{"id":12392,"date":"2021-01-24T15:24:41","date_gmt":"2021-01-24T15:24:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=154050"},"modified":"2021-01-24T15:24:41","modified_gmt":"2021-01-24T15:24:41","slug":"why-liberal-anti-fascism-upholds-the-status-quo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/01\/24\/why-liberal-anti-fascism-upholds-the-status-quo\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Liberal Anti-Fascism Upholds the Status Quo"},"content":{"rendered":"
Is the fascist label useful in discussing Trumpism and the Jan. 6 Capitol riots by hardcore Trump supporters? Perhaps that\u2019s a strange question to ask given the oft-repeated claim that \u201cit can\u2019t happen here\u201d \u2013 a claim that\u2019s been a staple of U.S. exceptionalism for a long while. However, the attack on the Capitol represented a crossing of a red line for the liberal managerial class. A liberal\/centrist anti-fascist discourse has emerged as an extension of anti-Trumpism. Robert O. Paxton, professor of social sciences at Columbia University, wrote<\/a> in Newsweek<\/em> that the breach of the Capitol \u201cremoves my objection to the fascist label \u2026. The label now seems not just acceptable but necessary.\u201d It\u2019s clear that the label can be applied beyond the rioters to other Americans. 2017 polls<\/a> indicated that 10% of the public supported the \u201calt-right,\u201d with 9% (roughly 22 million people) calling holding neo-Nazi or white supremacist views acceptable.<\/p>\n Even so, there are clear grounds for concern about the liberal anti-fascist discourse. Here are some:<\/p>\n Late capitalist normality produced Trumpism. Liberal anti-fascism obscures this fact. Centrist liberals hide their role in upholding oligarchic class rule and hide the U.S. empire and its alliances with fascist forces. They support suppressing dissent to hide these facts and preserve the neoliberal global order. The U.S. has a tradition of suppressing the independent left. The capitalist carceral state is fascism. The genocide of the natives is fascism. Centuries of racial terror is fascism. Supporting fascists in the global South is fascism. As the Black Agenda Report\u2019s columnist Margaret Kimberley told me, fascism is not \u201csomething new and Trumpian\u201d and that it\u2019s \u201ca mistake to think that he is unique.\u201d The left should oppose the centrist liberal consensus on the grounds of principle and self-preservation. Defeating fascism requires that we stop producing the conditions that give rise to it. That means building a radically different society. For now, let\u2019s stop the elites from hijacking 1\/6 to silence critical voices and make the world safe for capitalism.<\/p>\n\n\n