Timothy Snyder Explains The Road to Unfreedom -- How To Develop a Politics of The Future

[ancianita]

neofascism noun: a political movement arising in Europe after World War II and characterized by policies designed to incorporate the basic principles of fascism (as nationalism and opposition to democracy) into existing political systems

Notes on the first 29 mins: Start at 5:50

The Problem
Language on the Left:

-- discrediting of the ideas of attainable common sensical social truth (truth, being relative, all that matters is emotion, and its management)
-- diminishes significance of the state, (not important or the enemy which opens space for libertariansism & right wing politics neither of which critique corporations and dismantle the state)

Language from the Center:

-- there no alternatives (numbs us to existing alternatives, including autocratic authoritarians, when we call them pragmatists
-- history has come to an end, with it, time (w/ it, responsibility;which results in the politics of inevitability wh/ shrinks future in "greater" version of the present; and the politics of eternity

Politics of Eternity:

-- time isn't a line, but a cycle, history repeats; we are threatened by penetration of some 'other"
-- state can't do anything, and so doesn't, becomes irresponsible; individuals become irresponsible

Is the Politics of Eternity fascist?

Example: The Wall -- It's fascist on three levels.

"Build that wall" was a slogan tested out on Americans by Cambridge Analytica. (Steve Bannon)

We are now prisoners of what algorithms have found that irritate us most.
"Build that wall" is itself a victory over us. Trump wants to use that phrase indefinitely.

Build that Wall, Drain the swamp, lock her up, who is supposed to do it? Someone. No one.

Have we built it? No.

What does it mean when you solve a fictional problem of Mexican terrorism with a fictional wall you'll never really build. It's similar to Russia's shizoid treatment of Ukraine. The mixture of fiction and responsibility pushes us to places where we seem to be doing, but do nothing.

This is "not even fascism." It's the fascist pose. Farcical irresponsibility.
The future of not even fascists is disaster, but its approach is not to undertake violence, but destroy the only institutions that can protect you.

What "not even fascists" say is 'ignore empirical truth, hate journalists, do it in service of a higher truth like organic truth of race and the leader; play with old Big Lies,' -- but there's no really Big Truth

Big Lies help you into a spiritual world view

Medium size lies push you to conspiratorial places, your own beliefs and whatever makes you feel comfortable; n e fascism isn't physical, not go out in public; those who do the opposite are conspirators (paid for by some secret Jew) ....

The Solution -- the politics of responsibility

Discussion follows...