“It should be awkward to NOT talk about politics these days,” a quote I read on my IG feed. And I agree! The situation in Minneapolis has gotten a lot of people talking and the word we hear a lot is facism. Hyperbole? I think not. Especially when the head of ICE looks like this:

While Greg Bovino’s style choices may be neither here nor there, it is interesting to see how the term fascist has become an increasingly accepted term to describe the second administration of Donald Trump. It wasn’t that people weren’t calling him that the first time around. They were. It’s just that everyone from MAGA hats to Marxists would dismiss those accusations as over exaggerated defamations from liberals holding sour grapes after the embarrassing defeat of Hillary Clinton. Which was also partially true. But, what no one wants to admit now, the “libs”, whom everyone has been trying to “own” the last ten years, were actually RIGHT. So a word of advice to the Left and center-left: if everyone can agree that Trump is a “fascist”, then someone owes someone an apology. Maybe Terence Ray is right; It’s time for truth and reconciliation between leftists and liberals.

But that’s not what I want to talk about. Firstly, I want to chagrin at my lack of credentials in discussing this topic. I ain’t a sociologist or political scientist (I am, however, a historian. And that’s a hill I’m willing to die on). For more qualified views, I recommend Hannah Arendt and Robert O. Paxton. The point I’m wanting to make is fascism is considered a flavor of authoritarianism, generally speaking, and Trumpism is a subflavor of fascism, or possibly a different subcategory of authoritarianism altogether. I suppose it’s the wannabe academic in me that wants to define our terms and not get things conflated. In sum, while there are notable similarities, Trumpism and fascism are fundamentally two different things (even if those distinctions are merely academic to the casual eye).

First let’s start with the differences. The historical differences are obvious. Strictly speaking, fascism was a heavily influential ideology in Europe from the 1920s on up to 1945. Key components were national renewal via purging the “Other” (for example, antisemitism), militarism, and the merging of corporate interests with state interests under the control of a despotic figure. Another interesting component was a social Darwinian promulgation of “the will”, or, in simpler terms: “might makes right”. While it’s easy to draw parallels between the fascism of Europe to Trumpism in 21st century America, the biggest difference to me is this: cynicism.

To be honest, I can’t speak much to Mussolini, but I think it’s safe to say that Hitler was very much a believer in the bullshit he spewed. While the Nazis attracted its share of hooligans and grifters, the leaders who fueled its engine: Hitler, Goebbels, Bormann, Himmler, etc were all true believers. No doubt, Trump has a few “true believers” in his cabinet, but if you put a gun to my head and asked me if I thought he held any genuine ideology in regards to the US or the conservative movement in which he hijacked, I’d tell you ‘no’. Every action the president has committed both times in office has been in service to his own enrichment and preservation. Therein lies the biggest distinction between Trumpism and fascism. Hitler and Goebbels committed suicide and went down with the ideology they proclaimed. Trump would never. While it’s obvious that Trump and his movement have disdain for large segments of the population, there’s a very American flavor to Trumpism that was perhaps absent in 1930s Germany and Italy—a flavor that could only appear in late stage capitalism: an unbridled passion for narcissistic self-interest.

Anywho, I’m tired of writing for today. Maybe I’ll pick this up later. I’ll let you know 👍