fascism

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• SOURCE: Boston Review
  10/28/2020
  

  The Long Shadow of Racial Fascism

  by Alberto Toscano

  Black thinkers have long argued that racial slavery created its own unique form of American fascism.

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• ‘One Man, and One Man Alone’: Mussolini’s War

  by John Gooch

  Mussolini acted on the spur of the moment, always sensitive to the need to be seen as Hitler’s equal.  Rarely did anyone ever try to talk him out of a chosen course, and when they did so they failed.  You couldn’t reason with him.

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• SOURCE: New York Review of Books
  10/15/2020
  

  The Right's War on Universities

  by Ruth Ben-Ghiat

  "From the fascist years in Europe, nearly a century ago, to our own times, right-wing leaders have accused universities of being incubators of left-wing ideologies and sought to mold them in the image of their own propaganda, policy, and policing aims."

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  10/7/2020
  

  Golden Dawn Found Guilty of Running Criminal Organization in Greece

  The court tied the far-right party to a string of attacks, including the fatal stabbing of a left-wing rapper.

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• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  10/6/2020
  

  Il Donald

  by Anne Applebaum

  Although Mussolini's displays of pomp seem ridiculous, they are understandable as theater, in which the leader associated himself with symbols of Italian greatness. There is no contemporary comparison to be made....

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• SOURCE: Philadelphia Inquirer
  10/5/2020
  

  Is American Democracy At Risk? Philly Scholars See Creeping Fascism And Historic Parallels

  Historian of Germany Anne Berg is among scholars warning that the combination of armed right wing groups and Donald Trump's suggestions that force may be needed to prevent fraudulent voting indicate a dangerous moment for democracy. 

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• SOURCE: TIME
  10/2/2020
  

  The Proud Boys Are Part of America's Long History of Vigilante Violence. Here’s What to Know About the Group's Origins

  Although he would later claim not to know about the "Proud Boys" far-right gang, Trump's debate comments could be seen as a "green light" for political violence, says historian Kathleen Belew. 

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• SOURCE: Dissent
  9/30/2020
  

  Stopping Trump’s Coup

  by Jim Sleeper

  A phalanx of fomer officials was persuaded by a book to publicly press for abandoning tactical nuclear warfare as a military strategy because of the risk of global annihilation. The prospect of a Trump coup requires living former presidents to close ranks against the prospect of ignoring or challenging the election results. 

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• SOURCE: Foreign Policy
  9/30/2020
  

  America Is About to Enter its Years of Lead

  Donald Trump's Proud Boy supporters and other far-right groups may not be able to seize power, but they don't need to. Political science research on episodes of political violence shows that creating and maintaining tension around the possibility of violence can intimidate the left, encourage law enforcement crackdown, and manipulate public opinion. 

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• SOURCE: Boston Globe
  9/22/2020
  

  Is it Fascism Yet?

  Columnist Renée Graham cites Ruth Ben-Ghiat's history of Italian fascism as a warning about authoritarianism's growth. 

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• SOURCE: Truthout
  9/22/2020
  

  Trump Fuels March Toward Fascism With “Anarchist Jurisdictions” Edict

  by Mark Bray

  The declaration is part of Trump's efforts to divide the nation into the loyal and disloyal.   

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• SOURCE: NPR
  9/6/2020
  

  Fascism Scholar Says U.S. Is 'Losing Its Democratic Status'

  Political theorist Jason Stanley discusses where the United States today fits into his definitions of fascism. Trump's claims to personally protect Americans from humiliation, the rise of conspiratorial thinking, and the fragility of democratic processes are not encouraging signs.

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  9/6/2020
  

  ‘Weimar America’? The Trump Show Is No Cabaret

  by Niall Ferguson

  Popular culture and lazy historical comparisons have elevated Weimar Germany as an analogue for contemporary America. Ferguson suggests reasons to dial back the comparisons; while current events are troubling, US democracy is more stable and stronger than the Weimar Republic.

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• SOURCE: New Statesman
  9/2/2020
  

  The Return of American Fascism

  by Sarah Churchwell

  Trump may lack the discipline and ­grandeur to which the original fascist spectacles aspired, but he doesn’t lack the grandiosity. What makes Trump so clownish is the delusional gap between the claims he makes and the figure he presents. 

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• SOURCE: Times of Israel
  8/27/2020
  

  Rise of European Populists Today Echoes Dark Dreyfus Era, Jewish Historian Warns

  In new book ‘Twilight of Democracy,’ Anne Applebaum describes how her former friends helped bring about the Trump era, Brexit, and authoritarian governments in Poland and Hungary.

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  8/21/2020
  

  How Fascist is President Trump? There’s Still a Formula for That

  by John McNeill

  Trump earned 47 of a possible 76 Benitos, or 62 percent. He remains the greatest threat to American democracy since the Civil War, but his exercise of power only partly resembles that of real fascists. 

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• 8/23/2020
  

  Monopoly in the 20th Century: Roosevelt Warns of Concentrated Wealth and Fascism (Excerpt)

  by Thom Hartmann

  Franklin Roosevelt recognized that the concentrated economic power of big businesses was a threat to democratic society and a step on the road to fascism, and wasn't afraid to say it. 

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• SOURCE: The New Republic
  8/20/2020
  

  Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Is Right to Warn of “Fascism in the United States”

  by Federico Finchelstein, Pablo Piccato and Jason Stanley

  American exceptionalism establishes as dogma that Americans are either too good or too dumb to embrace ethnonationalist authoritarianism and overthrow democratic institutions. The authors are not confident this is true. 

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• SOURCE: Zocálo Public Square
  8/13/2020
  

  What We Don't Understand About Fascism

  by Victoria de Grazia

  It is less useful to draw comparisons between today's right-wing politics and past fascist parties than it is to understand how broad crisis in society resembles the conditions from which fascism arose. 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  7/30/2020
  

  Fascism: A Concern

  Is the application of "fascism" to describe today's politics accurate or useful? Historians including Samuel Moyn, Ruth Ben-Ghiat, David A. Bell, and Heather Ann Thompson add perspective.