How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them

Fascist politics is the politics of “us versus them” along racial, ethnic, religious, or other lines of tradition. This theme is the core thesis of the book, which argues that the fascist ideology and fascist political techniques for obtaining and maintaining power are defined primarily through their delineation of an “us”—a segment of the population that is good, hard-working, law-abiding, and entitled to dominate other groups—and a “them”—other segments of the population who are fixated on depriving “us” of our rightful privilege and feed off the state. These adversaries are framed as lazy, criminal, and inherently inferior. Ultimately, this concept embraces the social Darwinist concept of human life as the contest among various racial or ethnic groups who are, by nature, unequal in ability, character, and moral worth. The “us” group is presupposed to be simply better and more valuable in every way than the “them” group, and these categories are theorized to be “natural” in the sense that they are inborn and unchangeable. Everything in fascist politics, as Stanley explains it, flows from this division between “us” and “them,” primarily as a product of the ongoing struggle that is cast in mythical terms.

The fascist conception of the nation—distinct from the governmental state—is the essence of the “us” in the “us versus them” thinking. The nation is the “pure” race or similarly defined group, seen as the rightful leaders whom inferior groups consistently sought to dislodge and pollute through liberal policies and mixing between the nation and inferior peoples. Thus, fascists seek to strengthen the nation in opposition to its enemies within the state and beyond its borders.

One major consequence of the fascist politics of division is that they break down the communication and shared meaning—the agreed parameters of reality itself—that are essential for a healthy liberal democracy. This occurs, in large part, through propaganda, attacks on intellectualism, and initially veiled attacks on core liberal values.

The process often involves irrational conspiracy theories that excite the emotions while relying on allusion and slanderous associations to damage opponents who continue to use reasoned debate against unreasonable adversaries. The purposeful discourse aimed at conveying information and generating truth—which is essential to democracy—cannot be sustained in the face of outlandish claims that are blatantly false but nonetheless overwhelming. Reasoned argument necessarily retreats and loses its meaning against such tactics, leaving communication and media as the conduit for expressing fascist power, stirring fear of the other, and espousing the dominant group’s superiority and simultaneous obedience in exchange for protection from the fascist hierarchy.