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Origin of Fascism: Humiliation

Dans La Lune

Do you read Sutter Cane?
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A common element in fascism that cannot be understated, but is often overlooked: Humiliation.

Those who are drawn to extremes often, almost always, suffer some form of humiliation. Many actors who fail and are rejected from the entertainment industry have become right-wing fringe figures. Many artists. The Daily Wire is filled with writers and actors who've been expelled from their industries. Hitler was a failed artist and received brutal criticism before he entered politics. There are people who exploit this sentiment in others, and there are those who are drawn towards extreme right-wing ideology because personal humiliation. This humiliation may be in losing a job and being unable to provide for family, or it could be rejection in relationships (hence the often-fascist nature of the incel communities). Failure and rejection can be a powerful thing, and it can manifest in dark ways if those on the receiving end feel that life has no meaning.

Fascism takes hold of a society when this sentiment is felt by broad swaths of the public, and cannot be averted without equally broad changes to the status quo. Individual grievances easily become nationalist movements when sizeable elements of the population feel the same way, and it's incredibly easy to blame failures the system contributes to on elements within that system (immigrants, minorities, LGBTQ). The hyper-masculinity aspect of fascism is thus pretty easy to understand. It's over-compensation for perceived emasculation.
 
That's a very interesting thesis. Never thought of it that way, but it makes a lot of sense...

MAGA was just feeling left behind by the modern world. So they just want to blow the whole thing up.
 
ataraxia said:
That's a very interesting thesis. Never thought of it that way, but it makes a lot of sense...
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No it doesnt. That is an example of a desperate attempt to justify what one already believes.
ataraxia said:
MAGA was just feeling left behind by the modern world. So they just want to blow the whole thing up.
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Thats just stupid.
 
ataraxia said:
That's a very interesting thesis. Never thought of it that way, but it makes a lot of sense...

MAGA was just feeling left behind by the modern world. So they just want to blow the whole thing up.
Click to expand...

It's one of the drivers of the fake victim routine that is central to the mindset of the overwhelming number of people who identify as "conservatives."
 
Henrich Himmler is the poster child of what you're referring to. So is Hitler, the guy was a lifelong failure except at whipping up the crazies in his country to make Germany great again.
 
Mr Person said:
It's one of the drivers of the fake victim routine that is central to the mindset of the overwhelming number of people who identify as "conservatives."
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Give me two examples.
 
iliveonramen said:
Henrich Himmler is the poster child of what you're referring to. So is Hitler, the guy was a lifelong failure except at whipping up the crazies in his country to make Germany great again.
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And Trump is a lifelong success story. So much for this dopey theory.
 
Dans La Lune said:
a failed artist and received brutal criticism before he entered politics.
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Really? I've read a lot on Hitler, and I have never come across anything like this. After his father died he had some money, was a self styled bohemian in Vienna and was pretty aimless. After not being accepted to the Vienna Academy, he became a bit depressed, but there was no nemesis that "humiliated" him. He had his own delusions of being an artist exposed, but that was a self inflicted injury.

As far as the German population being "humiliated", there is no doubt that Versailles initially imposed hard punishment for Wilhelm's stupid aggression, but by 1930 most of the economic penalties had been removed/decreased. Hitler by that time had the "stab in the back" propaganda down pat, simultaneously combining that antisemitism with nationalism and anti-communism. He took advantage of these confluences to create a story of resentment and victimhood even though Jews only made up less than 2% of the population and Schact had managed to get inflation under control...and attracting loans from US banks.
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There were many in Germany who recognized how radical Hitler was and warned in newspapers and pamphlets, but were not able to sway the population. It was a population with prevalent racism in the south, a militaristic Prussian/conservative north and a socialism/communism minority sprinkled around Berlin. Hitler was a good speaker, a mesmerizing figure and a master of propaganda. We can see in current history how far a guy like that can go, even in a population like ours where there is no mass "humiliation" to speak of.

I'll go back to my standard argument on rightwing authoritarianism, it is a characteristic every human has, some more than others, and they are strong followers and leaders, more so as that bias is present. Again, we see it here, now, where it becomes evident and gets reinforced when an extreme member becomes a leader. They are able to take advantage of economic stress, they offer easy answers for discomforts and create false enemies, whether it is communists, Jews or immigrants.
 
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Fletch said:
Thats just stupid.
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Yes, and that's why instead we should be running around chasing after pet eating Haitians in Ohio, cancer causing wind turbines, secret Kenyan birth certificates, stolen presidential elections, and the like.
 

 
ataraxia said:
Yes, and that's why instead we should be running around chasing after pet eating Haitians in Ohio, cancer causing wind turbines, secret Kenyan birth certificates, stolen presidential elections, and the like.
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You do that.
 
Fletch said:
Trump is a lifelong success story.
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Donny was born on 3rd base with a golden spoon up his ass, gained a huge inheritance, managed his way into 6 bankruptcies. If he had simply left Fred's money in a market index fund, he would have been so far ahead of where he is. You are just buying into the Trump myth like the German population fell for the Hitler myth, believing a failed artist who couldn't manage his own finances until his book was hit was somehow going to make Germany great again.

Your lot is so ****ing blind.
 
ataraxia said:
The Ayatollah Khomeini was a yuuuge success story too.

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He managed to overthrow a brutal dictatorship and stopped a genocidal invasion of his country backed by the United States, who helped carry out chemical weapons attacks on Iranian civilians.

So gee, yeah, he actually was.
 
So, essentially, the more you humiliate someone the more justified you are in calling them a Fascist? Based on what I'm seeing from the political left, this makes PERFECT sense.
 
Lutherf said:
So, essentially, the more you humiliate someone the more justified you are in calling them a Fascist? Based on what I'm seeing from the political left, this makes PERFECT sense.
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No, that's not what she said.

But the fact that you seem to feel humiliated by "the political left" is exactly the point.
 
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