Consumer capitalism-fascism mashup

Get the labels right.

Fascism is a form of authoritarianism, but not all authoritarians are fascists. Fascists have a transformative political project: to create a homogeneous people devoted to a messianic leader and to mobilize society for the sake of violent racial conflict. By contrast, monarchs or technocratic authoritarians – think of military dictatorships in Latin America – can be perfectly self-effacing: Europe’s longest-lasting dictatorship during the 20th century was headed by a decidedly uncharismatic Portuguese economist, António Salazar. Fascists, on the other hand, base their legitimacy on popular acclamation: they celebrate mass rallies and create a spectacle of power.

So far Trump is filling the fascist bill without breaking a sweat.

So far so Trumpist, it would seem: the cult of personality administered at large rallies; the increasingly open racism which singles out Trump’s supporters as “the real people” – an expression Trump used as he incited his fanatical followers at the Ellipse on January 6. But a collective project centered on violence? Not quite. To be sure, Trump couldn’t be prouder of the Proud Boys; add to that the militarization of civilian life, driven by a supreme court endlessly creative in inventing 18th-century traditions to justify the proliferation of arms. What’s more, Kevin Roberts, head of the Heritage Foundation, today’s leading Trumpist thinktank, has promised a “second American revolution” which, Roberts clarified, “will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be” – as clear a threat of violence as one can imagine. Yet all this is still not the same as fascist leaders glorifying mortal combat as the ultimate meaning of life.

Hmm. It doesn’t seem very different from it though. Trump does love violence as long as long as it doesn’t mean he has to get his “hair” mussed.

Trump is also both product and promoter of a consumer capitalism that seeks to demobilize people politically. It’s hard to see that young people today would find the idea of marching around in uniforms the essence of the good life; Trump’s promise to his “real people” – from the rural folks of the supposed “heartland” to lily-white suburbs – is precisely that they don’t need to make sacrifices. His former chief of staff reports that Trump, visiting Arlington, claimed not to see the point of dying in war. But no real fascist leader would have denied that heroic death in combat had meaning.

Well but what about a real fascist who is also very stupid and very lazy and very chickenshit?

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