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There are literal fascists within the alt-right, and the conservatives as a whole have failed to distance themselves sufficiently from them. “If there's a Nazi
by generj 4y ago
There are literal fascists within the alt-right, and the conservatives as a whole have failed to distance themselves sufficiently from them.
“If there's a Nazi at the table and 10 other people sitting there talking to him, you got a table with 11 Nazis.”
Nick Fuentes is a fascist. He has complimented Hitler and Putin - even saying the media comparing Putin to Hitler “as if that wasn't a good thing.” He holds a variety of other repugnant views which are tightly associated with fascism and Nazis.
When Ye and Nick Fuentes (an actual fascist) have dinner with a leader of a party, and that party didn’t immediately abandon that leader, they all qualify under the 11 Nazi’s category. See also: no abandonment or even major pushback against the leader saying “very fine people” were chanting “blood and soil” at Charlottesville etc.
[edit] also in the context of social media moderation, most people moderated hold extreme views, so when talking about conservatives who have been moderated, they are more likely to be fascist. Same as how of moderated left users, they are more likely to be Stalinist’s or other extreme groups when compared to the left population as a whole.
The difference is, sometimes when conservatives have complained about moderation, the examples given were of prominent alt-right fascist adjacent figures being banned. Christian Nationalists and White Nationalists are fundamentally fascists, but some of them are defended in cultural wars by a good chunk of conservative voices. E.g. Alex Jones received conservative op-Ed’s in his support when he lost a lawsuit.
- MockObject 4y ago> “If there's a Nazi at the table and 10 other people sitting there talking to him, you got a table with 11 Nazis.” Wow, this Nazism stuff is super contagious! I shudder to think that most of the world has caught it by now.
- generj 4y agoYou jest but fascism was and is super contagious. The Nazis went from a fringe political movement to a solid minority voice (with 20% of the seats and about 33% of the vote). Then came the Reichstag Fire and heavy repression of opposition - getting them to 44% of votes in a “free” election. And then came the Enabling Act and there were no more votes. What this saying means ultimately is that enabling fascism via silence makes people anti-democratic. It does not take many people passively sitting out of the way for authoritarian regimes to take power - and they are only removed by the bullet box not the ballot box. I will note I can’t find the providence for this saying actually existing in post WW2 Germany and it is likely a modern invention. It is nonetheless a true sentiment of some of the soul searching German and other fascist ruled societies made after WW2.
- MockObject 4y agoFascism isn't a fad like bell bottom jeans. It forms under specific material conditions.