American Fascism: What to Expect and How to Prepare
An analysis of the fascist movement in America, and portents of what's to come.
With the coming inauguration on the 20th, my mind has been heavy with portents of what America may be like in our near future. I can no longer stand by and be a spectator while this happens in the country I love, so I am doing my part in warning as many people as I can of the coming threats. But you must understand the nature of the threat to avoid it’s strike, so let’s dissect this new American paradigm, and what it may mean for you.
The Marks of Neo-fascism:
Many scoff at the idea that fascism can take hold in America; after all, this is “the land of the free”. However, I find that most that dismiss this idea simply don’t understand how fascism manifests itself, and are unaware of the realities and consequences of many recent events. The best way to fight fascism is through knowledge of its strategies, so I have laid them out here for you best to identify them.
Populism and False Idolatry:
Populism is not necessarily a bad thing. In politics, populism simply means that a politician is appealing to the common man, often against the grain of the political establishment. Several of our best presidents, such as Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt, were considered populists; In the modern day, Bernie Sanders and AOC are politicians I would consider safe populists. They respect the law, and are willing to compromise to accomplish progress. The problem with populism, though, is that it is a highly emotional ideology. When the mob rules, things often start to go to extremes, and the common person doesn’t have the knowledge to know makes effective policy.
So, when a charismatic politician comes along who is willing to lie and tell the people that someone else is at fault for their woes, and can convince them that they know what is best for the people, you get a dangerous populist. The easiest example is Hitler, who was able to shift blame on the Jews for Germany’s loss in WW1 and economic depression thereafter, as well as the rise of communism in the Bolshevik revolution to the East. A more classical example is Julius Caesar, who used his invasion of Gaul to gain territory and acclaim for the empire, while also enriching his soldiers with plundered loot to gain their absolute loyalty. The key to grabbing power is the loyalty from their followers. Things like special flags denoting their ideology, political sloganeering taking precedent to policy, slandering anyone who dissents, and loyalty to a politician over country are the recipe for turning a populist movement into a fascist one. The False Idol becomes the movement, and the mob becomes lost to the fervor of hate and nationalism.
Appeal to Tradition and Days Gone:
Fascists always claim that what they want to do is go back to a better time, a time when there weren’t the struggles of the modern day. This sounds nice with no further examination, but the problem is that a fascist always ties the glory days to “culture” rather than the economic and political realities of the time. For example: The reason many people hearken back to times like the 50’s and 60’s as the good old days is because of the rapid expansion of the middle class under progressive New Deal policies. Social safety nets and high taxation for the rich created the prosperity that we expect today as part of the American Dream. Also, if we’re being honest, many people that say this are white and would have benefited from the racial hierarchy of that time. However, those are not the arguments you hear from fascists. You hear things that they claim have to do with “culture”, like greater masculinity, women staying at home, more racial homogeneity, less immigrants, etc. Basically, people “knew their place”. The people who believe this almost always would have been higher up in the social hierarchy of the time they want to go back to.
We’re seeing more and more of this, especially amongst young men, which is very concerning. The loneliness epidemic and the erosion of the traditional role as the provider for many men has left them without purpose. Not to say that this change in gender roles is bad, but I think we have done a bad job as a society of deconstructing male gender roles just as we have for women, and it’s left a lot of men in a state of limbo. Consequently, more men wish to go back to “better days”, when gender roles were more concrete, and women had less choice. Alpha males and red pill are basically just a watered down TikTok version of the Übermensch philosophy perpetuated by the Nazis.
Religious Fundamentalism:
Religion plays an essential role in all the rest of these categories in some way. Many believe that being christian is an essential part of being an American. Part of this is because America is heavily christian historically, which is fine to acknowledge, and part of it is indoctrination from religious institutions and schools. Secularism and the separation of church and state as a founding value of America has been buried in many places. As a result, they conflate the values and belief of Christianity as part of the many factors that made America so prosperous, and want greater connection between the church and the government. It’s the same as conflating “culture” with the greatness of the past.
I am also of the opinion that being religious prepares you to more blindly believe in fascist rhetoric. To clarify, I don’t believe being religious is bad, but it provides a framework to more easily manipulate people if you aren’t aware. Encouraging faith as an important value and following religious figures primes you to follow what your leader says rather than test your beliefs. Religion is also a very easy parameter to use as an in group, through which fascists can use to attack the “others”. Many people make the claim that Hitler was an atheist to deflect from claims of being fascist, and while he did turn on Christianity eventually, faith and appeal to the cultural value of Christianity was essential to his rise, and the majority of German citizens were protestant at the time.
Anti-Science and Anti-Intellectualism:
Conservatives have been eroding funding for education in this country for years, and it has yielded them dividends. Like I said before, populism is a very emotional ideology. Intellectualism stands in direct opposition to that, and demands evidence for many fascist beliefs; evidence which they do not have. Things like race realism is not based on evidence, it’s based in social perception and bigotry. Scientific beliefs like evolution, the age of the earth, and the existence of dinosaurs are diametrically opposed to faith based belief like creationism. Furthermore, science often counters corporate interests, such as human caused climate change threatening the fossil fuel industry. Corporations lobby against greater education for exactly this reason. Fascism and intellectualism are therefore diametrically opposed. As a result, fascists paint scientists as elitists and part of the “establishment” which they are rallying against.
The False Anti-Establishment Rhetoric:
Fascists thrive on the majority’s disillusionment with society, as well as disenfranchisement of the middle classes. This disenfranchisement creates a guttural distrust of anything they perceive as “the establishment”. This anti-establishment rhetoric is probably the widest reaching, because many people do have legitimate grievances with the current government. You see similar talking points from leftist spaces. Nobody likes the establishment, but the problem comes from the weaponization of the word. To a fascist, anything they disagree with or hate is a part of the establishment, no matter how little control those people actually have. This is ultimately illogical, much like all these other beliefs. MAGA rallies against the “establishment” while supporting the winning party and many of the richest people and corporations in the country. I wrote another article explaining this cognitive dissonance that I linked here.
Never-ending Double Standards and False Equivalencies:
Fascism is the ultimate hypocrisy, simultaneously claiming that it’s enemies are conniving masterminds that puppet the strings of the deep state, while also claiming that they are weak minded and unfit to govern. How is it that Jews can run the world and cause the downfall of the German nation, while also being inferior animals to the genetically superior Aryan race? It doesn’t make much sense when you think about it, but it doesn’t have to. All it has to do is shift blame.
When you examine the republican platform, what do you see? Not policy; Contrarianism and constant blame. Donald Trump got away with having “concepts of a plan” because all he needs to do is hate the right people. Namely, Democrats and the left, immigrants, minorities, and the queer community. Nothing that happens anymore is an accident or tragedy, it’s always a conspiracy. Hurricane in Florida? The Democrats have a weather satellite! Wildfires? DEI destroyed the fire departments! It can’t be climate change, because that would involve taking blame for their anti-climate change policies. And for the “moderate republicans”, these transgressions and moments of madness can be excused, because per their perception, both sides are bad. Never-mind that one side has politicians who planned an insurrection, openly deny the election, and have ties to Neo-Nazis. Sure, their candidate is a felon, was found liable for rape, held classified documents, and is extremely sacrilegious; Kamala Harris was an establishment “DEI” democrat, and that was enough for them to vote against her. These are the false equivalencies that allow seemingly reasonable people to convince themselves to support the madness. In this way, the moderate is more dangerous than the extremist, because the moderate offers the complacency to legitimize the movement. After all, Mussolini did make the trains run on time! Just ignore the other stuff.
The Facade of Nationalism:
Ultra-nationalism is a trademark of the classical fascist, but I feel that this is almost a misnomer. Fascists practice a false form of nationalism that parades itself as national pride. MAGA does not love America, in fact they don’t even claim to. The implication of Make America Great Again is that this country is not great right now, it is a rejection of the current status quo. They hate this country, and all that it has come to stand for, and all that it was ever founded on. But that is the very issue that we face as a people; there are many in our nation who call themselves patriots who lack any concept of the ideas and fundamental values that this country stands for. The only amendments they know are the first and second, the rest of the constitution be damned. Many of those whom so outwardly claim to be real Americans would have been just as comfortable as loyalists to the crown in 1776, and confederates in 1861. How can you believe yourself to be real patriots while flying a traitor flag in our capital building? You drive by their houses and see a MAGA flag flying and not an American one, that should tell you all you need to know.
White Replacement Theory and Xenophobia:
White Replacement Theory is a culmination of everything that I have discussed up to this point. This is how a member of the majority convinces themselves that they are the oppressed minority; a lot of things suddenly become reasonable when you believe you are defending yourself and your culture. Like I said before, everything must be a conspiracy. Trace the path of thought:
You are struggling to make ends meet, and lack purpose in your life. The world is looking more and more different than what you remember it being when you were a child, those were much simpler times. What’s the difference? Who is to blame? It can’t be you. You’re a good and godly person, and are only doing everything you were ever taught to do. Something has gone wrong here. Every time you turn on your t.v or scroll through your phone, they tell you the world has gone mad. What is the source of the madness? Trans people, they weren’t around when I was a kid. And everyone seems to be gay nowadays. And the minorities are getting too demanding, can’t they see we’ve given them enough? And the immigrants, ugh. They take our jobs, steal money from us hard working Americans, and bring their drugs and crime across the border. That’s what has gone wrong with America, it’s them. The news is telling me that Democrats are opening the border up for them. But why would they do that? It can’t be sympathy, those lefties always have an ulterior motive. All these new cultures and sexualities and religions, they’re not American. They are trying to replace us. They don’t deserve to be here, they are criminals, and rapists, and terrorists, hell, they’re even eating our cats and dogs like animals. If America wants to survive, We need to get rid of Them.
That’s a simplified version of what happens over several years. Their media tells them that everything is “woke” and that woke is the enemy. Woke is replacing those cultural values you love so much. Again, it doesn’t make much sense, and doesn’t have to. Never-mind that most Democrat politicians are white men that have no incentive to be doing this, and there is seemingly no end goal for “replacing” their perceived European cultural roots and Christian values; It doesn’t matter that immigrants are actually less likely to commit crimes than native born Americans; There is no plan to replace the low wage jobs in agriculture, manufacturing, and construction they occupy, they just have to go. The ultimate irony is that many of the people saying this belong to races who themselves would have been victims of the same persecution about 100 years ago. The same things were said about Italians, Irish, and Slavs back then, until of course they assimilated into American culture. That is the great strength of the American melting pot, but people like this wish to close the lid.
These are the talking points a fascist uses to normalize the hate they feel, but none of this is normal. Fascism as an ideology is a hateful ouroboros that eventually consumes all those who would adopt it. It thrives on scapegoating others that they perceive as less than, but eventually a debt to the truth must be paid. Once the pitchfork armed mob comes to the realization that the persecution of their targeted minority did nothing to improve their lives, they’ll move on to the next, and the next, until eventually they find something “wrong” about you.
MAGA is a Fascist Movement:
If you can’t recognize the crossover of Neo-fascist beliefs and MAGA, you are not paying attention close enough, or you are willfully ignoring the signs. The Republican party has become completely beholden to Trump now. Any dissent is quickly stomped out, and those people are labeled as RINOs. If people can’t disagree with you in your party without being forced out, you are in a cult. John McCain was a RINO, Mitt Romney was a RINO, Liz Cheney is a RINO, Mitch McConnel is a RINO… For god’s sake, look at how far they have gone to the right! Two of those people were previous republican presidential candidates! If goddamn Mitch McConnell, the bastard obstructionist and de facto leader of the party for decades, isn’t a “real republican” to you anymore, you are a fascist.
Donald Trump wants these dissenters gone. He has increasingly been saying there are “enemies within” that are even more dangerous than our foreign adversaries. He is normalizing talking about using the military to eradicate his enemies and deport illegals. He is questioning civil servants about who they voted for, and wants to purge the military’s leadership. These are dangerous things for a leader to be saying. Understand, when we say that Trump is a fascist, it is not a meaningless talking point, it is the truth. His own vice president called him America’s Hitler. And his previous Vice president isn’t with him anymore because he tried to have him killed for not overturning a fair election. If Trump is America’s Hitler, then Jan. 6th is the American Beer Hall Putsch, and I suppose Rupert Murdoch is his Goebbels.
I know what the responses always are: “So you’re saying that half the country is wrong and fascist? Isn’t that an exaggeration?”. They say this as if the majority of German society didn’t support the Nazis. It’s a logical fallacy that, just because a large number of people believe a thing, that it can’t be wrong. Yes, I am saying that half the country at the very least supports a fascist, and as I have discussed, all it takes is their apathy to legitimize and become part of the movement.
Things That Worry Me the Most:
Mass Deportations:
The most imminent threat in my mind is that Trump is planning on starting ICE raids on day one. And that is just the beginning of his plan to deport millions of illegal immigrants using the federal forces, and possibly even deploying the military within the states based on his claims. The thing that worries me most about this is the profiling of minorities will result in a lot of people who are here legally being swept up in the deportations. This has happened before, Operation Wetback in 1954 is a great example of it. I also worry that delays in deportation will result in these illegals being held in camps. Some countries will not accept those deportees, so where will they go then? Held indefinitely, or dumped somewhere completely foreign to them? Several blue states have also stated their intention to resist this order, and I am worried that tensions between states, citizens, and federal forces may escalate to deadly outcomes.
Isolationism and “America First”:
It seems we are sliding back into our isolationist ways, which may seem good to people on its face, but will actually be very detrimental to us in the long run. The reason America is able to be as powerful and prosperous as it has been is due to the role it assumed as the global superpower after WW2. We have the global reserve currency and host the largest stock market in the world for a reason; Our large economy, manufacturing capabilities, and the security of being oceans away from any potential threats means that we are a safe investment. I worry that all this “America First” rhetoric will segregate us from our allies, and allow other major powers to step in instead. I think we all agree that perhaps the US should be more hands off in foreign affairs, unless explicitly asked for assistance, but there are a lot of things we provide, such as patrol of the worlds trade routes, that the world would be worse for if we didn’t. Furthermore, I don’t think we have the workforce to return to the steel and coal manufacturing country that a lot of people are imagining, and those jobs aren’t as good as people are romanticizing them to be. Who is taking all these manufacturing jobs? Especially once we get rid of all the illegals. The guy with a business degree working an office job?
Purging of the Federal Government:
Trump has stated many times that he wants to purge the bureaucracy of the federal government, presumably because they got in his way last time he tried to stage a coup. Several of our Generals have also butted heads with him and called him a fascist, so he wants to clean house there to set up for his use of the military in the future.
Weaponization of the DOJ:
This has already happened, and will continue to happen under Trump. The Supreme Court has been completely compromised by him, and it’s possible that he will have even more picks during this term. No single person was ever meant to have that much power over the judiciary. If the SC wasn’t corrupt, we wouldn’t be in this position to begin with, because Trump would have been disqualified based on the 14th amendment. Now Trump wants to use the DOJ to go after his political opponents, like Liz Cheney and Ann Seltzer, the latter of whom is being sued simply for publishing a poll that said he would lose in Iowa.
Increased Surveillance:
This is something the entire world suffers from, as social media and phone data makes it easier than ever to track people’s interests, opinions, and locations. An example of this is the recent panic about the United CEO murder. Since then, it seems the government has been monitoring those with negative opinions about healthcare CEO’s. While I think this is a bluff, because they would be monitoring the tens of millions of people who hate health insurance, it is worrying.
Project 2025:
Project 2025 details pretty much everything I have already mentioned. I recommend giving it a read, scary stuff.
What You Can Do to Prepare:
There is no single solution that will protect you, but there are things that you can do to make your possible outcomes much better. These are things that are useful in any major disaster or scenario, so even if the worst doesn’t happen, it’s best to do these things anyway.
Stay Informed:
The best way to be prepared is to know where to find information. The faster you find something out, the faster you can act on it.
Know What News Sources are Reliable and Unbiased:
AP News and Reuters are probably as close as you’ll get to unbiased reporting; that can mean the articles are quite dry, but that’s a good thing. I also trust BBC, NPR, PBS, and The Hill as sources. Avoid talk shows and podcasts that are meant for entertainment as your news sources because they are extremely unreliable and follow ratings over integrity. And, quite frankly, avoid any media that calls itself conservative, republican, or MAGA.
Use Social Media to Your Advantage:
Social media can be a great way to find out about major events before the news gets to them. I personally think Reddit is quite good for staying up to date, and it’s a lot easier than other social media sites because there are forums specifically for that. Here are a few that I think are useful:
r/PrepperIntel: This sub is full of paranoid people who are constantly looking out for signs of disaster. A lot of it turns out to be nothing, but a lot of great intel comes through there from users.
r/Law: Good place to find out what politicians are doing, and more about the legalities and details of different laws.
r/CombatFootage: Maybe don’t go on this one all the time if you’re squeamish, but if you’re looking for first hand footage from current conflicts that are breaking out around the world, this is the place.
r/Aviation: Ok, this may seem like a weird choice, but this sub is actually pretty useful for finding out about military movements and aviation crashes. For example: I remember a user on this sub posted a photo of a B2 Bomber in Dubai as it was headed toward Yemen to bomb Houthi bases and stockpiles. This was before the news reported it.
Learn about Fascism and its History:
Get Your Papers in Order:
This advice is for anyone, but especially if you are an immigrant or minority that is being targeted. Make sure you have your papers in a safe place where you can find them easily. Make sure you have your birth certificate, social security card, an ID, and I recommend getting a passport if you don’t have one. For immigrants, have some sort of legal proof that you are supposed to be here, such as citizenship papers or green card, and any other proof of residency such as a deed, voter registration, pay-stub, student ID, etc. I also recommend keeping some form of identification or passport in your car somewhere, especially if you are an immigrant that works somewhere that is likely to get raided by ICE, like in agriculture or construction in a big city.
*Do not think that because you are a legal immigrant or native citizen that you can’t get caught in the deportations. American citizens have gotten caught in the crossfire every time mass detainments and deportations have ever happened.*
Arm Yourself:
I know that a lot of my fellow lefties are against guns, but we no longer have the luxury of giving up our right to bare arms in this country. Perhaps in a more stable time, I will rejoin many of you in advocacy of greater gun control, but right now I am not willing to make that concession. We were given this right to protect us from tyranny, and tyranny is upon us. Look up your state’s gun laws, and get a gun. Go for reliability and affordability, and practice shooting. There’s a lot of very cool tactical stuff out there, but the best defense is the one that you can use comfortably and are familiar with.
Keep a Stock of Supplies:
This is just common prepping advice, but it’s always good to have a small supply of things like food, water, and medicine, and a backup source of power is great if you can get one. I also recommend having some basic things in your car in case you are on the move or have to flee like a jump starter for your battery, a portable air compressor for your tires, a med kit, some spare blankets, and a change of clothes.
Take This Seriously, it Can Happen Anywhere:
No one ever thinks it will happen to them, but history is filled with the graves of innocent men, women, and children, who in life were shown the unfathomable depths of human cruelty, the malice of which would make even the most pious lose faith.
The greatest disservice to education we ever did in this country was teaching the holocaust as if it was some sort of unprecedented and extraordinary evil. The truth is, the evil of the Nazis was par for the course of humanity, and it can happen again. The banality of evil actions shrouds it’s realities from even the most intelligent and shrewd among us. Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Mussolini, Hirohito, Assad, Kissinger, etc., the list goes on and on; these are not abstract characters from history class, they were all real people that other real people followed and believed in. All it takes is the right person to fall into a position of authority, and for those around them to not question that authority. Many atrocities have happened here in America already; look at the Trail of Tears or the Tulsa Race Massacre.
United we must stand against this tyranny, and we must be steadfast in our duty as Americans to protect liberty and democracy, and the liberty of those that would be trampled by this regime. Divided and complacent is how we fall.
Ever vigilant, your eyes in the sky,
~Minerva
This is such a clear and succinct explanation. Thank you!
Excellent resource for the struggle ahead. Thank you.