may be.
Freedom of expression is always the first excuse the fascist proclaims when called out: “I thought we had freedom of speech in this country!”. Fascists consistently test the waters with increasingly more extremist rhetoric until they reach a tipping point and must pull back. Cries of “freedom of speech” or the “marketplace of ideas” serve as nothing more than a bad faith argument in their defense. However, the left actively engages in this, reluctantly stepping back and adopting the ostensibly morally superior stance. Ideally, if everyone adheres to the rules, democracy can operate seamlessly. Fascists want us to take the high road because they recognize their potential that they can exploit us. They use the pretense of humor to normalize their extremism and weaponize free speech to paint themselves as victims whenever they draw criticism. Fascists hide behind dog whistles so that they can deflect attempts to call them out and so that they may slip away scot-free time after time. The left does not want to appear intolerant, and fascists are well aware of this. This is why they intentionally create a false equivalence between their speech and legitimate discourse.
The far right is also extremely skilled at exploiting the media. They understand very well that the press wishes to remain objective and unbiased in its reporting. In journalism, reporters often try to balance their writing by presenting views from both the left and the right. Fascists exploit this by making provocative and baseless claims, prompting the media to report on them. The media thus inadvertently legitimizes such views by placing them alongside actual views from good-faith actors. Furthermore, such tactics enable the far right to dominate the discourse by deceiving the left into persistently engaging in arguments based on bad faith, flimsy claims that quickly become irrelevant when refuted. When Trump goes on stage and claims that Haitian immigrants are eating cats and dogs, there is no room left to talk about real issues. You can’t argue with people who say these things because they don’t care if it’s true. Any time someone online presents themselves as a moderate whose only asking questions or only talking about common sense, you know you’ve spotted a fascist. The minute you present them evidence, they will find a way to move the goalpost over and over again until you give up.
Fascists have expertly introduced their views through a gradual shifting of the overton window. The slow desensitization of the public to xenophobic, homophobic, transphobic, and outright racist rhetoric is horrifying to watch. Social media has been hijacked to showcase a constant stream of memes, which have steadily become nothing more than hate speech packaged as comedy. It’s no coincidence that Instagram comment sections filled with disgusting displays of discrimination are normal. This type of content actively conditions you to be less guarded when someone makes a hateful statement or when a far-right politician proposes hateful legislation. Any attempt to hinder this is impeded once again by the tendency of the fascist to always claim victimhood. If you deplatform them, they cry out that they’re being oppressed, but if you leave them be, you lose. The answer is that we must deplatform them, we must censor them at all costs, and we must take proactive measures in reinforcing the norms that our democracies are built upon.
It is the duty of every person to fight fascism at every opportunity. If democracy is to prevail, then our society must be as hostile as possible to far-right ideologies that, like parasites, use our institutions against us. It’s no wonder that the parasites go for the judiciary first. They understand very well that by corrupting the most objective and fair part of the system gives them free reign to co-opt democracy and use it as a disguise. Before WWII, we had no unit of comparison for fascists; this allowed them to quickly gain support across Europe. It is no longer acceptable to openly be a Nazi. Nowadays, they blend into the shadows, seeking opportunities to gradually gain visibility. The modern neo-nazi wears the veneer of democracy so that they may infect every corner of a government until it’s too late. It is therefore our job, our responsibility, to stop playing by the rules and to take the fight straight to them. If we are to succeed, we need to target them with both our legislation and our actions. The weakness of the left is that it struggles to ban fascists for fear of being undemocratic. I pose the following question to you: Why should you fear punishing a cohort of people who will stop at nothing to destroy you and those you love? My great-grandfather spent his days shooting fascists; why should I be afraid to simply ban them?
The far right deserves to be afraid, they deserve to be censored, they deserve to be silenced. There is no space in our society for hatred, for intolerance, and for discrimination. Every last one of us is equal and should remain as such. Anyone who would challenge that should live their days in fear, praying that no one finds out. That may seem harsh to you, but I see it as lenient; if they have it their way, then anyone who doesn’t fit their patriarchal white supremacist vision will be lucky if they are even allowed to live. We should have no qualms about imposing the bare minimum of safeguards for our democracy because the current path we are on is an extremely dark one.
Alec Kushmerek
