What Fascism in the 21st Century is Really About
Image Credit: Joe Burbank
How the Right Went From Conservative to Fascist — And Why It’s Getting Worse
by umair haque
It’s sometimes said that people like you and me have a “liberal bias.” As the wicked response goes, “so does reality.” It’s not that I have a problem with conservatism — it’s that what conservatism’s become has a problem with people like me. And you. And a whole lot of others. It’s crossing the line into fascism — in a profoundly dangerous and sinister way — more so every single day now. But are we paying enough attention?
In this era, it’s easy to see what conservatism should be. Take a hard look out there — it hardly takes a genius to figure out what needs, well, conserving. The planet. Life on it. Resources. Money — even if doing that well takes investment, which reaps returns. Right down to classical notions of virtue, like the humility to understand the damage we’ve done to the planet, the compassion to nurture life on it back to health, the wisdom to find a place for us beside, not above, being. Philosophical stuff — more to come, sorry.
The problem is that, well, what conservatism’s become isn’t just uninterested in this — it’s actively hostile to it. What we have is a regressive conservatism — not a progressive one. That’s not an oxymoron. Plenty of moderates, from Bush to Romney, would agree with the notion that conservatism could and should advance progress for all — indeed, that it’s the best path to. But this creepy variant of what conservatism isn’t about that — it just wants Stone Age violence, brutality, hate, and ruin.
It’s becoming fascism, and while many of us say that, and that’s a good thing, because it’s true, I wonder, still, if we grasp, really, how truly deep it goes.
What am I talking about? Let’s begin with the muscular new approach championed by figures like Ron DeSantis. In this new new version of conservatism, the state is actively used as a tool to…take people’s rights…even personhood…away. The examples of that are by now many. Kid, you can’t read that book. Hey — teach those kids that gay people exist, and that’s a felony. Parenting your kid the best way you can? We’re going to “investigate” you, because aiding and abetting your kid to be…who they want to be…is now a crime. On and on it goes, and the best example is the most egregious and visible, perhaps: the Supreme Court taking rights away from women. It didn’t just “repeal Roe” — what it really did was to incinerate women’s rights to privacy, expression, speech, movement, association. Now, some conservatives are even trying to make crossing a state line to be a crime…if you’re a woman.
The state, in all these examples, is used actively. It’s enlarged. So there’s DeSantis, for example, making an “Election Police Force,” there’s his grinning, fleece-wearing counterpart in Virginia setting up…tip lines…to inform on kids and teachers, nope no Gestapo here, over here in this corner is state after state criminalizing teachers and parents right down to what people can wear. You’re a man, but you dress up as a caricature of a woman, for fun, aka in drag? That’s illegal.
This approach is so extreme, already, that even pretty extreme conservatives are uncomfortable with it. Because, of course, it’s the diametrical opposite of shrinking government, the state, decentralizing power, and so forth. It’s expanding government, centralizing power, intruding into people’s lives, right down to surveilling them and controlling them for a whole new category of “crimes.”
But what is in this new category of crime? Well, this is where it starts to get really dark. We’ve covered a little bit of ground above, but let’s recapitulate and summarize. In this new category of crimes are things like…what books you read…what clothes you wear…who you associate with…dancing…reading books to people…what you look like…what you say.
It hardly takes a genius to think: “Wow, that’s pretty sinister.” It is, for a very good reason. These are something genuinely perverse. We could call them crimes of freedom. Or crimes of progress. Or maybe, in the end, crimes of personhood. That name gives you some indication why they feel so wrong, so disturbing, so creepy. These are attempts to criminalize the basic forms of modernity: the freedom to live the way you want, peacefully, not harming anyone, just making your own choices, being your own person, raising your family, doing your job, and so forth. These are ways to criminalize the most fundamental pillar of modernity there is: self-determination.
Now. We often say, sane and thoughtful people, that “the right is taking our rights away.” That’s true, but I want you now to see the intent behind it. That’s why I’ve described it a little differently than I sometimes do. The intent is to remove self-determination.
That’s a pretty good definition of authoritarianism, though. Of the fascist kind. And it begins to illustrate exactly and precisely how conservatism has crossed the line into fascism. That’s not a joke. You know who else loved to crack down on…people dancing…in cabarets…in outfits they hated? The Nazis. This is where we are.
When and where, exactly, has conservatism crossed the line into fascism? Let’s be even more specific, to really develop this line of thought. Well, back in the Trump years, the game was about scapegoating hated minorities, blaming them for the woes of the pure and true. Mexican babies, it was said, were the Great Threat to Real Americans — and so “family separations” began. But the game now is even more sinister than that.
You see, the target now isn’t just outsiders — it’s insiders. It’s members of the in-group. Even “real Americans” — and we all know what that means — are fair game, as long as their kids are a certain way, they read certain books, they call themselves by the wrong name. This is a major, major red line to cross. American fascism has evolved. It isn’t just targeting hated outgroups anymore. It is now reaching deep into the lives of the in-group, targeting even them, with crimes of personhood. You — you “real” American. Your kid’s a what? You do what on the weekend? You went where at night? You think what’s OK? Sorry, I’m calling the tip line. All that’s a crime, and you’re…what are you…you’re not a real American anymore.