Nina-Bytes: Accelerator

 

Editor's note: Nina-Bytes is a weekday blogging series that features short analysis and commentary on articles from around the web.

After the fascist coup attempt on January 6th, 2021, I wrote that the removing Donald Trump from the White House would by no means end the rise of American fascism, or the powder keg of violence that goes along with it. I further warned that a policy of ignoring, legitimating, and appeasing fascists would likely fuel that rise, and bring with it violence acts of reactionary stochastic terrorism. Needless to say, this turned out to be a very unpopular opinion in some (then) rather surprising portions of the online "left" community. 

Unfortunately for us all, as of last Friday those warnings are now distinctly less abstract; a fascist conspiracy theorist broke into the Pelosi home and attacked the Speaker of the House's husband with a hammer. The assailant, a 42 year old fascist Gryoper into just about every right wing conspiracy you could imagine, reportedly attempted to tie Paul Pelosi up with the intention of waiting until his wife Nancy came home. You can read more about this clear act of political violence in this Oct 29th, 2022 summary over on the Guardian:

Paul Pelosi, husband of Nancy Pelosi, in hospital with skull fracture after attack

While I certainly don't want to minimize the severity of an 82 year old man's violent assault with a hammer, what's important to our larger discussion about fascism is the fact that the current Democrat Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi was the target of the attack. And despite the protestations of conspiratorial fascist propagandists, it sure does seem political:

"It was reported by CNN that the suspect intended to tie the victim up “until Nancy got home” and that he had posted rightwing and conspiracy theories online, including content promoting the lie that Donald Trump was deprived of victory in the 2020 election because of voter fraud."

There will of course be those, even in the mainstream "centrist" media who insist that this is a crime story, or that the primary issue here is the attacker's mental health. These arguments however ring hollow once you understand that triggering violence from unstable individuals among a faceless reactionary mass is precisely how stochastic terrorism is designed to work. It certainly doesn't take a genius to connect calls for Pelosi's public execution by a fascist GOP Congresswoman, to a disturbed ultra-reactionary conspiracy theorist's attempts to do just that. Even liberal media minions too cowardly to describe this as fascism in writing, fully concede that the result was utterly predictable. And as this October 29th Guardian article by Joan E. Greve ominously predicts, the fascist political violence has only just begun:

Attack on Pelosi’s husband heightens fears of increasing US political violence

Although it remains utterly inexplicable to me that "liberal" media outlets still refuse to use the word "fascist" to describe right wing political violence in the Pig Empire, even after Joe Biden's "semi-fascist" speech, the overall sentiment here is correct. The mainstreaming of conspiracy theories, eliminationist propaganda, and reactionary ideas in the Pig Empire has lead to a drastic rise in political violence; and that violence is by no means from "both sides" as our author makes clear:

"The US Capitol police has reported an overall rise in the number of threats against members of Congress since the deadly January 6 insurrection last year.

According to USCP data, officers tracked 9,625 threats and directions of interest (meaning concerning actions or statements) against members of Congress in 2021, compared with 3,939 such instances in 2017. The House sergeant at arms has responded to this worrisome trend by giving lawmakers up to $10,000 to upgrade security at their homes.

Although both Democratic and Republican lawmakers have faced a number of threats in recent months, the increase is not evenly distributed along the political spectrum. According to a study conducted by the Anti-Defamation League, rightwing extremists have committed about 75% of the 450 political murders that occurred in the US over the past decade, compared with 4% attributed to leftwing extremists."

 

Look folks, I'm certainly not trying to be an alarmist. But when everyday people find ourselves watching a trans pogrom in progress, organized voter intimidation parties, and actual "lone wolf" assassination attempts on high profile liberal politicians, it's fair to say we're now talking about a fascist sprint, and not a fascist creep. Furthermore it's increasingly difficult to place much faith in a liberal establishment too disinterested, or too afraid, to materially challenge fascist violence; even when it targets one or more of their own kind. Instead they hide behind weasel words, punch left, and continue to arm up a police state that increasingly looks like it will soon belong to the fascists the police themselves already support.

nina illingworth

Anarcho-syndicalist writer, critic, and analyst. 

You can find my work at NIDC, Can’t You Read, Media Madness and my Patreon Blog

Updates available on Twitter, Instagram, Mastodon and Facebook. 

Podcast at “Kropotkin’s Barbershop” on Soundcloud.

Inquiries and requests to speak to the manager @ASNinaWrites

Chat with fellow readers online at Anarcho Nina Writes on Discord!

“It’s ok Willie; swing heil, swing heil…”

 

Nina-Bytes: Crash Courses in Modern Fascism

 

Editor's note: Nina-Bytes is a weekday blogging series that features short analysis and commentary on articles from around the web.

Fascists Are Benefiting From World Crisis

Recently on Instagram, I mentioned my belief that a review of basic concepts and ideas presented in my anti-fascist writing might be in order. I've been away for a while, and it's easy to lose track of the bigger picture when an entire political and media class has got you chasing sensationalism while the fascist creep accelerates forward at an alarming pace. In that vein, I'd like to highlight this October 9th, 2022 interview University of Michigan professor Geoff Eley, conducted by Arjun Chaturvedi over at Jacobin.

Unsurprisingly given the title of this article, Eley's field of expertise in history includes fascist movements. Although our interviewer does manage to rope him into one question about the historical study of fascism, Eley's answers in this piece are otherwise hyper focused on providing a practical understanding of modern fascism. For example, when discussion portability of fascist politics, the professor offers up this explanation of the conditions required to enable this kind of political movement to thrive:

"[F]ascism can flourish under the impress of an especially extreme dual crisis. First, the established political arrangements no longer enable the achievement of stable and effective governance; second, those governing arrangements malfunction so badly that they forfeit the consent of the people. When these twin crises happen together — crisis of representation, crisis of consent; government paralysis, democratic impasse — states of exception are created where a specifically fascist politics can start to gain traction."

Along the way, Eley also talks about the three things all fascist movements have in common (rejection of liberal democracy, preference for authoritarianism, desire to violently disenfranchise an other they define,) and how society can fight fascism; with broad coalition building and a popular front approach. If you don't have time to read dozens of, or even just one whole book about fascism, this is more or less an excellent little primer; with one big caveat.

That caveat is that by way of injecting the talking point into a question about Narendra Modi, our interviewer pushes the idea that Donald Trump isn't a fascist, because he "lacks a coherent ideology that is a crucial aspect of fascism." This weaksauce argument has been an asinine hobby horse for Jacobin magazine ever since noted reactionary trashfire and friend to fascists Ben Burgis published an article telling folks to "relax, it's not fascism" days after the January 6th MAGA coup attempt; they were wrong then, and they are wrong now. For starters, Trump is definitely a fascist; secondly, if being a fascist requires understanding ideology, then illiterate Nazi murderers who did pogroms in World War II weren't fascists either - absurd.

Furthermore, you can tell Eley doesn't like this nonsense either, because he spends a paragraph trying to form a convoluted definition of ideology that allows both him and the host to be correct; before specifically referencing the rise of Trump in his conclusions about what type of political environment allows fascist movements to succeed. Despite this bad noise, the interview is a worthwhile read; even if I'm giving Jacobin and its interviewer zero stars and a failing grade on anti-fascism as a whole.

nina illingworth

Anarcho-syndicalist writer, critic, and analyst. 

You can find my work at NIDC, Can’t You Read, Media Madness and my Patreon Blog

Updates available on Twitter, Instagram, Mastodon and Facebook. 

Podcast at “Kropotkin’s Barbershop” on Soundcloud.

Inquiries and requests to speak to the manager @ASNinaWrites

Chat with fellow readers online at Anarcho Nina Writes on Discord!

“It’s ok Willie; swing heil, swing heil…”

 

Nina Bytes: Fascism is on the Docket

 

Editor's note: Nina-Bytes is a weekday blogging series that features short analysis and commentary on articles from around the web.

Hello friends; long time no see. My life has been pretty terrible for the past several months, but it's better now, and I'd rather not waste a lot of time going over the gory details. Please bear with me while I work myself back into shape; writing is way harder than emo trash-posting on Twitter.

In today's post I'd like to provide some evidentiary examples for a thesis I published over on Instagram called "Fascism is a Legalist Doctrine." As I mentioned, two major reactionary arguments designed to dismantle what passes for American democracy are making their way before a pro-fascist Supreme Court in America. Let's take a closer look at both of those cases:

 

The Supreme Court Is On The Verge Of Killing The Voting Rights Act

First of all I'd like to note that I chose this rather bloodless October 3rd, 2022 article by Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux over at Five-Thirty-Eight on purpose because I need the "very serious" liberals in my life to understand that the fascist judicial assault on American democracy is very real, not even remotely abstract, and definitely not some far left political theory. The article revolves around the pivotal Alabama map-rigging case currently before a 6-3 fascist high SCOTUS in America; Merrill v. Milligan.

Now on the surface, this might look like just another crooked gerrymandering case in a very long line of crooked gerrymandering cases in the United States. Once one delves a little deeper into the fascist argument being presented, and likely to be accepted by the court however, the horrifying implications become more clear:

 

"Up until now, the court has taken the perspective that, in order to comply with the act, states are in some situations required to take race into consideration as the primary factor in the redistricting process. Alabama Republicans are now arguing that it’s discriminatory to prioritize race over other traditional redistricting techniques, such as having compact districts, contiguous boundaries or avoiding crossing county or town boundaries. Several experts, including Pildes, told FiveThirtyEight that a ruling that sides with Alabama would be a radical departure from previous interpretations of the law and would likely free states to draw congressional or state legislative maps where minority voters have less political power relative to their numbers.

In that sense, the outcome of this case could be very similar to a 2013 ruling in which the Roberts court gutted another section of the Voting Rights Act, freeing a group of states with histories of discrimination against minority voters to change their election laws without federal approval. In the years afterward, those states shuttered thousands of polling places, intensified their voter purges and changed voting laws in other ways that disproportionately affect minority voters."

 

Yes folks, you read that correctly; fascist lawyers and the Alabama GOP are arguing (more or less) that being forced to draw voting districts in such a way as to accurately reflect minority voting populations and protect their constitutional rights, are actually discriminatory against white Republicans. In short, Tucker Carlson's reverse racism propaganda from Fox News is about to become a fundamental plank of election law; to the advantage of fascists and the disadvantage of anyone who doesn't like being ruled by fascists. 

Astoundingly enough however, Merrill v. Milligan isn't even the most serious threat to American democracy about to appear before an objectively far right and reactionary Supreme Court:

 

How the Supreme Court could make it legal to steal the next presidential election

Whelp, that's pretty bleak my friends. In this July 11th opinion piece over on MSNBC, law professor Jessica Levinson lays out the terrifying implications in another upcoming case, Moore v. Harper.

Although understanding this case does involved wading into the weeds a bit, the fascist argument here broadly stipulates that state lawmakers more or less have the right to conduct elections any way they want (including rigging them,) without oversight from anyone except federal courts, and even then only narrowly. This is literally a green light for Republican controlled states to not only rig their own elections, but award their state delegates to whichever presidential candidate they want; and if that sounds familiar to you, it probably should:

 

"Even more significantly, this doctrine, taken to its catastrophic and logical conclusion, could allow state lawmakers to legally steal presidential elections. Let’s imagine that in 2024, Florida residents vote to re-elect President Joe Biden. This has always meant Florida’s 30 Electoral College votes would go to Biden. But maybe the lawmakers there would want the Republican challenger to win. The lawmakers could decide not to certify the election results and instead submit their own slate of electors to the Electoral College who would vote for that Republican. By pure luck and coincidence, this is pretty damn close to the plan espoused by former President Donald Trump and his supporters in their attempt pilfer the 2020 election."

 

Naturally of course, we can't know how the Supreme Court will ultimately rule in Moore v. Harper. but given the court's current composition, and the fact that four reactionary judges on the court have already indicated they support the “independent state legislature doctrine,” it's probably not that hard to guess.

All of which of course leads me back to the point I was trying to make on Instagram; it does no good for liberals to rail away against fascist street gangs and open neo-nazis, while patently refusing to resist the judicial branch of fascism that is actively working to end what passes for American democracy, once and for all. Biden can walk out on stage and warn us all about the "semi-fascists" until he's blue in the face, but until Democrat lawmakers are prepared to abolish the filibuster and secure voting rights for all, the fascists are going to keep winning these fights in the halls of power, and telling folks to "vote harder" is a sick joke.

That doesn't mean society has to accept fascist rule, but if the Democratic Party isn't even prepared to fight fascism to preserve its own existence at the ballot box, what good are they to anyone who isn't a fascist, at all?

nina illingworth

Anarcho-syndicalist writer, critic, and analyst. 

You can find my work at NIDC, Can’t You Read, Media Madness and my Patreon Blog

Updates available on Twitter, Instagram, Mastodon and Facebook. 

Podcast at “Kropotkin’s Barbershop” on Soundcloud.

Inquiries and requests to speak to the manager @ASNinaWrites

Chat with fellow readers online at Anarcho Nina Writes on Discord!

“It’s ok Willie; swing heil, swing heil…”

Nina-Bytes: Weimar American Justice Strikes Again

 

Editor's note: Nina-Bytes is a weekday blogging series that features short analysis and commentary on articles from around the web.

A Florida Anarchist Will Spend Years in Prison for Online Posts Prompted by Jan. 6 Riot

Well, if this lengthy write up by Natasha Leonard over on the Intercept isn't enough to make your blood boil, I don't know what it would take to do so. You should read the whole story, but to summarize; a Florida judge just sentenced an anti-fascist to almost four years in federal prison for tweets calling for "armed defense against possible far-right attacks on the state’s Capitol." As Leonard points out, this is obscenely bonkers for several reasons.

First, in the wake of the January 6th Capitol Hill coup attempt, and a widely-publicized FBI warning about possible armed protests by right wing extremists at state capitols, the man (Daniel Baker) had every reason to believe such an attack might happen. Additionally, Baker didn't threaten anyone individually, and took no significant action on the tweet. Finally, the pre-trial and post sentencing total of forty-four months is far longer than most of the fascists who actually tried to overturn an election on January 6th will receive. Yes, you read that correctly; the guy got more time for tweets than armed fascists are getting for trying to hunt down and execute a Vice President.

This story exists at the nexus of so many aspects of the American fascism problem that it's hard to know where to start unpacking them. We're talking about a judiciary and a Justice Department riddled with reactionaries, authoritarians, and fascists; and I don't just mean the ones Trump appointed either. Throw in litigators and fascist-friendly police eager to buttress corporate media claims of a (false) moral equivalency between fascist violence, and those who oppose it. Then you top it all off with a liberal political establishment more than happy to purge the left to appease fascists in right wing politics. Please keep in mind, this is Palooka Joe's DoJ now; Merrick Garland works for him, not Trump.

Look kids, there's a reason I'm constantly telling you to watch what you say on social media, and this is that reason. The machine doesn't need anti-terrorism laws to send leftists to jail for speech in opposition to fascism; they're doing just fine already. It's not an accident when Democrats talk about unity with fascists. Biden doesn't keep blathering on about "anarchists" because he's confused. Liberal antifascism doesn't extend any further than "Orange Man bad," and if they can knife the left to get the GOP to go back to a neoconservative normal, so much the better; it solves two problems for bougie centrists at the same time.

Liberals aren't going to help you fight fascism; they're more likely to throw your ass in jail for threatening order. That's just the bald truth of it.

nina illingworth

Anarcho-syndicalist writer, critic, and analyst. 

You can find my work at NIDC, Can’t You Read, Media Madness and my Patreon Blog

Updates available on Twitter, Instagram, Mastodon and Facebook. Podcast at “No Fugazi” on Soundcloud.

Inquiries and requests to speak to the manager @ASNinaWrites

Chat with fellow readers online at Anarcho Nina Writes on Discord!

“It’s ok Willie; swing heil, swing heil…”

 

Film Sessions: Crypto-Fascism and a Modern "Shirt Group"

 

Editor's note: welcome back to Film Sessions; our quasi-regular feature here on Media Madness in which I share, analyze and expand on a relevant video created by someone on the left wing of YouTube.

What Is Crypto-Fascism?

As I briefly alluded to in the latest edition of In the Aggregate, chasing down and debunking the deceptions, dog whistles, and coded language inherent to all fascist propaganda efforts is an exhausting, if still wholly necessary exercise. This type of antifascist effort is necessary because fascists lie relentlessly and habitually. Furthermore, debunking these lies can be exhausting because fascist propagandists spend seemingly half of their waking lives finding new and convoluted ways to lie, or at least evade detection while promoting fascist ideology and political activities.

Why would they go through all that trouble? Well, consider the situation from the odious perspective of the fascist "intellectual" or content creator for just a moment. Ultimately your goal is to build power by uniting politics with violence, and you accomplish that by recruiting more and more fascists, while eroding democratic structures. This is however, no simple task. Given fascism's history of racking up truly astronomical body counts through mass violence and genocide, as well as the fact that its adherents typically end up dead in a muddy ditch once a fascist regime eats itself, it's actually pretty hard to just come right out and say "hello, we're the nazis!" If you do that, people might stomp you out before you achieve any of your goals.

The obvious solution to this problem is to lie about, or otherwise obfuscate your ideology, and especially your long term political goals. Unfortunately for the fascist propagandist however, this activity creates its own set of complications. After all, if you lie too well, the reactionary lumpen you're trying to recruit may literally lose the plot. This ultimately requires you to communicate your ideas and intentions in a coded, almost encrypted way, that obviously signals to brainwormed fascist thugs you're on the same side, while simultaneously generating plausible deniability in what might be called "respectable discourse." This is then the essence of what we call "crypto-fascism."   

Crucially (for the fascists,) this type of encrypted "double speak" gives them a structural advantage when competing with Pig Empire liberals for influence and power; particularly in the public discourse. After all, the liberal devotion to capitalism and its inherently reactionary consequences, means they're already playing their own game of "Simon Says" built around coded language and an odious, deadly ideology. If however the target of this rhetoric understands the nature of the dog-whistles, as both the anti-fascist left and marginalized folks the fascists are trying to intimidate often do, this structural advantage is lost and the nazis are exposed for the pathetic hatemongers they objectively are.

A Case Study in Crypto-Fascism

The key then becomes understanding the coded camoflauge various fascists use to promote and propagate their ideology. This is unfortunately complicated by the fact that there are a dizzying number of hate groups, propagandists, and fascist "intellectuals" working on new ways to express these ideas all the time. The good news for anti-fascists however, is that virtually all of these obfuscations must conform to certain themes and ideas inherent to the fascist worldview; if you learn the themes, you can break down the code in real time. I'm confident that today's highlighted video can help us get a better handle on understanding this type of fascist bafflegab.

Produced by YouTube creator Renegade Cut (otherwise known as Leon Thomas,) this fifty minute video essay explores the history, activities, and ideological motivations of the Proud Boys. If you are lucky enough that you somehow haven't heard of the Proud Boys, they are a nationwide crypto-fascist gang with surprisingly close ties to the right-wing establishment in America, who engage in political violence and intimidation to protect and project white supremacist and nationalist political policies, standards, and ideas. They are quite literally a fascist shirt group, and would have been recognized as such in the America of the 1930s.

There are also however, a great many intellectually-stunted thug reactionaries who are quite demonstrably not the brightest individuals in America. This means that the crypto part of their crypto-fascist obfuscations cannot afford to be particularly complicated; otherwise the pinheads who ultimately join groups like the Proud Boys wouldn't understand the appeal. I'd personally describe the Proud Boys' ideology as "bog standard neo-nazi garbage that crudely substitutes the word 'nationalism' for 'fascism' and the term 'western culture' for 'white people' to spread reactionary and hateful ideology." These guys are literally "Fascism for Dummies", and their ideology represents a sort of lowest common denominator in American fascist thought. This in turn makes them an ideal training subject case for folks who're learning to recognize crypto-fascist ideology in the wild as it were.

In today's feature presentation, our presenter does all the legwork by taking you deep inside the guts of the Proud Boys organization. Examining both investigative journalism, and the words of the Proud Boys themselves, Thomas guides us on a journey to answer a plethora of important questions about who these reactionary thugs are, and what they ultimately represent. Who started the Proud Boys, and why? How does the gang's crypto-fascist code work? What do they really mean by "western chauvinist?" How are the Proud Boys able to utilize token minorities to hide their fascist nature? Who is Henry "Enrique" Tarrio, really? Who actually leads the Proud Boys? Why is the gang inextricably tied to the Trump movement? Given their legal troubles, are the Proud Boys finished, and if not, why are they still dangerous?

For the answer to these questions, aspiring scholars of fascism, fascist politics, and crypto-fascism are encouraged to check out "The Violent Rise of the Proud Boys" from Renegade Cut by clicking on the header or the video box below:  

The Violent Rise of the Proud Boys on YouTube

(Unfortunately, this video is age restricted on YouTube; likely because in describing the Proud Boys, one is unavoidably required to mention fascist political violence. I assure you, there's nothing particularly adult about this video - to watch just click through "watch this on YouTube" in the box above.)

Additional Resources

Rengade Cut Youtube Channel

Leon Thomas Twitter

MAGA and Fascism by Renegade Cut

Film Sessions "Where Do We Go From Here?"

 Listening for Dog-Whistles

A Brief History of Fascist Lies

Film Sessions: And All The King's Men

Proud Boys Are Still Violent, Despite Legal Woes

Alt-Right Playbook: How to Radicalize a Normie

We May Be One Election From Permanent Minority Rule

Is Glenn Greenwald the New Master of Right-Wing Media?

Neo-Nazis & White Supremacists Are Coding Language To Recruit

Why American Fascism Never Dies

It Happened Here

How fascism has converged with capitalism to redefine government

Neo-Fascism, Or The Political Logic Of Neoliberalism

Neoliberalism is a form of fascism

Neoliberal Fascism and the Twilight of the Social

Neoliberalism is Fascism with Better Manners

How to Recognize Right-wing Dog Whistles and Symbols, From Viking Hats to Flags

Investigating the Contours of a “Broad Fascist Movement” in the U.S.

A Guided Tour of the Racist, Crypto-Fascist “Alt-Right” By Breitbart News

How White Extremists Teach Kids to Hate

Eternal Fascism: Fourteen Ways of Looking at a Blackshirt

SPLC entry for Proud Boys

Trump's useful thugs: how the Republican party offered a home to the Proud Boys

Conspiracy Charges Bring Proud Boys' History Of Violence Into Spotlight

Proud Boys are a dangerous 'white supremacist' group say US agencies

The United States was never immune to fascism. Not then, not now

Proud Boys Failed to Redact Bylaws & Accidentally Doxxed Their 'Elders'

How Hate Goes ‘Mainstream’: Gavin McInnes and the Proud Boys

Know Your Fash: The Proud Boys are Dangerous

Inside the Demon Factory

The Rise and Fall of the Proud Boys

Pride & Prejudice: The Violent Evolution of the Proud Boys

The Secret History of Gavin McInnes

Gavin McInnes Said His Proud Boys Were Built for Violence

Who are the Proud Boys, 'western chauvinists' involved in political violence?

Trumpism, the Proud Boys, and the Extremist Allure for People of Color

Florida Man Goes Fascist: An Encounter With Enrique Tarrio

Proud Boys leader was ‘prolific’ informer for law enforcement

Proud Boys celebrate Trump’s ‘stand by’ remark about them at the debate

Cellphone Data Ties Proud Boy With Trump White House Before Capitol Riot

After Arrests And Setbacks, Far-Right Proud Boys Press New Ambitions

Portland gunfight fuels alarm over growing use of weapons at rallies

- nina illingworth

Anarcho-syndicalist writer, critic, and analyst. 

You can find my work at NIDC, Can’t You Read, Media Madness and my Patreon Blog

Updates available on Twitter, Instagram, Mastodon and Facebook. Podcast at “No Fugazi” on Soundcloud.

Inquiries and requests to speak to the manager @ASNinaWrites

Chat with fellow readers online at Anarcho Nina Writes on Discord!

“It’s ok Willie; swing heil, swing heil…”

Six Things I Think: The Enemy of My Enemy Is Still a Fascist, Actually (Link)

 

Editor’s note: our Six Things I Think feature is a type of post I use when I want to cover a lot of ground about a multi-faceted topic very quickly. Although you don’t strictly *have to* click on every citation link in this essay, you might want to at least read the headline articles, and watch the embedded videos, as they each frame the discussion immediately underneath them.

Please also note that this article is part of the “Amerikan Musik: Fascism Ascendant in the USA” collection on ninaillingworth.com.

Ok, so I'm definitely aware I've been away for almost a week but I'm hoping by the time you click on the link to this article, you'll understand why - it's pretty, extensive.

What is it? An extremely detailed, multi-media Deep Dive post explaining why Boogaloos are fascists, Jimmy Dore is no leftist, and online pinkos have a crypto-reactionary infuencer problem.

Finally I guess I should warn you that I wasn't exactly thrilled about having to spend 9,000 words explaining to pinkos who don't read theory, why we don't make alliances with fascist militias; it's funny, but I'm not pulling punches out of respect for your faves, and there's quite a good deal of profanity in the piece. I literally do not care if this makes folks mad because going along to get along with reactionaries and fascists is no way to do leftism.

You can check out by clicking on the header below:

Six Things I Think: The Enemy of My Enemy Is Still a Fascist, Actually 

- nina illingworth

Independent writer, critic and analyst with a left focus. Please help me fight corporate censorship by sharing my articles with your friends online!

You can find my work at ninaillingworth.com, Can’t You Read, Media Madness and my Patreon Blog

Updates available on Instagram, Mastodon and Facebook. Podcast at “No Fugazi” on Soundcloud.

Inquiries and requests to speak to the manager @ASNinaWrites

Chat with fellow readers online at Anarcho Nina Writes on Discord!

“It’s ok Willie; swing heil, swing heil…”

Film Sessions "Where Do We Go From Here?" by Renegade Cut

 

Editor's note: Film Sessions is a weekly feature here on Media Madness in which I share, analyze and expand on a relevant video from the left wing of Youtube. Please note that I'm merely writing about these videos; I don't create them, nor in most cases to do I know very much about the folks who do - I'm learning the ways of Left Wing Youtube right alongside my readers. 

Additionally, I'd like to shoutout "TechnOkami" on my Discord server for recommending today's video for inclusion in this series; excellent pick my friend.

-----

Well, you knew at some point we'd have to look at a video touching on the fascist riot in Washington, D.C. on January 6th, 2021, an its larger meaning in American society - didn't you? 

Frankly, I don't think it's much of a secret that I'm actively eager to move on from writing about Donald Trump, who after this shocking (and yet still completely predictable) event, has very much become "yesterday's man" in the larger story of American fascism. As I've mentioned in several articles however, the end of Downmarket Mussolini, and the ultimate flameout of his doomed coup attempt are not, and will not be, the end of the burgeoning fascist uprising in the Pig Empire; not when literally so much is at stake. Given that I'd already broken down the riot in a lengthy podcast, and discussed why this was definitely a fascist coup attempt, I wanted to make sure whatever presentation I did end up sharing here expanded on those efforts, while focusing extensively on what all this means for post-Trump fascism going forward. 

These requirements created some complications then, as originally I want to feature a video about the chud uprising in last week's edition of Film Sessions, but couldn't find a feature suitably focused on both American fascism itself, and what happens after Trump is mercifully gone. Thankfully, and just when I was about to give up, a friend of mine pointed me towards today's twenty-two minute Youtube feature by Renegade Cut, otherwise known as Leon Thomas, entitled quite appropriately "Where Do We Go From Here?" Frankly, I don't know much about Leon (who is also a geek genre film critic, hence the channel title) but if the two videos I've watched are any indication, this man might be my brother from another mother - at least when it comes to analyzing American fascism.

The first thing you'll notice when watching Leon's work, is that he talks very quickly and his videos are jam-packed with highly-specific, factual references. In a format typically dominated by the hot take economy, and opinion-based reaction videos, I find this quite refreshing - but I'm not going to lie; I caught myself taking notes at several points in Renegade Cut's presentation, just to make sure I wouldn't leave anything out in this write up. Thankfully, the second thing you'll notice about Thomas's videos is that he seems like a really organized presenter, and even a short (22 minute) video essay like "Where Do We Go From Here?" is divided up into three distinct, labeled parts.

In the first part of the video, entitled "False Reality," Thomas looks to answer a series of "why" questions about the lead up to the chud riot in D.C. on January 6th, 2021. Crucially these questions go beyond just why did the insurrection attempt happen, and touch on why it's important to acknowledge that Trumpism is an inherently fascist movement, why Trump supporters are prepared to overthrow the government rather than accept that Biden won, and why American fascists inherently consider their political opponents illegitimate and traitorous. Touching on key ideas I've also written about, and covered on the No Fugazi Podcast, this section quickly explores concepts like cultural nationalism, the invocation of a mythic past, and how Trump's election fraud claims fit into a larger false reality narrative; all in about seven minutes. I should also mention that in part one, Thomas recommends watching his previous video about why the MAGA movement behind Trump, is explicitly fascist; although I've since watched that thirty-eight minute video and thought it was excellent, I didn't feel viewing it was in any way necessary to understand the work presented in "Where Do We Go From Here?"

The second portion of the video, "January 6th, 2021" then focuses deeply on precisely what happened both before, during, and after the doomed fascist coup attempt itself. Obviously, after two weeks of debunking and dissection, some of what Thomas covers here won't be news to viewers, but I still think there are a number of topics he focuses on in this section, that aren't getting a lot of coverage in more mainstream, or corporate media. Highlights include pointing out the significant and unmistakable presence of explicitly fascist groups (and police) among the rioters, why it is completely appropriate to call this event a coup or an insurrection, and a video clip of Rudy Giuliani clearly calling for the election dispute to be resolved with a "trial by combat."  

Finally, the video closes out on a high note with a conclusion entitled "What Happens Now" and ultimately, it's the contents of this section that convinced me to feature "Where Do We Go From Here" in this week's Film Sessions. Discussing crucial topics like why the American right is desperately trying to minimize the existence of its own (now quite mainstream) fascist support, why a failure is not evidence that it's not fascism, and why Joe Biden's neoliberal police state can't be relied on to stop burgeoning American fascism, Thomas lays out why American fascism will outlive Trump, and why contrary to the ravings of NIMBY liberalism, the only real and effective solution is organized anti-fascist counter protesting.

Whew; I told you this guy talked fast, didn't I? Of course "Where Do We Go From Here" is not a perfect video; I would have liked to see a bit more analysis about the role of settler colonialism in the rise of American fascism, why (demographically) white supremacy can no longer be maintained democratically in the Pig Empire, and at least something on the billionaire nazi muppets that are paying for it all; guys like Bob Mercer. At the end of the day however, you can really only expect so much out of a twenty-two minute video, and given everything that Renegade Cut does deliver in this feature, I'm comfortable saying this is one of the best videos about American fascism on Youtube in general - check it out below:

Additional Resources

Rengade Cut Youtube Channel

MAGA and Fascism by Renegade Cut

Call It by Its Name: Wednesday Was a Fascist Riot

The Insurrection Was Predictable

This Is the United States of QAnon

Trump Is Leaving, but US Fascism Is Just Getting Its Boots On

Trump will leave but the ingredients of homegrown fascism remain

This is American fascism

If You Didn’t Vote for Trump, Your Vote Is Fraudulent

The Bitter Fruits of Trump’s White-Power Presidency

Insurrection Timeline — First the Coup and Then the Cover-Up

Hidden in Plain Sight

Police and Racist Vigilantes: Even Worse Than You Think

Don't look past Trump's coup attempt

Downplaying Trumpism Is Dangerous

Yes, It Was a Coup Attempt. Here’s Why.

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No Fugazi: In Between Days (Coup Episode)

Counting Coup

Fascism, White Nationalism and American Values

On Media, White Nationalism & Hugo Weaving

 No Forward Progress

Opening Pandora’s Box

No Magic Man

American Fascism & Networks of Power

Thought-Crimes and Appeasement

A Primer on Americanized Fascism

No Fugazi: 5 Part Fascism Series

Amerikan Musik: Fascism Ascendant in the USA Page

- nina illingworth

Independent writer, critic and analyst with a left focus. Please help me fight corporate censorship by sharing my articles with your friends online!

You can find my work at ninaillingworth.com, Can’t You Read, Media Madness and my Patreon Blog

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