It was but it has now turned more inwards because material conditions in the West are getting worse. Plus I feel like fascist dare to be more out in the open in recent years. At least in Western Europe.
"Fascism is the open terrorist dictatorship of the most reactionary and chovinistic elements of finance capital" german fascism being the most reactionary version of it.
Under this definition, if we look at US and Europa policies as a whole (internal+foreign) we can definitely conclude they are fascist. Only if we separate internal policy from foreign policy amd evaluate them as distinct things can we make a case that these nations are not yet fascist.
Already happening. There are multiple far right militias emerging in Western Europe already. They do combat training and are developing a network that covers multiple countries, often attending eachothers actions. They receive funding from rich people and I suspect the CIA and openly share their visions of a white Europe.
Noticeable groups are Schild en Vrienden (an offspring of Vlaams Belang) from Belgium, Voorpost from BE and NL, Geuzenbond from NL and various German groups who frequently get together. To this day I have yet to see left wing groups like this emerging. I have expressed my concern on this topic to the party on multiple occasions without a result.
And then we have the standard far right parties who keep increasing in popularity, with the regular libs seeing it as a chance to move to the right.
the US has always been fascist toward indigenous and black people
I'd argue that some European countries are already fascist (e.g. France, based on its anti-Muslim laws and its militarized police brutalizing protestors, etc.)
Colonialism isn’t fascism on its own. No doubt its no less bad. Fascism is when a falling empire puts the violence of colonialism on its own citizens and neighbors, rather than overseas.
I don't see how this applies to the US; indigenous and black people are considered citizens
True, but they are still practically part of different nations. Idk how to tell what fascism is except for when someone praises Hitler or whatever at this point. Liberalism is similar and bad enough that it doesn’t really matter. All I know is it can get worse.
I wouldn't say that's true for black people, and the government ultimately doesn't respect the remaining indigenous territories either
I've yet to find a perfectly clear definition of fascism; I typically view it as a combination of
1. complete bourgeois control of the state (more or less any imperialist country, and some others), and
2. blatant, violent repression of one or more minority groups of the domestic population,
both of which apply to the USThat can just be liberalism though, there’s not much a difference anyway, but fascism is more specific.
the first item, yes, but the second is not inherent to liberalism (the proletariat is always repressed, but it's not a minority group)
So by your definition many liberal countries have been fascist before fascism was first theorized (colonialism, homophobia…). Have you read the Really Existing Fascism yet? Roderic basically writes that fascism is little different than regular liberalism besides a return to primitive accumulation.
As an institutional phenomenon, neofascism differs from its predecessor in how it strongly favours neoimperialism over traditional imperialism: financial solutions over military ones (when possible), and formally independent states nevertheless depending heavily on their neoimperial masters. The original Fascist empires practised this as well, but to a smaller extent; the lack of nuclear weapons made classical military conquests and outright annexations easier.
The dissipation of the pseudodemocracy may be slower, too, but otherwise we can expect to see a great deal of what we saw with Fascism. Presently Rome, for example, is aggressing against the trade unions, though it has not yet annihilated them. Ukraine’s war on workers’ rights has been more successful, but even then it has not finished the job of defeating the proletariat quite yet. Should these ultranationalist régimes replace the trade unions with a bourgeois apologist organization, we’ll know that neofascism has become firmly established.
Should these ultranationalist régimes replace the trade unions with a bourgeois apologist organization, we’ll know that neofascism has become firmly established.
solidarność in Poland is basically that. A "union" that scabs other unions, and its political activity is supporting PiS, defending priest pedophiles etc. Even their "union" activity looks more like something between the usual yellow union and church rosary circle.
I don't think we will ever see new flags, new names for armes forces, new constitutions etc ... The laws and measures to repress workers and minorities are casually creeping in with no serious resistance.
This precise lack of resistance is, in my opinion, mostly allowed by the deep convictions that western institutions have the democratic potential to reform if upheld correctly by the right people. So basically, a regime change is less appealing to the bourgeoisie, because the old institutions have the power of pacifying the potential revolutionaries.
(Armchair philosophy LARPing in 3.. 2... 1..) I'd say that the West is currently is in a stage of boring fascism. We don't even have the aesthetics of evil, normality is just more and more brutal but nothing changes because brutality is more and more normalised
The more fascist the west becomes ( in every way ) the more and more cracks we see and the eventual destined collapse. It is going to happen.
I'm assuming you've already heard the "bearing the Cross and draped in a flag" bit, then?
In Italy the post-fascist government is gifting us a lot of humourous memes for their inability to tackle even the smallest of the country's problems. It's like going to a comedy show without even paying the ticket.
also lgbt/queer rights with fascist characteristics
(referring to the time meloni's party posted a trans rights poster, i recall @frippa@lemmy.ml sharing it)
They made a law allowing "alias careers" (Idk if that's the term in Angloland, they are a way for transgender professors and students to change their name w/o changing them on documents) and gender neutral bathrooms (she's prepping her own grave) let's say the day I woke up and read that was a confusing one.
Wait, but I remember her speeches attacking the hell out of trans people. Why the slight turnaround? Is she trying to appeal to the South? I know the country was split with the North choosing her most. Or maybe the West? But she doesn’t need to try hard in that regard considering western leaders praised the shit out of her when she won because “something something girl power.”
Also fun fact: in my political science class her party is consistently called neo-fascist which I think is neat.
Not all that different to today. More laws against criticising the fascists. Attempts at a more centrally controlled, federalised EU. Poverty rife and state shifting blame to immigrants etc.
At least that's in Europe. The US is much further along, it's easy to see mass violence approaching civil war. Are milita's on the increase there? I wouldn't be surprised if they were.
At least that’s in Europe. The US is much further along, it’s easy to see mass violence approaching civil war. Are milita’s on the increase there? I wouldn’t be surprised if they were.
our immigrants are literally rounded up like cattle by rope and kept in cages for a long time w the intent of making it so awful that they won't come back if they're healthy enough to try again after dealing with the health issues that normally comes from locking people up.
and the biden administration is expanding on both.
Xenophobia and queerphobia, basically what it is happening now but with an escalation on state violence to this groups.
you making fun of the Italians huh? what's the matter for you
fascism never went away. Obvious examples are ex-communist states like the Baltics and Ukraine which have been turned into racist banana republics by intense "decommunization" and the revival of pro-nazi rhetoric of the second WW. Ofcourse with the help of their Western allies.
all of the infrastructural manifestations of fascism are here: sweeping police state (bodily autonomy, crackdowns on anti-zionism), paramilitary infiltration (3 percenters, proud boys), dehumanization of the other (queer, immigrant, muslim, arab, jews especially anti-zionist ones), etc. is already here.
the last things left are explicit bans on proletarian organizations (unions, socialist parties) and sweeping restrictions on information (internet monitoring & censorship, especially of sexuality and anti-imperialism). oh wait, they’re already getting started on those (new york & antizionist social media, kosa/restrict, porn bans). fuck
also this https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-398244A1.pdf
federal control over all aspects of internet providers is the death knell of information for us
and they make it sound rosy, like it's being done to help the commoner not get screwed by the cartels, but thats just the foot in the door
