How Fascism Works - The 10 Tactics of Fascism: Jason Stanley

[appalachiablue]

- How Fascism Works,

'How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them' is a 2018 nonfiction book by Jason Stanley, the Jacob Urowsky Prof. of Philosophy at Yale University. Stanley, whose parents were refugees of Nazi Germany, describes strategies employed by fascist regimes, which includes normalizing the "intolerable". His book is part of a "wave of articles, books & op-eds" that warn of the "return of fascism", features of which are already evident, according to Stanley, in the politics of the US, the Philippines, Brazil, Russia, & Hungary.

The book was reissued in 2020 with a new preface in which Stanley describes how global events have substantiated his concern that fascist rhetoric is showing up in politics & policies around the world.

"What normalization does is transform the morally extraordinary into the ordinary. It makes us able to tolerate what was once intolerable by making it seem as if this is the way things have always been."- Stanley. How Fascism Works

Stanley focuses on rhetoric & propaganda. His previous books include Knowledge and Practical Interests, Language in Context, Know How and the award-winning How Propaganda Works. He is a witness to the "consequences of fascism", his parents having fled Germany during the Holocaust. His maternal aunts, uncles & cousins were killed in eastern Poland in 1941 during Hitler's invasion. Stanley identifies the pillars of fascist politics that deepen the divide between "us" and "them" - denying equality, using a culture of victimhood, & feeding the sexual anxiety of men.

Strategies include undermining journalists & reporters, promoting anti-intellectualism, the use of propaganda, spreading conspiracy theories, letting fear and anger overtake "reasoned debate", & then calling on "law and order" solutions. Stanley describes how one of the hallmarks of fascism is the "politics of hierarchy"—a belief in a biologically determined superiority—whereby fascists strive to recreate a "mythic" & "glorious" past by excluding those they believe to be inferior because of their ethnicity, religion, and/or race...https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_Fascism_Works

[MayReasonRule]

1. What a Great Post!

May reason rule where fascism dwells!!

[appalachiablue]

2. Let's hope. Democracy must be defended! Use Your Brain, People!

[MayReasonRule]

3. I Agree Appalachia Blue!! Democracy Is Freedom! Which Is Why Reason Always Resists!!

Democratic freedoms cease to exist in the absence of reason.

Which is why reason never desists, reason always resists.

For there is no freedom, in the absence of reason.

May reason rule.

[Rhiannon12866]

6. Well said.

[Snarkoleptic]

4. K&R!

n/t

[LetMyPeopleVote]

5. For this thread

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