I Do Not Care If Trump Is A Fascist?

Firstly, I would like to point out that Fascism is a political philosophy, and I have seen no indication that Donald Trump has a coherent philosophy. This is not an insult to Trump’s intelligence (I do not think personal insults are useful in political discussion), but I have seen no evidence that this is the way he operates.

While we should be concerned that there are fascist organizations out there, it trivializes the threat to call Donald Trump one of them.

One of the reasons for this post is that I frequently see ‘early warning signs of Fascism’ on social media posts. These signs include suppression of free speech, racism and sexism, disdain for human rights etc. which often leads me to think whether people are happy with these as long as it does not lead to Fascism. More importantly, we could end up arguing about the minutiae of what constitutes fascism or situations that lead to it and miss more important political changes.

Because of this, I am not going to go into the definition of fascism, other to say that I would define it as the political philosophy that came to prominence in early-20th-century Europe that came to power in Germany and Italy before WWII and those who want to emulate it. It is important to realize that Fascism is not just a set of individual policies but a form of political organization.

Unfortunately, the word fascism is nowadays extremely overused, and I am often called a fascist. As George Orwell pointed out in 1946¹:

The word Fascism has now no meaning except in so far as it signifies ‘something not desirable’

It is worrying that so many people, including many who claim to be anti-fascist, misuse the term to label anyone that disagrees with their point of view. Tens of millions of people died due to this political philosophy, and to not attempt to understand it and trivialize it’s meaning is deeply concerning.

Although the discussion about is Donald Trump a fascist is of little merit, it is useful to look at some of the negative aspects of his way of doing politics. In particular, to avoid falling into these practices ourselves.

The Socialist-Marxist Propaganda Model

How propaganda is used to gain support for political parties and movements is extremely important and often overlooked in political discussion. While it may seem strange to link Donald Trump, Fascism and Bolshevism, there is a clear link between them. As Adolf Hitler outlined in chapter 6 of Mein Kampf²:

Ever since I have been scrutinizing political events, I have taken a tremendous interest in propagandist activity. I saw that the Socialist-Marxist organizations mastered and applied this instrument with astounding skill.

I do not have time or space to go into this topic at length in this post, however, the propaganda emphasizes crisis, division, loyalty, standing up for the downtrodden and blaming on specific groups or individuals for the problems of society, often using over-emotive language. It is also uncompromising with no room for nuanced debate, but things are ‘always’ or ‘never’. These are often encapsulated in simple slogans that the masses can understand.

While there are those on ‘the left’ who criticize these methods when used by ‘the right’, they fail to recognize it in their own propaganda – capitalism is in crisis, people who are woke against the racists and fascists, hate the Tories, hate racism. I may agree or disagree with the sentiment behind slogans such as trans-women are women, immigrants welcome here, or smash capitalism, but their absolutist demands (with no debate) are not only unhelpful but dangerous.

Just Get Things Done

One aspect of Donald Trump’s campaign has been to just get things done without the niceties of prolonged debate, human rights, democratic control or legalities. Part of his attacks on the establishment are to this end. What is a real danger is that the new administration would start to dismantle some of the checks and balances in the USA constitution.

A President who thinks that he has, or should have, unfettered power is a very dangerous thing.

People in the UK should remember that Donald Trump is not the only one to take this stance. For example, the previous Conservative government frequently complained about their immigration policy being overturned by ‘leftie lawyers’ and call for major changes to UK laws being railroaded through due to the crisis of Brexit. In particular, Boris Johnson made many attempts to increase the executive power of the Prime Minister³^,⁴.

One of the real dangers here is that there is a strong impulse to just ‘get things done’ amongst many political parties and movements. However, no matter how well-intentioned these impulses, we should be wary of anything that undermines political debate and democratic control.

Criminalising Dissent

Donald Trump has used the many legal cases and investigations into his conduct as a weapon to target his political opposition. As he has said, “What they’ve done is they’ve released the genie out of the box,” and has suggested that he could weaponize the FBI and DOJ against his opponents⁵ and has called for many of his opponents to be prosecuted⁶.

There are those on ‘the left’ that have called to make misogyny⁷, misgendering⁸ or even climate denial a crime.

The legal system therefore is not limited to enforcing order, keeping the peace or adjudicating disputes but becomes an educator and promoter of political doctrine.

David Cameron has stated that he sees 911 ‘truthers’ and many others as dangerous extremists, ⁹ how soon will we see making negative comments about bankers, corporations or attacking British Values illegal. I have already been arrested and charged with ‘making derogatory statements about the Royal Bank of Scotland‘, although there charges were dropped before going to court.

Political Violence

Once someone, or a political idea becomes assigned fascist it then becomes possible to suppress it by any means necessary, which brings into question whether this includes concentration camps and gas chambers?

One justification for this is a quote from Adolf Hitler himself:

“Only one thing could have stopped our movement – if our adversaries had understood its principle and from the first day smashed with the utmost brutality the nucleus of our new movement.”

Firstly, it is not surprising that Adolf Hitler advocates brutal suppression of opposing views. However, this is one of the key points that makes fascism such a dangerous ideology and it is worrying, to say the least, that this one of the fascist policies that the anti-fascists have adopted.

It is interesting to look at the original quote by Adolf Hitler¹⁰:

“Only one danger could have jeopardised this development — if our adversaries had understood its principle, established a clear understanding of our ideas, and not offered any resistance. Or, alternatively, if they had from the first day annihilated with the utmost brutality the nucleus of our new movement.”

I agree that the if the adversaries “understood its principle, established a clear understanding of our ideas” they would have been better placed to challenge fascism. However, I disagree that they should not “offered any resistance”.

Recently in the UK, it was right to oppose those who tried to intimidate asylum seekers in their homes – robustly if necessary. However, if some group wants to say that asylum seekers are the problem in society it is necessary to counter these ideas, but I do not think those people should be physically attacked.

One group of people that have been assigned fascist are people including Sharon Davis, J.K Rowling and Martina Navratilova who are said to advocate mass murder and genocide because they see biological women as a class separate from biological men.

If the so called anti-fascism is people masked up and intimidating and sometimes physically attacking women, particularly lesbians who define them self as same sex attracted rather than same gender attracted, then it is reasonable to see the ‘anti-fascists‘ as dangerous as the fascists.

Institutional Capture

One way that the Nazi Party gained control was through their ideological capture or institutions including the civil service and education system. Although this was enforced through legislation when they came into power, the capture started long before that.

Like the McCarthy witch hunt for communists in the USA in the 1940s and 50s, Donald Trump has also said¹¹:

“We pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country,”

As I have pointed out in previous posts, there are many organizations, some of which are so called ‘left’ political organisation that have clamped down on debate and root out heretics.

It is also a technique that was used by countries in the communist block to maintain power.

Fascism is a dangerous political philosophy that had many adherents at the beginning half of the last century. To use it merely to describe ‘something not desirable’ is to trivialize these dangers and is an insult to the memory of those who died and suffered because of it.

As I said at the beginning I see no evidence that Donald Trump is an advocate of this philosophy. It may be that he, or some of the people he intends to appoint to powerful positions are and they are keeping it quiet.

While fascism is sometime described as irrational this is not the case. It does, however, acknowledge that humans are often irrational in their decisions and actions. This is something that I agree with and think it is irrational to argue otherwise in light of the evidence.

What is dangerous is to try to use the spectre of fascism to generate an irrational fear of political opponents, clamp down on free speech, introduce legislation against thought crime and advocate political violence.

All of the negative policies of fascism have appeared in other political movements and it is important to fight against those, particularly when they appear in political organisations and movements that we are involved in.