Good evening, everyone:

There has been a bit of a media-cycle dust-up over President Biden’s recent characterization of the extreme right-wing of MAGA philosophy as “Semi-Fascism.” On the right, refrain is that the characterization is unfair, inaccurate, and snarky. On the left it comes out as it’s about time. The kerfuffle led me to recall a nightly note I did in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election that sought to cast some light on the term “fascism.” I thought it might be worth re-sending in the heat (or low warmth) of the moment:

Good evening everyone:

Many of you may remember Umberto Eco from his masterwork, Name of the Rose, ostensibly a murder mystery set in a medieval monastery, but actually a profoundly complicated exercise in semiotics, (forgive the completely esoteric reference – the study of the relationship between signs/symbols/words and the things they represent). Eco was also a pre-eminent student of fascism – not only as it had manifested in his native Italy, but throughout Western history.

Although we in the United States are certainly not living in anything that can be reasonably characterized as a fascistic society, there are some who believe that some of the early precursors of fascism are poking their heads above the water-line. It is tempting to dismiss those warnings as unduly alarmist and sensational. But the New York Review of Books recently reproduced an essay from 25 years ago in which Eco described fourteen defining characteristics of fascism – what he termed “Universal/Ur Fascism.”  Reprinted here.

That article can only give one pause. The parallels between Eco’s analysis and what we’re seeing played out in the political environment are more than eerie – they’re profoundly disturbing. I thought I’d reproduce a handful of Eco’s tell-tale signs.

Spoiler alert: what follows doesn’t make much of an attempt to be neutral or a-political. Please feel free to take a pass on this one if you prefer a little bit more even-handedness.

Eco begins with the disclaimer that the presence of any one of these qualities can set fascism in motion – or, as he says, “permit fascism to coagulate around it.”

#1: The cult of tradition. Eco argues that UrFacism is deeply rooted in the primacy of received wisdom, rather than the pursuit of modern thought:  “As a consequence, there can be no advancement of learning. Truth has been spelled out once and for all.” This casts a revealing light on references to Making America Great Again, or recent calls to protect and return to the suburban dream [or recent backlash to teaching history with reference to the Black experience].

#2: Action for action’s sake. Eco notes: “Action, being beautiful [Eco actually used that word] in itself, it must be taken before, or without, any previous reflection.” . . .  [The examples are legion – indeed, this is one of the most common defenses erected by those being prosecuted for invading the Capitol on January 6^th] Good thing we have the judicial branch, civil justice and advocacy organizations, and the media to slow things down, let them breathe, and infuse a bit of reflection into impulse.

#5: Fear of Difference. Eco observes: “The first appeal of a fascist or prematurely fascist movement is an appeal against the intruders.” Remember those rapists and drug-lords and murderers advancing in caravans to the United States/Mexico border?  Or the Antifa hordes [who were the Fox-attributed inciters of both racial protests and January 6^th]?

#6: Appeal to a frustrated middle class. Eco helps explain how a billionaire real-estate-branding-tycoon, reality-show-star, debt-evading, thrice-divorced, New Yorker [clearly the worst of the list] could create a MAGA movement by convincing 45 percent of the electorate that he was one of them: “[The Fascist movement finds] an audience in a class suffering from an economic crisis, or feelings of political humiliation, and frightened by the pressure of lower social groups.” This description certainly seems an apt description of the 2016 presidential campaign playbook – it remains to be seen what potency it retains in 2020 [well, we have the answer to that one].

One researcher who conducted polling of MAGA supporters observed: “Right now, these people feel like they’re losing their country and their identity. They feel like they’re being displaced by communities of color, by feminists, and by immigrants. They are motivated by what they see as an existential threat to their way of life.”

#7: Obsession with a plot. This can come in any number of forms, but international plots are the preferred vector. COVID is a bioweapon from China? Ukraine, not Russia, hacked the American election? But domestic ones are almost as good. The Deep State is allied in nefarious purpose against the White House? American Muslims in New Jersey celebrated after the bombings of 9/11? [And, the ultimate: “Stop the steal” belief that election fraud stole victory from the president?] Eco proposes: “The easiest way to solve the plot is the appeal to xenophobia.”

#10: Contempt for the Weak. In Eco’s words, “[The Fascist leader believes that] the masses are so weak as to need and deserve a ruler.” The MAGA movement celebrates when their leader states: “I am strong; politicians are weak.” They relish his assertions of tough machismo:  “Mike Tyson endorsed me. You know, all the tough guys endorse me. I like that. OK?”

#13: Selective Populism. Eco anticipated the Trump political rally phenomenon: “Since no large quantity of human beings can have a common will, the Leader pretends to be their interpreter.” It is the theatrical fiction of being one of you, when just the opposite is the case. But Eco’s power of anticipation some twenty-five years ago is unnerving: “There is in our future a TV or internet populism, in which the emotional response of a selected group of citizens [i.e., the MAGA base] can be presented and accepted as the Voice of the People.” Scary.

#14: The language of Newspeak. Orwell invented “Newspeak” in his classic 1984 as the official language of his totalitarian state. Eco explains that the language of Fascism is one of “an impoverished vocabulary, and an elementary syntax, in order to limit the instruments for complex and critical reasoning.” It’s painful to see the 2016-‘20 [and now, again] repertoire fitting that description like a glove: “Beautiful.” “Huge.” “Win.” “Loser.” “Dangerous.” “Pathetic.” “Red-blooded patriots.” “Scam.”

If it takes just one of these qualities to begin the process of fascism coagulation, what is the coagulative power of eight? Again, let me defer to Eco:

UrFascism can come back under the most innocent of disguises. Our duty is to uncover it and to point our finger at any of its new instances – every day . . . Franklin Roosevelt’s words of 1938 are worth recalling: ‘If American democracy ceases to move forward as a living force, seeking day and night by peaceful means to better the lot of our citizens, fascism will grow in strength in our land.’

Turns out that democracy, and our republic, require continuous tending. Perhaps that is the singular message cast in bright relief by the . . . unrelenting undermining of democratic institutions. . .  the chaotic response to the COVID crisis . . . and the building antipathy to the energies of the quest for racial justice.

It’s a little unsettling to think that that was written two years ago. Maybe President Biden deserves some credit for articulating what many have thought but feared to say out loud.

Rip

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