Fascism Is a Technology

Follow me on Twitter: / electricdidact
If American fascism is a technology of myth and sign, then it’s our job to expose and dismantle it.
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Sources:
Jane C. Timm, “The 141 Stances Donald Trump Took During His White House Bid,” Nov. 28, 2016, NBC News (www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-...)
Southern Poverty Law Center, “Ten Days After: Harassment and Intimidation in the Aftermath of the Election,” November 2016 (www.splcenter.org/sites/defau...)
Joe Walsh tweets ( / 803014483560005634 )
Nick Tabor, “9 Women on Why They’re (Still) Voting for Trump,” New York Magazine, Nov. 2, 2016 (nymag.com/thecut/2016/11/9-wom...)
Kayla Epstein, “Trump responds to Megyn Kelly's questions on misogyny - with more misogyny,” The Guardian, August 6, 2015 (www.theguardian.com/us-news/2...)
NPR Staff, “Breitbart Editor Joel Pollack Accuses NPR of Racist Content,” November 16, 2016 (www.npr.org/2016/11/16/5023041...)
Umberto Eco, “Ur-Fascism,” 1995, New York Review of Books (www.nybooks.com/articles/1995/06/22/ur-fascism/)
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Assets:
Donald Trump FULL SPEECH at Sarasota, Fla Rally, ABC News, Nov. 7, 2016 ( • Donald Trump FULL SPEE... )
Umberto Eco (www.badragencynews.com/the-dep...)
Trump Rally Miami Nov 2 2016, LetSee Media, CC BY (vimeo.com/190172833)
Election map (michiganradio.org/post/2016-el...)
Trump with Bible (www.huffingtonpost.com/ruben-r...)
Trump prayer (www.westernjournalism.com/thep...)
Trump 9/11 (www.cnn.com/videos/politics/20...)
Trump truth sign (www.thestar.com/news/world/20...)
Trump fingers (www.independent.co.uk/voices/d...)
Trump rally argument (www.wsj.com/articles/donald-tr...)
Trump supporter yelling (www.ocregister.com/articles/tr...)
Trump supporters booing (www.npr.org/2015/12/21/4602815...)
Trump thumbs up (www.slate.com/blogs/the_slates...)
Trump supporters flag (danielshular.com/2016/04/29/d...)
Trump fists up (www.washingtontimes.com/news/2...)
Trump musket (theintercept.com/2016/01/27/d...)
Trump rally confederate flag (www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/op...)
Trump rally man showing muscles (www.telegraph.co.uk/men/thinki...)
Trump balls t-shirt (nymag.com/thecut/2016/10/the-m...)
Trump signing woman (www.theodysseyonline.com/trum...)
Molotov cocktail (giphy.com/gifs/cocktail-molot...)
Pledge of allegiance (www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics...)
Pretzel machine (giphy.com/gifs/machine-german...)
Slime mold video ( • John Bonner's slime mo... )
Braiding machine (giphy.com/gifs/machine-rotary...)
Chain loop (giphy.com/gifs/factory-how-it...)
"Everyday Americans" ( / 806760070667116546 )
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Music:
Blue Dot Sessions, “Thread of Clouds,” Migration, CC BY-NC (freemusicarchive.org/music/Blu...)
Broke for Free, “Day Bird,” Directionless, CC BY (freemusicarchive.org/music/Bro...)

[@zadig08]

This channel's great! Sorta disappointed I only just now found out about it. Thanks for all the hard work and the huge backlog I'm about to burrow through.

[@rbgg2010]

Subsume, Transform, Redeploy.... That makes me think of how everything thrown at Trump and the alt-Right gets turned around and thrown back at their critics. Like taking the term "Fake News" and redirecting it from Breitbart and Infowars and towards CNN and Washington Post. Or the most blatant example, Trump's "No! You're the puppet!" comeback to Hillary during the debate.

[@king_big_pp]

I assumed this was created pretty recently. Seeing this now, it's downright prophetic.

[@ChironsFire]

I think American Fascism is different from European Fascism in that it has a tinge of religiosity. Other than that I agree with the rest of the points made in the video

[@ElectricDidact]

Yes, historically that's the case. I'd say that the "tinge" you describe is indicative of fascism's bricolage character; rather than representing a substantive difference, it's perhaps more that the fascistic mode sorta picks up whatever signifying systems are "lying around" in its given milieu... But I agree with your observation and that difference is indeed pretty striking. I guess it gets a little complicated when you look at current trends in places like Hungary and Sweden (and Germany?). Seems I've heard of the far-right populist parties invoking ideas of Christian European heritage and the like...? Maybe I'm misremembering.

[@ashevillecat]

Spanish fascism (Francoism) had a distinct tinge of religiosity.

[@brandontadday6288]

Your point kind of reminds me of the rhetoric expressed by that preacher lady in the documentary 'Jesus Camp' which was filmed during the Bush administration in the years following 9/11 and the subsequent 'war on terror'.

[@theJMBgamer]

I think what's more unique to American Fascism is how it poses as "small government" and "anti-Authoritarian". This leads many right wingers to claim (often, but not always disingenuously) that the left is the real Fascist. However, the right usually only adopts the "small government" stance when it comes to welfare and regulating powerful megacorps, not when it comes to policing or the military industrial complex. I think it's because the modern conservative movement really started as a reaction to the civil rights movement, where they saw "big government" as stripping them of their natural right to oppress minorities, and "small government" and "states rights" became dog whistles for not letting the federal government force them to integrate.

[@jerrettlyday7157]

As usual, fantastic work!

[@ElectricDidact]

Thanks so much!

[@SimGunther]

The amorphous living contradiction that keeps changing to fit the times :(

[@MichaelShulski]

I have this essay virtually memorized. Machismo and contempt for the weak might be the most telling features of ur fascism. Ok work, now use Antonio Gramsci's theory of cultural hegemony to understand the issue further. Make a video on it. This essay is perfect: "The Concept of Cultural Hegemony: Problems and Possibilities" by Jackson Lears.

[@sciencenonfiction4109]

I had no idea people said all lives matter before 2020! tf is wrong w us...

[@PhantomAlucard]

This is thoughtfully put together and well articulated. Thank you! I've only glanced at your channel so this might be a dumb question, but have you considered following up on this? The first 1 1/2 years of Trump's presidency speaks fo the rise of a uniquely American form of fascism, and your commentary would be welcome.

[@ElectricDidact]

Thank you very much! I have considered following up, but I'm hesitant to because I'm not sure I have the capacity to take account of all that's happened. (Lord knows hundreds of cultural commentators have been doing their best to do so these days besides.) I may yet do something, however, since you've expressed a desire for a follow-up. :)

[@thomanferos6316]

Thanks for this great video. Any related literature you recommend, besides Eco's essay?

[@ElectricDidact]

Thanks. Maybe check out George Orwell's "Notes on Nationalism" and Roland Barthes' essay "Myth Today."

[@SuperMegaPeanut]

Some of your best work yet!

[@grmpEqweer]

Excellent. Subbed.

[@lauriejackson4576]

7:54 can someone help me understand this word salad?

[@sirensailor4560]

Drawing attention to serve human nature makes me sick.

[@emivesprini4655]

Love the video, specially the new style of editing but cmon! Technology of Mythic Signification? I see your point but you could not have said that less elegantly.

[@ElectricDidact]

Big words are their own technology. ;P Seriously tho, fair point! It was hard to figure out a way to allude to the concepts I talked about in my video about semiotic myth: kzbin.info/www/bejne/en7SeGBth5KIers Any other ideas?

[@emivesprini4655]

Oh, didn't know there was a reference in the title (sry) I'll be sure to check that video out

[@ElectricDidact]

:)

[@suntahoannes7671]

Interested in the question I'm talking about galactic evil what Trump racism just concerned for life with our troops not supporting our troops America fascism is just the end of democracy

[@karlkarletto8427]

Orange man bad

[@king_big_pp]

A perfect example of fascism's growth in America. A refusal to study things further, subsuming a child-like phrase and redeploying it as a dismissal, and doing it all so simply that simple-minded people can copy-paste the response hundreds of times over. Truly fascinating how people can look at what's happening in the US and either not see it, or actively support it.

[@soulfuzz368]

I don’t think this aged well

[@ElectricDidact]

yyyyeahhh

[@bryanfreeman437]

As self-aware agents of Fascism, we salute the times and know that you are scared because we are winning. "So much winning" even.

[@IndustrialMilitia]

People vote for the man, not the ideology. Hillary was weak, and it made Trump appear strong.

[@WhaleManMan]

According to your logic that fascism could be anything, you could call anything fascism. You merely choose Trump to be this "new form of fascism" so you can say that Trump is fascist without him really being linked to it at all. In reality, Trump is more nationalist than fascist. Your diatribe about Trump supporters redirecting criticism had nothing to do with fascism. Those things are not only a thing with fascists, and Trump supporters are not the only ones to do those things. Also, try to look back on Trump's speeches and find something that objectively is racist or misogynist and reconsider whether or not that observation was just mindless rants from his enemies. Your Google image search of "dumb Trump supporters lol" doesn't hide your blatant strawman. Face it, Trump supporters are far too contradictory of each other,too self-confident, and too challenged to create some dictatorship

[@ElectricDidact]

I definitely agree that mass movements are never monolithic, and, as I say in the video, I don't think that Trump or American fascism is reminiscent of Nazism or dictatorship. But I don't mean to claim that contradiction is fascism's only characteristic. My argument (and Eco's, I believe) is that fascism is specifically an ideology that builds UPON racist, nationalist, xenophobic and fatalist ideas in the interest of reacting against threats to traditional power structures (which, in the U.S., trend white-, male-, and capitalist-dominated). Ironically, the impetus of fascistic movements lies in the very structures it attempts to rescue. I think it's hard to disentangle the idea of fascism as bricolage, a *mode* of political signification (see Eco), from fascism as a historical set of concrete dictatorships/social movements. But I think the distinction can usefully by made.

[@WhaleManMan]

Mussolini didn't. Franco didn't. Papadopoulos didn't.

[@MichaelShulski]

MJ Red hey there neckbeard see Umberto Eco's essay on ur fascism. It's not left wing you moron

[@WhaleManMan]

@Nobby Heads No. I've changed my mind on a lot of what I've said in this comment. I dont think "Trump hasnt said anything objectively racist or sexist" anymore but I do still think Trump supporters are too dumb and arrogant to create a true dictatorship.

[@WhaleManMan]

@Nobby Heads Those points are there but it's not necessarily all about that. America would also need to be in such a vulnerable and desperate state that we would have to give emergency powers to him. Also, would Trump really want to be dictator? Is that his goal? One of the most telling things is how he ignored the Coronavirus and helped businesses even tho he could have used panic over the virus and poverty to take more control. It tells me that he doesn't want to be dictator hes just a corporate stooge.