Field Notes: This is Fine
Editor’s note: Field Notes is a weekly roundup of social media writing by Nina Illingworth. Produced and curated by NIDC web-guru Scurvy, these articles feature highlights and links to blogs, journals, and ideas from Nina’s work across the internet.
Field Notes: This is fine…
Our collection of blog posts this week brings to mind GunShowComic‘s famous “This is fine” cartoon, with the Democrats playing the part of the beverage-consuming, melting dog. Mumblings of fascism as the Speaker of the House’s husband is attacked in a failed assassination attempt. A January 6th commission that’s well on its way to doing absolutely nothing. The attacks against trans folx are joined by the revelation of blatant antisemitism in right wing media; obviously in the parts that were allowed to air but much more importantly in what parts have been repeatedly left on the cutting room floor. Will the media remain silent about this rising fascism? Given that they’re choosing to focus on the novelty of an African American billionaire fascist surrounded by parasites, blaming the inevitable fall on a mental health issue and ignoring everything else; I’m not holding my breath.
Highlights
Nina-Bytes: Accelerator
After the fascist coup attempt on January 6th, 2021, I wrote that the removing Donald Trump from the White House would by no means end the rise of American fascism, or the powder keg of violence that goes along with it. I further warned that a policy of ignoring, legitimating, and appeasing fascists would likely fuel that rise, and bring with it violence acts of reactionary stochastic terrorism. Needless to say, this turned out to be a very unpopular opinion in some (then) rather surprising portions of the online “left” community.
Unfortunately for us all, as of last Friday those warnings are now distinctly less abstract; a fascist conspiracy theorist broke into the Pelosi home and attacked the Speaker of the House’s husband with a hammer. The assailant, a 42 year old fascist Gryoper into just about every right wing conspiracy you could imagine, reportedly attempted to tie Paul Pelosi up with the intention of waiting until his wife Nancy came home. You can read more about this clear act of political violence in this Oct 29th, 2022 summary over on the Guardian:
Paul Pelosi, husband of Nancy Pelosi, in hospital with skull fracture after attack
While I certainly don’t want to minimize the severity of an 82 year old man’s violent assault with a hammer, what’s important to our larger discussion about fascism is the fact that the current Democrat Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi was the target of the attack. And despite the protestations of conspiratorial fascist propagandists, it sure does seem political:
“It was reported by CNN that the suspect intended to tie the victim up “until Nancy got home” and that he had posted rightwing and conspiracy theories online, including content promoting the lie that Donald Trump was deprived of victory in the 2020 election because of voter fraud.”
There will of course be those, even in the mainstream “centrist” media who insist that this is a crime story, or that the primary issue here is the attacker’s mental health. These arguments however ring hollow once you understand that triggering violence from unstable individuals among a faceless reactionary mass is precisely how stochastic terrorism is designed to work. It certainly doesn’t take a genius to connect calls for Pelosi’s public execution by a fascist GOP Congresswoman, to a disturbed ultra-reactionary conspiracy theorist’s attempts to do just that. Even liberal media minions too cowardly to describe this as fascism in writing, fully concede that the result was utterly predictable. And as this October 29th Guardian article by Joan E. Greve ominously predicts, the fascist political violence has only just begun:
Attack on Pelosi’s husband heightens fears of increasing US political violence
Although it remains utterly inexplicable to me that “liberal” media outlets still refuse to use the word “fascist” to describe right wing political violence in the Pig Empire, even after Joe Biden’s “semi-fascist” speech, the overall sentiment here is correct. The mainstreaming of conspiracy theories, eliminationist propaganda, and reactionary ideas in the Pig Empire has lead to a drastic rise in political violence; and that violence is by no means from “both sides” as our author makes clear:
“The US Capitol police has reported an overall rise in the number of threats against members of Congress since the deadly January 6 insurrection last year.
According to USCP data, officers tracked 9,625 threats and directions of interest (meaning concerning actions or statements) against members of Congress in 2021, compared with 3,939 such instances in 2017. The House sergeant at arms has responded to this worrisome trend by giving lawmakers up to $10,000 to upgrade security at their homes.
Although both Democratic and Republican lawmakers have faced a number of threats in recent months, the increase is not evenly distributed along the political spectrum. According to a study conducted by the Anti-Defamation League, rightwing extremists have committed about 75% of the 450 political murders that occurred in the US over the past decade, compared with 4% attributed to leftwing extremists.”
Look folks, I’m certainly not trying to be an alarmist. But when everyday people find ourselves watching a trans pogrom in progress, organized voter intimidation parties, and actual “lone wolf” assassination attempts on high profile liberal politicians, it’s fair to say we’re now talking about a fascist sprint, and not a fascist creep. Furthermore it’s increasingly difficult to place much faith in a liberal establishment too disinterested, or too afraid, to materially challenge fascist violence; even when it targets one or more of their own kind. Instead they hide behind weasel words, punch left, and continue to arm up a police state that increasingly looks like it will soon belong to the fascists the police themselves already support.
The War on Sharing: No More Murderpigs
I’m not going to lie to you, as someone who has been actively warning about Amerikkka’s ongoing descent into overt fascism for well over half a decade now, the past couple of weeks have been difficult to watch. On one hand, I am extremely sympathetic to the plight of labor class liberals who just now may be realizing that if their leaders cannot protect themselves from fascist violence, they have little hope of protecting the marginalized, or for that matter the population at large. On the other hand, that sympathy is absolutely tinged with a sense outrage at a liberal establishment who ignored these warnings at every turn, and encouraged their supporters to mock those on the left giving them; with a few noted exceptions, of course.
Take for example the twin issues of fighting stochastic terrorism, and resisting a politically empowered fascist movement in America. Even before his election and the subsequent fascist coup attempt on January 6th, 2021, Joe Biden was actively “both-sides-ing” violent fascists and antifascist anarchists, while promising to fund and build out the American police state as a solution to the political violence. In response to that fascist coup attempt, the larger liberal establishment once again resorted to demanding more police powers to combat right wing domestic terrorism in broader society; despite the fact that many of the folks most responsible for the assault on Capital Hill, were actually sitting across from them in the Senate and Congress.
Naturally many on the left, myself included, objected to this idea and pointed out the obvious; a so-called democratic society that tries to fight the rise of fascism, by expanding an empowering a fascist police state, is utterly incapable of stopping a fascist takeover. Indeed, refusing to arrest fascist leaders who have committed crimes even while they go about rigging democracy, while arming up and empowering the fascist murderpigs they will control once they seize power isn’t just bad antifascism, it’s a recipe for violent fascist suppression against anyone who would resist the fascist order even in the future.
Is it leftist hyperbole to say American policing is ridding with fascists? Hardly, unless you think organizations like the Brennan Center of Justice, or the Federal Bureau of Investigation are pinkos; an absurd position that still somehow has a bit of traction in mainstream reactionary propaganda these days. Furthermore, while reformers and liberals will blather on about training and diversity in policing, the simple truth is that even if individual police officers aren’t low-key fascist terrorists themselves, the job ultimately puts them on the side of rich fascists, and against those who oppose those rich fascists, as a matter of course. Given the continued rise of fascism in our society, and the growing body of evidence that many police officers in America aren’t just sympathetic to violent fascist vigilantes but actually working with them, I think it’s simply fair observation to say that the left’s criticisms of “funding the police” to fight right wing extremism, have been born out in real time.
Despite this, the recent act of political violence by a radicalized fascist targeting the US Speaker of the House have once again revived the mainstream calls for expanded police power to fight far right terrorism. This is absurd for many reasons; not the least of which being that extra police or police powers wouldn’t have made it any easier to pick David DePape out from numerous “conservative” media influencers; they more or less believe and talk about the same odious things. Furthermore, unless these extra police are going to be stationed outside the homes of American politicians, it’s a pretty difficult to understand how they would actually have prevented the attack on Nacy Pelosi’s 82 year old husband, Paul; an act of stochastic terrorism that was ended by the intervention of, you guessed it the police, and at their current level of authority.
Of course I can’t really say I’m surprised that in a country thoroughly saturated by copaganda, ruled by an establishment who seems to believe more police is a solution to every problem no matter which political party we’re talking about, folks respond reflexively to a fascist political violence with calls for more cops. What I can say is that when you’re watching police violently assault the journalists covering racial justice protests, usurp constitutional power from the U.S government, and actively work to help rig elections for a now openly fascist political party in Amerikka, there’s no reason anyone with a brain has to take that position seriously.
If American liberals have any interest in stopping fascism, they should tell their leaders to arrest rich fascists driving this violence while they still have some control over the American police state. Hiring more reactionary murderpigs while giving them broad sweeping powers to root out anti-government dissent, is more or less just building the Gestapo for what certainly looks like a new Pork Reich in our very near future. I encourage those of you who don’t want to die under a fascist boot to resist these public calls to “do something” in the here and now, if that something is throwing power at an already violent, objectively fascist police state. Serious antifascists don’t arm and empower a homicidal enemy; and we’re all out of time for liberal tomfoolery now.
FF&F: Catch and Release
Throughout much of my recent writing, I’ve been talking a lot about efforts to effectively criminalize opposition to the fascist order in America. This is particularly easy to spot when we’re talking about right wing extremist Republicans bringing the criminal justice system itself into the voting process, and firmly on the side of fascism. Regrettably however, reactionary propaganda in our society has many folks convinced that discussions about voter suppression, and voter intimidation are overblown, or exaggerated. While this is inevitably a right wing, and often quasi-racist argument, it works on comfortable white liberals in northern districts because they have virtually no real life frame of reference; after all, no fascist has harassed or threatened them for voting – yet.
In today’s edition of Fascist Fails and F*ckery then, I thought I might address two issues at once, by examining a fresh off the press Vice News article from Paul Blest and Trone Dowd. Let’s look at how effective fascist voter intimidation tactics actually are, and at the same time unpack the fascist propaganda op Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s voting police recently unleashed on his enemies:
“Complete Setup” – Florida Crackdown Has Ex-Felons Afraid to Vote
Okay, so there’s an awful lot of f*ckery going on here; let me try to unpack all the background information you need to know as quickly as possible. In order to support GOP fascist conspiracy theories about widespread voter fraud, Governor Ron DeSantis created his own voting police; the Office of Election Crimes and Security. In August, this office sent heavily-armed murderpigs to conduct a number of actively publicized raids, to bring in a whopping twenty ex-felons who’d voted despite not legally qualifying for a restoration of their voting rights under Florida law. These arrests were purposely videotaped for public consumption, and unsurprisingly more than half of those arrested for “voter fraud” were African American.
As per usual with fascist f*ckery however, reading the fine print has unraveled the entire story. The cases are already imploding in court because as it turns out, the U.S. Constitution still applies in the state of Florida even when DeSantis would prefer it doesn’t. Furthermore, substantial evidence has emerged that the state government illegally entrapped virtually every single one of these people; offering to register ineligible voters, sending them voting cards in the mail, and then springing the trap for election fraud that amounts to clerical negligence on the part of the State. As the article makes also makes clear, this sham voter fraud propaganda op was actively targeted at a political stronghold of DeSantis’s presupposed enemies; otherwise known as the marginalized and “people who aren’t fascists.”
Alright, so that’s the “fascist fails” portion of our program, and unfortunately that’s about as far as much of the mainstream “liberal” media has followed this story. DeSantis did a “semi-fascism” and now he’s going to get slapped down by the wise judges who understand the rules and won’t tolerate this malarkey. The schadenfreude is delicious, nobody is really going to jail for this, and Ron DeSantis looks like the fraud little fascist worm he is; fun times were had by all, let’s grab brunch.
As our authors expose in this article however, there’s a giant hole in that theory; what if Ron DeSantis legitimately doesn’t care if any of the criminal charges stick? What if the entire purpose was to harass and humiliate everyday people the fascist political order in Florida considers enemies, and to loudly broadcast a warning that voting against DeSantis was a good way to invite heavily armed, hyper-reactionary police into your life? Frankly; what if the cruelty and the terror, were the point? Well as this Vice piece makes clear, that would mean the whole operation was a smashing success; since activists looking to churn out the vote in Florida are already being actively told “I’m not going to vote because I’m afraid I’ll get prosecuted.” If this works on rehabilitated felons, why won’t it work on pretty much anyone being investigated by the police for their vote?
Some day in the very near future, a bougie liberal media establishment is going to look at election results and scream out “how could these people install fascism; why won’t they just vote!” This will of course be a silly question, but I guess it’s just easier to blame voters for failing your perfect politics, than to accept you did nothing while fascists with real political power stripped our democratic rights until they simply could no longer be voted out of power. I’d promise to remind them that they were, at least partially, the architects of their own demise; but as a trans anarchist dissident, I’m not entirely sure I’ll survive a fascist order long enough to convey the “I told you so” these folks are so richly earning as we speak.
The Roundup
The Liberal Establishment Is Terrified Of Fascist Violence
Police Protect Rich Fascists, Not the Marginalized
Recommended Reading: They All Fall Down
FF&F: Those That Work Forces
Amerikkkan Fascism is About The Posse
Nina-Bytes: Snitch Culture and Fascism in America
Us and Them
Recommended Reading: Fight Night
Recommended Reading: Quiet Parts Out Loud
Scurvy’s Selection
My selection this week is a fascinating new podcast called “The Outlaw Ocean”, presented by the Outlaw Ocean Project. Their purpose is to publish and share stories from, among other places, the lawless floating factories that are stripping our oceans of fish and enslaving people around the world. Slavery isn’t gone, it’s just moved 12 miles offshore:
As always, all writing featured in Highlights and The Roundup comes from Nina Illingworth. Scurvy’s selection is my weekly pick and the content shared there is the product and property of the listed creator, or creators. And with that, I’m out!
- Scurvy
Anarcho-humanist; DIY Cyborg
System-Administrator at NIDC;
“Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people whom we personally dislike” – Oscar Wilde
