Mini-Theory Blog: Reactionary Genesis

NinaIllingworth November 15, 2022November 15, 2022 Amerikan Musik, anti-trans pogrom, blog, CA4, corporate media, dark money, Democratic Party, Don't Say Gay Bill, Donald Trump, FA1, fascism, Florida, GOP, instagram, Media, Mini Theory Blog, money in politics, monopoly media, Nina Illingworth, Politics, Pork Reich, propaganda model, reactionary thought, red trickle midterm, Republican Party, Ron DeSantis, ST2, Theory, Trumpen-Waffen, Trumpism, US Midterm Elections, US politics

Editor’s note: Our Mini-Theory Blog is a weekday feature on Instagram that examines one key left wing idea, theory, or concept in 2200 keystrokes or less. Want more? Click here to subscribe to NIDC today.

In studying American fascism, it’s necessary to examine the role of a reactionary, for-profit media that injects fascist ideas and political arguments into the mainstream zeitgeist; whether through negligence, malfeasance, or more often than not, some combination of the two. Ultimately, this is because he who pays the piper, calls the tune and American media is almost wholly owned by reactionary capital. This is of course a fact of everyday life under the propaganda model, but just because it’s not surprising the media lays the tracks on which this fascist political train runs, doesn’t mean the results aren’t catastrophic for our society.

Take for example the political and media class analysis of the 2022 U.S. Midterm elections. After spending months helping the right fearmonger about crime, normalizing transphobic thought as an intellectual pursuit for serious thinkers, and predicting a “Red Wave midterm” that didn’t become a self-fulfilling prophecy, you might think the wise scribes of our vaunted free press would exercise a little caution going forward. You would however, be wrong. They’re calling the election the end of Trumpism, printing more transphobic editorials, and positioning fascist Florida Governor Ron DeSantis as a reasonable alternative to Downmarket Mussolini.

Please keep in mind that this is after an election in which Democrats *lost* control of the House of Representatives to fascists who ran on ending democracy, forced birthing, demonizing schoolteachers, and suppressing trans people out of public life. Furthermore, we’re talking about the same DeSantis who pursued the same fascist policies, using the same fascist political techniques, as every other Trumpen-Waffen candidate; except he’s had more success than most banning trans people, restricting democracy, and feeding grandma into the furnace for corporations during a plague.

Frankly, I highly doubt this moment is the end of Donald Trump in American politics. The fact is however, if billionaire reactionaries can keep buying media companies and using “serious journalists” to mainstream fascist ideology, it doesn’t really matter anyway. Trump didn’t birth American fascism; it birthed him. And right now, our corporate media is hard at work on leveling up next year’s model. As long as there is ideological room in respectable society for eliminationist thought, the threat of fascist domination will never fade.