Memes

45633 readers

1375 users here now

Rules:

Be civil and nice.
Try not to excessively repost, as a rule of thumb, wait at least 2 months to do it if you have to.

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

296

They shot a slamdunk really well! (lemmy.ca)

submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

20 comments fedilink hide all child comments

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 102 points 9 months ago (1 children)

That's how to anti-troll. Wear it with pride and throw it right back at them. Once you show them it affects you negatively, you've lost.

I mean that's what they all did with the "deplorables" thing.

[–] [email protected] 85 points 9 months ago (2 children)

It's just so weird how they swing from "Biden old and inept" to "Biden is this massive 4D chess master rigging football games to make Taylor Swift rig the election"

[–] [email protected] 65 points 9 months ago (2 children)

It's the typical "the enemy is both strong and weak at the same time" shtick that authoritarians use.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 9 months ago

"We're oppressed/we have them on the run"

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Hey look, feature 8 of Umberto Eco's Ur Fascism!

... Thus, by a continuous shifting of rhetorical focus, the enemies are at the same time too strong and too weak. ...

Eco does make a point of clarifying that the presence of absence of any single trait he has identified does not prove a thing is or isn't fascist.

But in spite of this fuzziness, I think it is possible to outline a list of features that are typical of what I would like to call Ur-Fascism, or Eternal Fascism. These features cannot be organized into a system; many of them contradict each other, and are also typical of other kinds of despotism or fanaticism. But it is enough that one of them be present to allow fascism to coagulate around it.

(The full text of the feature I quoted above)

The followers must feel humiliated by the ostentatious wealth and force of their enemies. When I was a boy I was taught to think of Englishmen as the five-meal people. They ate more frequently than the poor but sober Italians. Jews are rich and help each other through a secret web of mutual assistance. However, the followers must be convinced that they can overwhelm the enemies. Thus, by a continuous shifting of rhetorical focus, the enemies are at the same time too strong and too weak. Fascist governments are condemned to lose wars because they are constitutionally incapable of objectively evaluating the force of the enemy.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I was unaware of this text. Seems very interesting indeed. Thanks a lot! ♥️

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

It's pretty fantastic. In 2020 (only just beginning my journey of recovery from a conservative upbringing), I decided I should understand what fascism actually was. I found that dictionary definitions were terribly imprecise but eventually found Eco's essay. I understand there are other methods--of similar scholarly integrity--used to define fascism, but I have not spent the effort to find and compare these other works. It is my (uninterrogated assumption) vague understanding that Eco's definition isn't regarded as opinionated.