Editor's note: Nina-Bytes is a weekday blogging series that features short analysis and commentary on articles from around the web. This post is archival and originally appeared on October 2nd, 2021 over on our Facebook page.
State-level Republicans are making it easier to run over protesters
One of the key hallmarks of a nominal liberal democracy's transformation into an overt fascist state, is the way public sector or state power will intertwine itself with reactionary paramilitaries; thereby sharing its monopoly on violence and intimidation with "the brownshirts" as it were.
Typically this arrangement will take one of three major forms. The state may act as a direct enforcement arm for the fascist agenda, as we saw in the assassination of Michael Reinohl. The state may also establish a quasi-legal enforcement arrangement with reactionary vigilantes, as we observed in the Mother Jones story about Bedford County, Virginia’s officially sanctioned militia. Finally of course, pro-fascist actors in the state can simply legalize vigilante enforcement of fascist norms, which is what we’re looking at here with these laws making it effectively legal to run down protesters with your car.
Of course Wingers will howl that the purpose of these laws are to protect innocent drivers accosted by protesters, but even a casual glance at the statistics demonstrates that’s a crock of bullsh*t. America doesn’t have a massive protesters-attacking-cars problem, but throughout our last major summer of protests, angry reactionaries have frequently slammed their cars into innocent people exercising their right of free assembly – there’s even a Wikipedia entry for the phenomenon.
As demonstrated (with citations) throughout this article, these laws are clearly both political in nature, and racialized in practice; these laws are being enacted in response to what amounts to a second American civil rights movement. Whenever you combine political power, with codified racialized suppression, and vigilante violence, you’re looking at the practice of fascism; whether those practicing it want to admit it or not.
The purpose behind enacting these laws could not be more clear. They exist to suppress mass protest and enforce white supremacy by enlisting reactionary vigilantes to enact potentially lethal violence as a form of mass intimidation.
This is the core of both the fascist project, and the reactionary terrorism it employs. This right here is what separates a fascist creep from simple reactionary thugs; the rubber stamp of legal sanction and legitimacy granted by the fusion of far right violence, with reactionary policy; in this case enacted by the GOP at the state level.
That in a nutshell, is what fascism looks like in practice.
nina illingworth
Anarcho-syndicalist writer, critic, and analyst.
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