Field Notes: This is Fine

 

 

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The Liberal Establishment is Terrified of Fascist Violence

As you watch a mainstream and purportedly “liberal” establishment choose to portray a reactionary assassination attempt against a high ranking American official as a crime or mental health story in the media, it’s important to understand that this is not an isolated incident, but rather part of a much larger pattern. One can assume the choice to ignore the political revenge killing of an antifascist by a sitting American president was ideological for the centrists, but it is impossible to wave away the ruling political class’s decision to ignore actual coup plotters who intended to see them killed, as a question of political encampments and the state’s monopoly on violence. While I have no doubt that rich liberals simply don’t care if you or I die at the hands of violent nazis, you would assume they could summon up a little bit of urgency when the target is Nancy Pelosi.

Of course I’ve spent a great deal of time talking about why capitalists can’t beat fascism, and why liberal or neoliberal antifascism is largely oxymoronic in nature, but this time of craven establishment submission to fascist violence speaks to a much deeper problem. What does it mean when the so-called “liberal” ruling class can instantly unite to condemn antifascist activists, and indeed their own progressive caucus, for protesting illegitimate fascist lawmakers, but cannot muster up the courage to admit that the targeted attack on the Speaker of the House’s home was stochastic terrorism; a fascist assassination attempt egged on by an openly fascist political movement that makes little distinction between rich liberals, and the activist left they so richly desire to exterminate?

Unfortunately my friends, the plain and bald faced truth is that even wealthy liberals know I’m right. Their doomed gambit to stop fascism has utterly failed, the truly powerful rich guys and corporations who actually run the Pig Empire have cast their lot in with the fascists; and bootlicking capitalist “liberals” simply don’t have a playbook for this moment. They are out of ideas, and they are terrified of what happens next. Just like we are.

 

Police Protect Rich Fascists, Not the Marginalized

Regrettably, many people even on the “center-left simply can’t comprehend the police and other security forces as inherently fascist constructs; and thus an active danger to those who oppose fascism in the Pig Empire. This is because even when shown evidence of individual cops committing outrageous acts of reactionary violence, they still believe that the larger purpose of the police is to “protect and serve.” Protect and serve whom? Society and its citizens presumably; so in other words, them. While most will conceded that society affords *more* justice to the rich, they still believe police exist to provide everyday people with *some* justice.

As most marginalized folks can tell you however, this is hogwash. In America for example, it has been repeatedly and successfully argued in court that police are under no obligation to defend citizens from harm, or for that matter prevent crimes. Furthermore, one glance at police performance statistics indicates that they do a staggeringly poor job of solving crimes even after the fact; particularly violent ones. No, the actual purpose of police in our society is to protect property and the propertied, from the poor and exploited. This naturally comes with a healthy dose of fascist suppression because the folks who’re typically exploited and impoverished in Pig Empire society, are the nonwhite, poor, or otherwise marginalized people in that same society. All of which is a back of the napkin explanation for both why cops attack protesters while defending Proud Boys during fascist rallies, and why hiring diverse police officers to do violent fascist suppression, doesn’t remove the racist or white supremacist component of policing.

It is unfortunate then, that the driving force behind both the ascension of reactionary politics in the Pig Empire, and the plan to continue extractivist capitalism no matter how many people it kills, happens to be the very same folks who own all the property, and bill us for all these cops. This in turn means that while the police may, or may not contain individual violent fascist vigilantes, when the chips are down they will always be on the side of reaction, not justice.

 

Amerikkkan Fascism Is About the Posse

One of the hallmarks of the fascist state is the incestuous relationships between the fascist political establishment, state security forces, and paramilitary or extralegal gangs; relationships that result in a very real sharing of the enforcement powers used to further a fascist agenda. This allows reactionary lawmakers to imbue fascist ideology with the force of law, and use police to enforce that law, while still maintaining the appearance of distance between this legal establishment, and the extra-legal groups conducting violent terrorism against those who oppose it. Although officially, this relationship does not exist, fascists gain power by blurring the lines between political activity, and these two distinct but ultimately inter-related enforcement arms.

Unfortunately, some combination of American exceptionalism and the purposeful miseducation of the populace regarding how fascism works, makes it difficult for most people to acknowledge this type of power network existing in our society; let alone organize against it. At best most Americans realize this is how CIA- backed dictatorships in Latin America work, but not a “liberal democracy.” This is absurd; America was already operating under these types of relationships when it was thirteen companies conducting the twin businesses of genocide and slavery as a British colonial asset. What is hiring Pinkertons to wipe out IWW workers for the bosses if not a fascist extra-legal enforcement measure for a reactionary order? How was Jim Crow enforced? What would you call unleashing the cops and the Klan against the Civil Rights movement, forces often populated by one and the same individuals, if not fascist extra-legal enforcement? The posse and the Proud Boys are not all that different in form or function.

Now as we watch a fascist party in America bring reactionary cops into elections, provoke stochastic violence against their opponents, and form quasi-official relationships with hate groups, militias, and fascist street gangs, can we still pretend fascism is something coming from outside our culture, in a possible future? What good would that do when it’s clear that the fascism is already here?

 

Us and Them

It is certainly not an accident that fascist political appeals come wrapped in moral panics about chaos, crime, and corruption. The fact is that fascism is not a rational political position for the masses, and indeed is only barely functional as an ideology. Fascism is ultimately about accumulating absolute power, the ideas themselves are mostly window dressing. It’s not easy to sell folks on a plan to surrender all their rights and political power to funhouse mirror cranks and incompetents; you need to get people anxious, you need them to be emotional, and most of all you need them to believe that when the hammer comes down, it’s going to hit their perceived enemies first, and hardest. This isn’t just about fear; the reactionary populace must also be outraged to the point of justifying fascist repression, violence, and genocide. After all, once you’re convinced that the other side are a baby brain juice-drinking Satanist cabal that rigs elections and wants to “trans” then rape your kids, what *wouldn’t* be justified in stopping them as a matter of self-defense?

Moreover however, since the idea of an always shrinking “us” against an ever-expanding “them” is baked into the very foundations of fascist politics, these appeals to “law and order” work to feed two hungry dogs at once. In the fascist conception of the world, the hated other is inherently corrosive, immoral, and a threat to the existence of the “culture.” An often faceless, and purposely vague enemy is out there lurking all around the volk, and “they” must be strictly “policed” to protect our prosperity, way of life, and indeed very existence. Furthermore, neither class nor station is a factor, the other is foundationally lawless; they become violent rapists in the streets, or thieves in the seats of power, but all are a criminal threat to the volkish order and its loyal adherents. Although this pitch is inherently politicized, and racialized, it does not have to be spoken as such; the larger backdrop of fascist conspiracy theories ensure the volk know precisely who their leaders mean when they promise to stamp out “crime” and “corruption,” without having to ask.

 

 

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Nina-Bytes: Snitch Culture and Fascism in America

In my recent writing, I’ve briefly touched on two important concepts for understanding life under a fascist political order; a subject that’s increasingly relevant to anyone living in the Pig Empire, whether they want to admit that or not. First, it is important to understand that fascist political persecution laws are always retroactive. Fascists are not particularly interested in fairness, so much as excuses to persecute an ever-growing number of “enemies” necessary for “the politics of us against them” to properly function. Second, fascist laws and ideological conformity are always enforced by not only the state, but also extra-legal vigilantism and ad hoc policing efforts among the volk.

These are of course grim realities in an Amerikkka falling to open fascism at high speed, and as such it’s pretty rare to find anything in mainstream corporate media that’s going to put these issues into the proper, and ultimately threatening, context. You can imagine my utter shock then, when I stumbled on this exceptionally blunt November 1st, 2022 article by Thor Benson over at Wired; let’s take a closer look at it here:

When Your Neighbor Turns You In

Although it’s still couched in editorial “weasel” words like “authoritarian” and “may,” it’s impossible not to read this as Benson starkly firing up an ominous signal flare on the edge of an impeding Pork Reich fascist takeover. First he points out that a defining feature of an authoritarian state is the establishment and incentivization of a snitch culture; then the author notes that many of the American GOP’s new political persecution laws explicitly feature a snitch culture component:

“In the United States, we appear to be creeping toward this culture of community surveillance. Texas’ SB 8 deputized everyday Americans to sue anyone who has had an abortion or assisted with one. Texans are reporting the parents of transgender children to authorities. Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin set up a tip line and encouraged parents to report teachers who are teaching “divisive” subjects. Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law encourages parents to monitor teachers. With the Republican Party increasingly embracing authoritarianism, this is likely just the start.”

Given that this is an article in Wired, our author is quick to mention that modern technology enables a reactionary surveillance culture to operate in ways far more effective than Nazi Germany could hope for, but this piece is still rooted firmly in recognizing the existence of this fascist snitch culture in present day Amerikkka; even if he won’t call it “fascist.” As Benson points out repeatedly, when fascist ideology and fantasy become the law, these snitching structures enable an efficient and relentless persecution of folks criminalized by their beliefs, or indeed their very identities:

“If the US moves further toward authoritarianism, you can imagine states passing more laws to disempower, criminalize, or otherwise marginalize certain groups. Anyone you encounter on a regular basis who doesn’t agree with politically could be encouraged to report you for violations of these laws as some sort of act of civic duty. They’ll have more ways to do it than ever before, considering modern technology allows us to monitor people’s social media feeds, watch them through Ring cameras, report them through community-watch apps like Citizen, and more.”

Finally for our purpose here, perhaps the most important thing Benson discusses in this article gets touched on only briefly, and is brought up by one of his expert sources. Specifically the retroactively punitive nature of fascist political repression laws designed to divide and control our communities:

“Consuelo Amat, an assistant professor of political science at John Hopkins University, says that when a state becomes authoritarian, anything people in your community learned about you during democratic years can be used against you once the new regime takes power. She’s closely studied Chile under dictator Augusto Pinochet and says that’s what happened there. Amat says those who support the new regime can essentially become informants for it.

“When that starts happening, the dynamic for communities and neighborhoods is extremely bad,” Amat says. “The distrust that people have is huge, so people start not sharing information at all. One of the cores of democracy is neighborhood trust. You need to trust others in your society and in your community for democracy to work. Period. When there’s a very high level of distrust, you will see a fracturing of community.”

Of course, the biggest flaw with this piece is Benson’s insistence on implying this is a mere possibility, when in his own article he’s actively pointing out that this snitch culture enforcement of fascist political laws is already a reality in many Republican-controlled parts of the country. Furthermore, this isn’t just a fascist community surveillance issue. To properly understand the speed with which the fascists are currently exerting control here, you need to factor in things like using police forces and challenges by local reactionary cranks for widespread voter intimidation and suppression, or the now-ubiquitous presence of antagonistic security forces and armed vigilante groups at virtually every protest against fascism in all its forms, across much of America.

In short the reactionary volk are already both empowered by, and empowering, a fascist political order in America; it’s not a future possibility, it’s happening right now. There is no point in ruminating on what a fascist America might look like in a grim potential future; that future is already here, and it’s spreading rapidly. It might be a good idea for a liberal establishment now under direct assault from these forces of fascism to stop policing anti-fascist protestors, and to start arresting the rich and powerful nazis running this sh*tshow. It would be a damn shame if we all ended up in labor camps waiting to die just because octogenarian liberal politicians can’t tell the difference between violent fascists, and the everyday people trying to oppose this nightmare.

 

 

• nina illingworth