How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them

“The dangers of fascist politics come from the particular way in which it dehumanizes segments of the population. By excluding these groups, it limits the capacity for empathy among other citizens, leading to the justification of inhumane treatment, from repression of freedom, mass imprisonment, and expulsion to, in extreme cases, mass extermination.” 

The word “fascist” is widely associated with Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany of World War II with good reason. The Nazis are responsible for the industrial scale genocide of Jews, which was their “Final Solution” to the artificial “Jewish Problem.” The so-called problem, however, resulted not from anything about the Jews, but from the extremes of fascist “us versus them” policy. Jews were the vilified scapegoat in perhaps the most extreme fascist state that has ever existed. Hatred of Jews was, perhaps, the core of Nazi thought and identity. This extreme example highlights that which should never be forgotten about fascist thought: No matter how convenient and no matter how challenging the economic circumstances may be, the fascist “answer” is always one that depends upon targeting a relatively vulnerable segment of the population as not worthy of moral concern and thus a “natural” object of blame and hatred.

“The most telling symptom of fascist politics is division. It aims to separate a population into an ‘us’ and a ‘them.’ […] Giving a description of fascist politics involves describing the very specific way that fascist politics distinguishes ‘us’ from ‘them,’ appealing to ethnic, religious, or racial distinctions, and using this division to shape ideology and, ultimately, policy. Every mechanism of fascist politics works to create or solidify this distinction.” 

While the Nazis illustrate the extreme of fascist ideology, the “us versus them” thinking that can produce genocide may be the most universal and distinctive feature of fascist thinking. As Stanley suggests in this quote, everything else about fascist politics can be seen to reinforce and intensify this division along racial, ethic, or similar lines. Thus, “us versus them” distinctions should be understood as the essential and defining element of fascism.

“[T]here is a common structure to all fascist mythologizing. In all fascist mythic pasts, an extreme version of the patriarchal family reigns supreme […] Further back in time, the mythic past was a time of glory of the nation, with wars of conquest [fought by] loyal warriors whose wives were at home raising the next generation. In the present, these myths become the basis of the nation’s identity under fascist politics.” 

This quote nicely illustrates two interrelated aspects of fascist politics that help to explain its appeal and its brutality. The mythic past never existed but represents an ideal. Thus, the fascist program is aimed at something that has never been and, by all rational assessments, can never actually be. Similarly, the fascist ideology structures itself around division and rigid roles that control life completely, as illustrated by the depth of control exerted through the idealization of the patriarchal family. In other words, the fascist policy, when the politics are successful in taking power, is doomed to fail while not only repressing segments of its population, but also demanding rigid self-repression of the supposedly dominant group.

“Corruption, to the fascist politician, is really about the corruption of purity rather than of law. Officially, the fascist politician’s denunciations of corruption sound like a denunciation of political corruption. But such talk is intended to evoke corruption in the sense of the usurpation of traditional order.” 

This quote illustrates several important points made in the book about the way that fascist politics utilize language and media, as well as the differences between fascist politics and the policies fascists pursue when they obtain power. Here, those aligned with the fascist will understand what a fascist politician means by making an allegation of “corruption” against government officials or others, but those unfamiliar with fascist thinking will see an apparent call for good governance.  

“Fascism is about the dominant perspective, and so, during fascist moments, there is strong support for figures to denounce disciplines that teach perspectives other than the dominant ones—such as gender studies or, in the United States, African American studies or Middle Eastern studies. The dominant perspective is often misrepresented as the truth, the ‘real history,’ and any attempt to allow a space for alternative perspectives is derided as ‘cultural Marxism.’” 

This quotation largely speaks for itself and seems rather intuitive. Crucially, however, it illustrates the importance of education in either resisting or indoctrinating fascist ideology. A robust university system supporting a plurality of perspectives and the disciplines they generate is among the hallmarks of a society with deep and relatively stable foundation of liberal democratic ideals. 

“In fascist ideology, the goal of general education in the schools and universities is to instill pride in the mythic past; fascist education extols academic disciplines that reinforce hierarchal norms and national tradition. For the fascist, schools and universities are there to indoctrinate national or racial pride.” 

Building on the prior quotation, this quote further explains why education is a particularly important institution for solidifying the gains of fascist politics into a fascist state. Fascist theorists see education as a means of realizing the myth of the nation that they created as an idealized past and future. This indoctrination also works to normalize fascist ideas as a young age so that the unimaginable becomes the expected.

“By debasing institutions of higher learning and impoverishing our joint vocabulary to discuss policy, fascist politics reduces debate to ideological conflict. Via such strategies, fascist politics degrades information spaces, occluding reality.” 

Although fascist policies tend to fail when they have the opportunity to be realized, this quotation highlights the effectiveness of fascist politics in damaging important elements of the public discourse and knowledge base. By attacking the language and expertise needed for accurately assessing policy options, fascist politics reduce the ability of society to accurately perceive reality in the fora of public discourse. Thus, the attack on expertise in the universities and on the language used in politics, regardless of whether fascism succeeds in any policy matters, can inflict significant and potentially lasting damage on a democratic system.

“A fascist leader can replace truth with power, ultimately lying without consequence.” 

At the current moment in the United States, when President Trump came to power despite clearly false statements and has proceeded to make clearly erroneous statements about matters as important as COVID-19, this quotation can be arresting. Perhaps more than any other single sentence in the text, it seems to stand for the reason that Stanley wrote this book. Once the Orwellian “unreality” is in place for a large portion of a population, shared objective reality becomes meaningless and therefore so do lies.

“To completely destroy reality, fascist politics replaces the liberal ideal of equality with its opposite: hierarchy.” 

The culmination of a fascist ideological and political destruction of liberal democracy may be seen in this quotation. When a society with a liberal democratic history loses its faith in advancing equity—and instead allows fascist politics to replace it with the vision of an immutable, natural hierarchy—one must question whether there is any liberalism or democracy left in the institutions and processes of governance structures. As hierarchy becomes acceptable, the society fully embraces the worldview espoused by fascist politics. In that sense, this quote indicates one of the more recognizable shifts for which Stanley warns readers to remain watchful.

“According to fascist ideology […] nature imposes hierarchies of power and dominance that are flatly inconsistent with the equality of respect presupposed by liberal democratic theory.” 

This quotation fleshes out the key concept driving the previous quotation. The acceptance of a fascist concept of hierarchy annihilates the liberal conception of equality because the two are entirely and profoundly mutually exclusive. A fundamental tenant of liberalism is the shared dignity and inherent worth of each individual human being, toward which the arc of history seems to guide social development through events such as the emancipation of slaves and expansion of suffrage. The entire point of fascist ideology, and a reason it presents such an existential threat to democratic systems, is to reimagine the structure of society in terms of unequal worth of individuals depending solely on the group into which they are born. Thus, to the extent universities and public discourse come to accept such a hierarchy as a valid conception of social reality, that society has essentially abandoned the liberal tradition and can be expected to increasingly attack those segments of the population deemed inferior to the dominant group.

“The exploitation of the feeling of victimization by dominant groups at the prospect of sharing citizenship and power with minorities is a universal element of contemporary international fascist politics.” 

To some degree, fascism’s appeal lies in its connection to the genuine feeling of loss among a privileged class that is forced to share its privilege with a wide swath of society. The particularly fascist turn here is not the feeling of loss but the transformation of that nostalgic concern into an aggrieved victimhood that takes aim at the minority groups who were beginning to share in the benefits of liberal democratic society. The sense of victimization such that the historically dominant group feels justified in inflicting suffering on historically marginalized groups for seeking true equality is the fascist aspect of the concept expressed in this quotation.

“At the core of fascism is loyalty to tribe, ethnic identity, religion, tradition, or, in a word, nation.” 

In fascist societies, objective truth and equality go by the wayside. As a result, all that is left is power. This power is designated almost solely by identity and blind loyalty. As such, there are no longer any mechanisms to hold those in power accountable for their misdeeds.

“Fascist law-and-order rhetoric is explicitly meant to divide citizens into two classes: those of the chosen nation, who are lawful by nature, and those who are not, who are inherently lawless.” 

As in other aspects of fascist ideology, this quotation captures the way in which fascist politics transforms apparently universal values into a means of advancing its vicious conception of hierarchical divisions within society. Thus, “law and order” in the United States has frequently meant to increase the incarceration rates of Black Americans regardless of actual lawbreaking, or to target immigrants with particularly harsh policies regardless of any actual threat to the orderliness of American society. In such situations, White Americans tend to exude an entitled sense of rightful privilege, not unlike that which other dominant fascist groups believed entitled them to steal from, harass, and even execute marginalized populations to reclaim a “rightful” place above them. The label of “criminal” very effectively damages the despised “other” and undermines their ability to prosper.

“Fascist propaganda does not, of course, merely present members of targeted groups as criminals. To ensure the right kind of moral panic about these groups, its members are represented as particular kinds of threats to the fascist nation—most important, and most typical, a threat to its purity. Consequently, fascist politics also emphasizes one kind of crime […] The crime of rape is basic to fascist politics because it raises sexual anxiety, and an attendant need for protection of the nation’s manhood by the fascist authority.” 

This quotation explains the extremes of fascist thinking, such as the presupposed justification many White Americans held for the extensive and truly horrific lynching of African Americans in the U.S. South. By asserting that they are sexual criminals, the dominant group develops a particular scorn because the allegations render their targets threatening to the security of the entire dominant group. Doing so calls upon the anxieties of males within a patriarchal system and casts them as attempting to improve themselves in a zero-sum degradation of the dominant group. Such conceptions have seemed to legitimize the most brutal genocidal policies, actions, and moments in the history of the world.

“If the demagogue is the father of the nation, then any threat to patriarchal manhood and the traditional family undermines the fascist vision of strength.” 

In connection with the concerns discussed in the preceding quotation, this quote highlights the theory of hierarchy as it intersects with the conception of male superiority through patriarchy. Moreover, it tends to expose the true fragility of a concept of strength that ultimately leaves the entire society at the arbitrary whim of a single leader whose place has been assured solely by stirring up hatred for others. 

“By employing the politics of sexual anxiety, a political leader represents, albeit indirectly, freedom and equality as threats.” 

Here, the reader sees the fascist concept of hierarchy reaching a zenith at which the unthinkable can become normal. When the freedom and perceived equality of one person or group is believed to constitute a threat to the family and identity of another, the social ideology has created the circumstances in which atrocity emerges. If the dominant group brutally punishes marginalized peoples for seeking basic rights, it is reasonable to worry about genocide.

“In fascist ideology, in times of crisis and need, the state reserves support for members of the chosen nation, for ‘us’ and not ‘them.’ The justification is invariably because ‘they’ are lazy, lack a work ethic, and cannot be trusted with state funds and because ‘they’ are criminal and seek only to live off state largesse. In fascist politics, ‘they’ can be cured of laziness and thievery by hard labor. This is why the gates of Auschwitz and Buchenwald had emblazoned on them the slogan ARBEIT MACHT FREI—work shall make you free.” 

Nothing symbolizes the inescapable brutality of fascist ideology like the placement of the phrase “work shall make you free” above the entrances to Nazi death camps. If the reader has had difficulty understanding concepts such as “unreality,” this set of circumstances may make it unforgettably salient. Presumably, Stanley’s purpose in drawing attention to the extreme darkness and hopelessness embodied by these historical facts is to inspire citizens of today to become mindful and vigilant defenders of liberal democracy against fascism. 

“[F]ascist unreality is a promissory note on the way to a future reality that transforms into fact at least some basis of what was once stereotyped myth. Fascist unreality is, as Arendt explains, a prelude to fascist policy.” 

To the well-educated, upper-class American, fascist politicians can appear buffoonish and their conspiracy theories almost laughable. The Yale philosopher Stanley, however, seems to virtually scream from these pages that the threat must be taken seriously. The above quotation shows the great theorist Hannah Arendt’s conclusion that such apparent buffoonery can incrementally become atrocity if ignored by those who are initially unaffected. 

“Antipathy to labor unions is such a major theme of fascist politics that fascism cannot be fully comprehended without an understanding of it.” 

Turning from the abstract ideological foundations of fascism to the concrete details of its political strategy, this quotation highlights a descriptive aspect of fascist politicians and a potential avenue for combating them. The universality and intensity of fascist opposition to labor unions may suggest, for example, that unity within class to insist on broad equality of opportunity and compensation across groups can empower those otherwise attacked by fascists and prevent the spread of the fascist message to those who might become susceptible to it. Labor unions have repeatedly demonstrated the capacity to organize workers in a way that can force even the biggest business and most powerful governments to provide workers certain minimum safe guards. 

“Fascist movements share with social Darwinism the idea that life is a competition for power, according to which the division of society’s resources should be left up to pure free market competition. Fascist movements share its ideals of hard work, private enterprise, and self-sufficiency. To have a life worthy of value, for the social Darwinist, is to have risen above others by struggle and merit, to have survived a fierce competition for resources. Those who do not compete successfully do not deserve the goods and resources of society.” 

This quotation cuts to the heart of the danger that Stanley sees in President Trump and the rise of far-right movements in Europe and elsewhere. Fascists’ embrace of social Darwinist ideals of competition and struggle explain their willingness to abandon empathy for “the other.” This makes extreme brutality possible and enables a sense of superiority and entitlement in the face of suffering, no matter how extreme. 

“It is the social Darwinist conception of individual worth that gives structure to fascist hierarchy and explains the charge of laziness. Groups are ordered, in fascism, by their capacity to achieve, to rise above others, in labor and war. Hitler decries liberal democracy because it embodies a contrary value system, one that grants worth independently of victory in a natural, meritocratic struggle.”

This quotation expresses why defense of liberal democracy is particularly important against the various forms of far-right propaganda and ideology that seek to lock in the extreme inequality between rich and poor as if it represents a natural order. Stated simply, to allow such ideas to take root in the United States may well end the longest running experiment in liberal democracy, which began with the adoption of the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights. 

“Democratic citizenship requires a degree of empathy, insight, and kindness that demands a great deal of all of us.” 

Stanley admirably recognizes that maintaining a governmental system that practically acknowledges the freedom of the governed as a matter of principle and right, and that gives voice to those who wish to participate, is neither easy nor particularly common. It requires the work of all citizens—even if just through education about the nature and prerequisites of functioning democratic government—to maintain it. Recognizing the rights of others to participation within the bounds of rational debate is an appropriate place to start.

“The mechanisms of fascist politics all build on and support one another. They weave a myth of a distinction between ‘us’ and ‘them,’ based in a romanticized fictional past featuring ‘us’ and no ‘them,’ and supported by a resentment for a corrupt liberal elite, who take our hard-earned money and threaten our traditions.”

This quotation eloquently restates a key point. That is, “us versus them” is the fundamental dynamic of fascist politics. Yet rather than eliminate the “them” from society as fascist states do, a more democratic approach is to incorporate “them” back into “us” so that every member of a national community is afford human dignity and respect.