Fascism Is for Losers

Here's how to take on the global right-wing nostalgia for the glory days of fascism.

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This week's Next Comes What looks at the victory of the authoritarian, reactionary party AfD in last weekend's election in eastern Germany. Andrea Pitzer considers a few of the regional specifics of that election, and considers other universal aspects of the global rise of neo-Nazi and Nazi-adjacent movements. What the twenty-first century models have in common is the open demonization of immigrants. There is no way out of the current political crisis, Andrea suggests, without addressing that demonization head-on.

Summarizing a recent Syracuse University study, she explores the ways that various kinds of media function, not only providing misinformation and disinformation, but also setting moral frameworks that make an argument about whether immigrants are seen as fully human. The Syracuse researchers found that fact-checking statements does not automatically adjust the underlying moral narrative the original misinformation was supporting. Andrea argues that defeating the authoritarian threat cannot happen through attempts to moderate a few of the right's most extreme tactics. A long-term solution requires friends of democracy to directly address perverse frameworks and messaging by offering not only substantially different policies but also a narrative that directly counters the one that fascists have been selling.

00:00 Introduction: The Arc of Right-Wing Sabotage and Fascist Ideology 03:15 The Role of Anti-Immigrant Paranoia in Modern Right-Wing Politics 06:40 Case Study: The Rise of the AfD in Germany and MAGA Parallels 10:15 Deliberate Propaganda: How Disinformation is Created and Spread 14:35 Incidental Propaganda: The Media's Role in Amplifying Far-Right Narratives 19:10 Moral Disadvantage and Partisan Media Exposure (The Syracuse Study) 23:55 Economic Anxiety, Tariffs, and Industrial Decline in the US and Europe 28:20 Historical Parallels: Nostalgia for Fascism and the Concentration Camp Tendency 33:10 The Global Wave of Apocalyptic Fever and Tech Oligarchs 37:45 A Long-Term Framework and Strategy to Defend Democracy