Fear of the word “F”

Facebook photo/Citizen KP

Looking for sources for my next texts about (neo)fascism, right-wing extremism, nationalism in modern Europe I found an article in the online edition of the German taz (not so old, for a year ago), by Georg Diez Fear of the F word. It is worth reading (below a comprehensive summary)

For a long time there was a reluctance to usage the word "F." Like superstition is believed that if you say this word, it will become a reality; and even more; if you don't say anything, nothing can happen. These concerns inactive be in the media, in politics, in private conversations. The question is: – Who precisely are you trying to protect, avoiding calling fascists fascists?

In another words: Will there be any damage, journalistic or political, from much greater precision and transparency in the analysis of what is presently happening in the area of Fascism in Europe, Sweden, Italy, Poland, Hungary, France and elsewhere? And speaking of damage: in no case should fascists be congratulated for their triumph in the election, as Chancellor Scholz did for Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. This is simply a fatal effort to defy ideology through politics and only leads to the normalization of fascism. In many ways fascism is simply a creeping disease; it perpetuates, spreads slowly, changes tone, forms of action, provokes opportunisticism and complacency to those who participate in the fresh normality.

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It's worth a look back. Historical fascism – in Germany and Italy in the 1920s and 1930s – was characterized, among another things, by the glorification of the mythological past; the putting “us” against “him”, anti-intellectualism; the hierarchical cult of the chief; the rhetoric of the victim; the talk of safety and order, work and discipline. This led to planet war and the execution of six million Jews. Fascism is different present and its fresh features are slow revealed. For example, Fascism no longer needs conquests – in Germany and Italy during the 1930s these geopolitical raids were a late colonial crime.

Today, Fascism is not expansive, rather the contrary, specified a country is closing itself, it is protected mercantistically through a commercial policy that puts national selfishness first – in Italy, the Ministry of Economy is now called “Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy”, the Ministry of Agriculture is called “Soverness over Food”.

Although fascists always talk about safety and order, fascism is the other of this order. The rhetoric of fear and exclusion applies, the program papers describe the threatened order and formulate simplified promises of solutions. The essence of Fascism is extremist diminishing the complexity of the world. It works best erstwhile playing with emotions alternatively than rationality. Now the Fascist order is fundamentally different than it utilized to be, to be moral or, as in Italy, Christian; morality takes precedence over the law. A typically fascist decision is what the fresh government in Sweden is presently planning – a right-wing alliance that only exercises power due to the fact that it is supported by the fascist organization of Swedish Democrats: people who do not have a Swedish passport are threatened with deportation if they stay in an "inappropriate way of life" or "their behaviour will not delight people".

Law safety is abolished, which protects citizens from each another and from the state. The people will rule. That is why today’s fascism frequently works little clearly and more through invisible power, or alternatively violence. Values can be the same as before – God, family, homeland as formulated by the fascist “Italian brothers” of Giorgia Meloni, entirely in the spirit of Benito Mussolini; only ways of acting are different. So far it is simply a kind of Fascism that has slow rooted in different societies, dominates the attitude of suspicion alternatively than trust. Today's fascists have learned to usage the principles of liberal democracy to undermine and overthrow them.

Well, if the author of the above text has no uncertainty that the Italians are ruled by a fascist, who is the Polish Prime Minister who ostentatically joined Giorgia Meloni's election run and recognizes her as a friend and soul mate?

From the features of modern Fascism we can now see a lot in Poland; is Poland inactive a liberal democracy, or is it already becoming an F state?

After October 15th, it can become specified a country if we do not go to the elections and vote for Democratic candidates.

Source: https://taz.de/Faschismus-in-Europe/!5887063/

Photo was done duringprotest 14. Women on the Bridge Before the Ministry of Culture, 28.08,2021, photograph by Catherine Farzała