Failure to learn from history leads to brink of fascism
Editor's note: David Hoffman said he read with great interest the guest opinion in last Sunday's News-Press and Naples Daily News by Robert Hilliard of Sanibel about what he views as the rise of authoritarianism. "With DeSantis now seeking the office of president, and potentially bringing this authoritarianism nationwide," he wrote, he has submitted this commentary as a follow-up.
Throughout the centuries, human nature has not changed very much, thus making history a pendulum incessantly swinging between overreaction and regret, due to the failure to learn from it.
So, here are ten reasons why this failure may be leading America to the brink of fascism.
One: The dehumanization of those who are “different.” A fundamental tactic of fascists is to camouflage their true goals behind lofty words like “freedom” and “liberty.” But the only freedom they truly care about is their own. This is why Diversity, Equity, and Inclusiveness (DEI) have become anathema to many right-wing politicians on local, state and federal levels. But what antitheses are they embracing? If Diversity is bad, does this mean that the only ones who are “good” are those who look, act, talk, and think like everyone else? If Equity is bad, does this mean that Inequity, often based upon criteria like race, religion, gender or sexual orientation, is good? If Inclusion is bad, does this mean that a new Jim Crow style of segregation erected on the same criteria is now good?
Two: The exploitation of the “Great Lie” theory. Politicians, of all ideological stripes, have often effectively deployed the “great lie” theory that Adolf Hitler expounded upon in “Mein Kampf.” Today, with millions still believing, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, that there was fraud in the 2020 election and beyond, America is frighteningly demonstrating its capacity to be infected by “great lies.”
Three: Right-wing propaganda disguised as “news.” With the recent revelations about how right-wing news outlets chose to spread lies about election fraud, despite privately expressing doubts about it, profits, views, ratings, and political agendas have supplanted ethics and integrity. And with several powerful news and social media sites in the hands of likeminded individuals, this trend is likely to continue.
Four: A Social Darwinistic view of medicine. Founded by Herbert Spencer in the 1800s, Social Darwinism’s ideology of “survival of the fittest” disdains preventative medical care, such as vaccinations, in the belief that those not strong enough to naturally survive a disease deserve to die. This philosophy reverberated during the COVID pandemic, with some even openly proclaiming that many of those who died from this disease “were on their last legs anyway.”
Five: Appeasement of right-wing extremism and lawlessness. In 1938, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain engaged in a policy of appeasement in response to Hitler’s aggression in Europe, and the world learned an ominous lesson: You can never appease fascists. In today’s America, many politicians are passively, and some even actively, appeasing the right-wing extremists who are hijacking the Republican Party, frequently ignoring, and in some cases embracing and even promising to pardon, right-wing criminality.
Six: Indoctrination instead of education. One of Hitler’s earliest endeavors was to replace honest teaching with fascist propaganda, making obsequiousness, rigid conformity, rabid nationalism, racism and anti-intellectualism the norm. In today’s America, through book bans and the censoring of subjects, right-wing politicians and organizations claiming to be fighting against indoctrination are actually covertly striving to achieve it.
Seven: The weaponization of hate. Even though the world is still painfully aware of the atrocities committed during the rise of fascism in Europe, in today’s America right-wing politicians who incite hatred towards others can now be elected to political office more easily than those displaying even a modicum of compassion.
Eight: Dilution of voting rights and expulsion of rival politicians. Another tactic in Hitler’s rise to power was the expulsion of politicians from rival political parties. In today’s America, the voting rights of persons of color and college-age youth are currently under attack, and the nation is already seeing the germination of the expulsion strategy playing out in states like Montana and Tennessee.
Nine: Myopic, oblivious and cultish devotion to political leaders. As history has proven, fascist leaders arise because many of their devotees have invested so much time believing in such leaders that they are often more than willing to lose their own rights, freedoms, and even their lives, just to avoid admitting they were duped.
Ten: The most ominous harbinger of all. In Germany, in 1924, a prominent leader of a burgeoning right-wing extremist political party incited an attempted coup. In today’s America, a prominent leader of a burgeoning right-wing extremist political party is also alleged to have incited an attempted coup. Everyone knows how that turned out for Germany. So, let’s learn from history, and stop the pendulum from swinging the same way in the United States.
David R. Hoffman is a retired civil rights and constitutional law attorney residing in South Bend, Indiana.
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Failure to learn from history leads to brink of fascism
