We are under Fascism now.

The quote in the title, for those of you not old enough to remember, was from a famous and frequently shown TV commercial of a woman’s manicurist, named Madge, soaking that client’s fingers in a bright green liquid. The woman is mildly appalled when the trusted Madge reveals that she’s been softening up her client’s fingers in water infused with Palmolive Dishwashing Liquid. Well, she never would imagined a professional manicurist would use dishwashing liquid as a pre-treatment! But Palmolive is that soft on a woman’s hands, “even while you do the dishes”, supposedly.  There’s your explanation, younger ones.

Like that poor woman getting the manicure back in 70s, I’ve got to tell you that you’re soaking in something, and its not to get you ready for a manicure, it’s Fascism.

Look at just this partial list of fascist characteristics readily apparent to all who are paying attention.

An ever-growing tide of racism and white supremacy disseminated by a Rightwing media for decades now, and which now has a deranged, ignorant, and yes, highly-racist, warmongering megalomaniac as its titular head. Rightwing media that have worked very hard to make racism cool and edgy and anti-racists as fuddy-duddies, weenies, Debbie Downers, and conformists, as they have been enabled to do since the end of the Fairness Doctrine. Voter suppression on a national level and very little national awareness and even less outrage, in spite of the courageous work of the NAACP, Greg Palast, and other individuals and groups fighting against it. A militarized society that sees war as a form of entertainment and national pride, as a sort of sporting event in which our side is sure to win, since there’s no danger to its spectators cheering it on, unlike those on receiving end of our war-making. Everywhere are people who feel chills and a sense of purpose in the most rank and cretinized forms of patriotism–waving and posting flags as if that means anything but a dangerous conditioning to worship and to find the utmost existential purpose in loyalty to them, without any true understanding–no more–the actual disdaining of the principles for which they supposedly stand because national superiority is their true god and only vision of the future. The proud, jingoist proclaiming of ‘Merica, and ‘American Pride’, ‘Proud to be 100% American’ and other such everyday things that have become so normal most people don’t care or notice.  Fascist street gangs and a white supremacist movement. Scapegoating of immigrants, who by many are seen as a sub-human menace. Hate crimes on the rise against Jews, Muslims (even those who are wrongly perceived to be Muslims), immigrants, and people of color. The most powerful military with the greatest reach and establishment the world has ever seen, ardently supported as a sacred expression of the National Will. Civil liberties disappearing, and again, a good portion of the population wanting to see them disappear as the terrible and disobedient thing they supposedly are. Savage resistance to the equality of women and the celebration of those who abuse and exploit them as something funny and all just good fun. The end of privacy and a surveillance state. Police departments militarizing in order to ruthlessly suppress the groundswell surely building against decades of economic and racial inequalities and socioeconomic oppression in the loss of labor rights. The indisputable dominance of corporations in everything we do, in our very minds and culture, as corporations constantly train us in the ways of selfishness and the triumph of the individual as the only way of relating to each other and so in the of ordering of our socioeconomic system, substituting petty pleasures and a worldview that comes to a screeching halt at the chain-link fence at the front and back yard. Social isolation, atomization, and alienation brought on not just by the commercialized culture but by the very devices we use. Little solidarity with those who share your economic and social situation, no matter how much they have in common and how irresistible they could be is they worked together to overthrow their oppressors. The impossibility of collective and civic action for the masses of people, most of whom it seems are fatalistic now at whatever personal tragedies befall them and are trained from their earliest schooling , workplaces, and in media and entertainment that they have only themselves to blame. Low voter turnout because the political system and life stays just as bad for most people no matter who is voted into office.

When is it time to call it what it is? I say that time is now. I think it is a waste of time to debate whether that Donald J. Trump is a Fascist, or that we are headed toward Fascism, when so much of what is known as fascistic is already here. If this current Fascism–admittedly in an early stage–is to grow into something that most persons would recognize as such, a recognition that usually takes place when put under arrest for your views or skin color, or in a concentration camp, then future historians will judge this time, specifically, the election of Donald J. Trump, as the black dawning of the American Fascist period. They may even delineate that period as the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001, because of the wave of patriotism and jingoism resulting from it which made it so much easier for the George W. Bush administration to deceive the nation into believing a third-rate power like Iraq was an existential threat to the United States that must be preemptively invaded. The scariest result of ultranationalism and militarism as dominant national values and the only unifying vision of the future for so many has been that so many are willing to follow a textbook fascist leader and demagogue like Donald J. Trump. They did so because they had no where else to turn and the condition for a leader like Trump are ripe. Our response to 9-11 helped to set the stage for this.

We are in Fascism now. It is dangerous and useless to wait for Fascism to truly arrive, or to say, ‘well, I really would not call this Fascism yet’, as one waits for a cake to finish baking. Social processes just don’t work that way and they always take a lot of time. Fascism is a process and we are already well along enough in that process to call it what it is and respond accordingly. Fascism is a social and popularly supported process that is developed over time as the result of elites wanting to keep economic and racial superiority within a severely unequal and hence oppressive socioeconomic system. Fascism is of course ultranationalist and so is imperial, in that one’ superior nation is only so in comparison to others. It is competitive. Since the globe and its resources are finite, the imperial aggression of Fascism means that other nations and people must suffer and lose out so the superior nation can continue to be glorified. This is the ultimate flowering and inevitable outcome of nationalism: war, death, and destruction, all the more for those who proclaim these as their most cherished values in the first place, for Fascists are as dangerous to the nation they rule as to the nations they victimize. According to Umberto Eco, who wrote about Fascism as something that has been with us throughout history in many guises, yet still recognizable, Fascists are doomed to lose wars because they simultaneously overestimate and underestimate the strength of their enemies, e.g., in Italian Fascist propaganda, the English were both overfed softies while the British Empire was a threat to the Italian people.

Trump is a man for these times. He is not as dumb as he looks and acts, as disgusting as that obviously is. No, he knew, as many who supported him, many, such as Rush Limbaugh, Fox News, the owners of the nation, et al, and have worked to bring into existence the ugly situation described above, that this is exactly the right time for a person like himself. The ground was very fertile and the current political system does not work for most people.  That is when many people look to something different. Since the U.S. population and society are so individualized and do not have much social solidarity, nor much time for political activity, a form of Fascism is exactly what is appropriate and serves the interest of the rulers of society, the rich and powerful. The rulers are afraid and that is why they must train us to coalesce around the only form of collectivism that serves them: nationalism, ultranationalism and finally Fascism.

Fascism does not have to look like other fascisms of the past. It will morph according to cultural and historical conditions. At its heart it is social-Darwinist, competitive, and elitist. It arises in a time of trouble for the ruling classes. It is the ultimate expression of their order with them on top and will use violence and the overthrow of democratic institutions and rights to get it, even though they cannot get rid of them all at once. Many, such as my ability to write this, may be with us for a few more years, but eventually, they must be eliminated for Fascism to mature. You may be asking: ‘How? How will the people allow this to happen?’ The thing is that many of the general population want this to happen or do not care if it happens, as Fascist movements of the past have indeed shown. Hitler and Mussolini were elected then deformed their political systems to their Fascist wills with the help of Fascist movements, parties, and their allies in business and organized religion. Things are so bad, e.g., many working folks are crushed by debt because of their shrunken wages and salaries, extortionist medical fees, lack of well-paying jobs, etc.,  that many more are willing to take a chance on a demagogue like Trump; many of these are alarmed about the perceived destruction of their world of white racial and cultural superiority and blame those peoples they despise for their precarious and hopeless economic situation. Of course, the blame should be placed on those that have the most managerial powers over society, its class superiors and owners and be definition its rulers. They “have mismanaged” as Ernest Everhard of Jack London’s terrifying and visionary novel of Fascism, “The Iron Heel”, said, and they have been running society into the ground and profiting handsomely as they are doing it.

The trap in which many are insnared is called “personal responsibility”: a harmless and sensible-sounding phrase used by conservatives, the Live-and-Let-Die “libertarians”, and ultra-individualists, to justify ever-worsening social inequality. This is one of the main reasons that so many see no connection between their personal lives and the political and economic system. This is why we are so vulnerable to what may happen. Which, of course, no one can really tell for sure, as signs of the groundswell and change, such as Black Lives Matter (which I consider Civil Rights 2.0) and the popularity of Bernie Sanders, of whom I have known and admired a very long time and would have never guessed would become a beloved and (rightly) trusted figure on a national level.

Still, let me pose a scenario. Suppose that a movement bolstered and built around a controversial idea, widely disseminated by mainly Rightwing media but gradually more accepted by the mainstream, that democratic institutions are outdated and inefficient. One recent example of this line of thought is Trump calling the U.S. justice system an inefficient, ineffectual “laughingstock” in his impatience for swift punishment of suspect Sayfullo Saipov in the aftermath of the deadly terrorist attack in New York City on October 31st.  Democracy, its elitist enemies, ideologies, and politicians will declare, while we want to keep it, must be updated and streamlined, made more responsive and efficient. Along with a streaming of our system of justice, or due process, it must be made more friendly to business and entrepreneurs with less environmental and labor regulations, much of which has already been done, by the way. Such a streamlining would inevitably place much more power in the hands of the executive. Such a movement probably already exists but I will not confirm that now and it might be considered “fringe” if it did.  But not altogether. I had mentioned voter suppression is already widespread and that right after 9-11 was an idea about in the media and parroted by many individuals that we would have to ‘give up many of our rights in order to be safe’ and this was a mainstream phenomenon. In fact, radio stations, again, owned by powerful Rightwing corporate interests, such as Clear Channel, self-censored. Now suppose this idea and movement rears its head in a time such as now where there is an autocratic and megalomaniacal fascist president, such as today. Needless to say, many of  Trump’s followers, and they are legion, are not not ardent supporters of democracy and popular rule, equality, etc. Remember as he was being nominated most were chanting “Yes You Will” as he outlined his agenda which is a far cry from the “Yes We Can” motto of Barack Obama’s campaign. Now imagine, that as a beleaguered U.S. President, that a crisis, probably of his making, such as war in North Korea, which he has tacitly threatened with nuclear annihilation and genocide, or another massive ISIS or Al-Queda terrorist attack, occurs. Another crisis to Trump might be his imminent impeachment, where he will refuse to relinquish power, democratic opposition to such a move by Trump is widespread and a state of emergency is declared. Another war or state of emergency would be the precipitating event and a tantalizing opportunity to remake society as is described in Naomi Klein’s The Shock Doctrine, where she quotes Milton Friedman . . .

It was in 1982 that Milton Friedman wrote the highly influential passage that best summarizes the shock doctrine: ‘Only a crisis – actual or perceived – produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around. That, I believe, is our basic function: to develop alternatives to existing policies, to keep them alive and available until the politically impossible becomes politically inevitable . . . (p. 166).  (Taken from blog.kloppmagic.ca, “Favorite Quotes from “The Shock Doctrine”)

He may have adequate support for the defiant and bold move of refusing to leave office already (a majority of the population is not needed), which would include many police departments, a fraction of the military, Fascist organizations such as the Proud Boys, neo-Nazis, white nationalists, et al, to even “temporarily suspend the Constitution” (similar to the coup d’etat that established the dystopia of Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale“), almost total civil intimidation, jail or even kill politicians and civic leaders who oppose him, and take power. Then the Fascism we have now will look like what most people would recognize as such.

No one, ever less so this author, can accurately predict the future. Hopefully, Trump can be removed from office legally or he resigns. I merely want to give an example of how what we have now could get far worse. Unlike the allegory of the frog put into a pot of water coming to a boil, we need to recognize the danger we and our children are in and jump out. Fight against the Fascism we already have now to keep it from getting worse and dooming this country, its society, and many in the wider world for generations to come. In an era of nuclear weaponry it could even mean the end of civilization in its present form, for hundreds or perhaps thousands of years, or its complete destruction with no chance for regrowth or revitalization.