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#but as soon as a fascist politician starts going after unions strikes wages
orc-apologist · 2 months
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it's funny how when you'll give actual explanations as to why people are racist or transphobic or something similar, like how that happens and why it's happening now out of all times, that go beyond "white people/cishet people evil" so many people will instantly attack you for "apologia"
I think it kinda comes from this idea that identity politics has pushed that people of the unmarked categories like male white and cishet can't possibly struggle with things in life. but economic crises, which we have been in for 16 years now, affect everyone that's not part of the ruling class. prolonged economic instability alienates people from the status quo, from established parties, rhetoric and such. they begin to look elsewhere for solutions. the powers that be know to counteract this with reactionary politics. using scapegoating they'll promise the return to an (often imaginary) better yesterday, the very definition of reactionary politics.
these ideas sound plausible and actionable. things used to be better after all. those scapegoats used to not be there (as visibly) after all.
the way of solving this isn't to go "waaahh people are evil and fascism is back, woe is me" but to a) point out that these reactionary politics are not going to solve the problem because they are not the cause b) point out the actual cause of the problem (capitalism) c) offer actual alternatives (organizing, strikes, expropriating the bourgeoisie, and eventually total labor democracy)
#and no fascism isn't back and it's not going to be back in most of the western world#there's a difference between a military or police dictatorship which is what the US might degenerate into under trump#and actual fascism#most of the things everyone points to as fascist aren't actually fascist they're just reactionary#even genocide isn't unique to fascism. israel for example is a liberal democracy and it's still committing genocide.#all you need for genocide is a class society. its political manifestation is irrelevant tho some forms are certainly easier to do a genocid#in#it's important to understand that so you have no illusions in liberal democracy which is a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie#fascism isn't this generally evil society that we are constantly at the brink of falling back into#it was a very specific historical phenomenon#in which the petty bourgeoisie were used by totalitarian reactionaries as a battering ram against the working class#to violently suppress labor organization strikes and the potential downfall of capitalism and the rise of socialism#that was its role in germany italy and spain#it wouldn't work anymore today in the western world because the petty bourgeoisie has dwindled in numbers#as they are doomed to in the monopolization process of capitalist market anarchy#they are no longer a significant percentage of the population and no longer have the numbers to suppress the working class like that#because that's what differentiates fascism from a military dictatorship for example#a military dictatorship is a small group of people violently wrangling control of the state from its current holders#and abusing ALL of society for their personal gain. including the ruling class. marxists call this bonapartism#because napoleon bonaparte was the first to do so under capitalism#most importantly this means a military dictatorship does not have a mass base and relies on ruling by the sword#which makes it highly unstable and turns all of society against it#fascism was so dangerous because it DID have a mass base! the petty bourgeoisie!#vast amounts of them were in total support of fascist rule and actively pursued it. it wasn't just a small group of people.#this made the systems a lot more stable and a lot more powerful because they had large parts of society at their bidding#that sort of power and stability can no longer occur because their social base has mostly disappeared#they can whip up enough reactionary anger in the working class to perhaps GET to power#but as soon as a fascist politician starts going after unions strikes wages#launching the incredibly direct attacks against the working class that fascism always did#that voter base is going to turn against them very quickly
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