The Acceptable Faces of Fascism
How a network of ‘Tommy Robinsons in Suits’ laundered an extreme ideology into the mainstream and helped to foment a wave of political violence on our streets
I sometimes fear that
people think that fascism arrives in fancy dress
worn by grotesques and monsters
as played out in endless re-runs of the Nazis.
Fascism arrives as your friend.
It will restore your honour,
make you feel proud,
protect your house,
give you a job,
clean up the neighbourhood,
remind you of how great you once were,
clear out the venal and the corrupt,
remove anything you feel is unlike you…It doesn’t walk in saying,
“Our programme means militias, mass imprisonments, transportations, war and persecution.”Michael Rosen - When fascism arrives as your friend… (2014)
Our shared history often makes us uncomfortable talking about fascism.
Mere mention of the word makes us panic about falling foul of the immutable rule of Godwin’s Law.
Yet as the past two weeks have so brutally shown, fascism is not something that remains contained within the faded pages of our history books, but is a real thing taking place in the real world.
Right now, wherever you happen to live, there will be actual fascists living nearby. We may not call them that. They may not even think of themselves in that way. But that is what they are.
Because of the awkward historical comparisons, we will normally reach for other words to describe them. Perhaps we will call them nationalists, or authoritarians, or if we’re on the BBC we may even venture to call them “populists”.
Yet there is nothing particularly popular about their vision for the world, or the means they hope to use to achieve it.
One such person who fits into this category is the Spectator magazine’s Associate Editor Douglas Murray.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Folded with Adam Bienkov to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.