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A post saying “Please don’t anthropomorphize fascists” just crossed my TL (not linking to avoid dunking), and…as much as I appreciate the snark, I can’t endorse that.
Don’t get me wrong: I’m 100% on board with “Don’t coddle fascists,”“Don’t infantilize fascists,” “Don’t be gentle with fascists.”
Punch fascists, yes please. “Be compassionate” is NOT where I’m going. Where I’m going is “never think it couldn’t be you, or me, or the person next to you.”
1/
If I take any bite-sized insight from Hannah Arendt’s “Eichmann in Jerusalem,” it’s that fascists •are• people: ordinary, boring, could-be-anyone human beings. “The banality of evil” means, among other things, “the human-ness of evil.”
The only things that keeps you or me or any human being from being fascist is vigilance against fascism.
2/
I suspect there’s a great comfort in the idea that fascists aren’t real humans. It means we’re off the hook, doesn’t it? “We’re truly human, so that could never be us! We’re different!”
It’s a comfortable idea.
Dangerously comfortable.
3/
But if I’ve avoided succumbing to fascism, it’s because I’ve had the privilege of wonderful parents, teachers, friends, peers, people all around me who’ve helped me spot patterns of oppression and cruelty in the world and •in myself•.
Privilege. Good fortune.
Not being a different species. Not — I am saying this slowly — genetic superiority.
4/
Cruelty, authoritarianism, genocide, all the parts of humanity I abhor most — I am •unwilling• to entertain the idea that the potential for these things does not exist somewhere in me.
I am unwilling because I never, ever want fascism to take root in me. I don’t know how it would happen, but I do believe it would start with complacency.
I believe that it •could• be me, or you, and therefore we must fight every day to make sure it never is.
Antifascism is a practice, not a genetic trait.
/end
@inthehands “There, but for the grace of god, go I,” indeed
@standev @inthehands it's eternal vigilance too.. One needs to always be aware of oneself.
@michaelcoyote yes, but given different preconditions we might not even have the opportunity for that.
@inthehands Fascism can be learned, by anyone, and perhaps more critically, it can be UNlearned, by anyone.
(But it ain't easy.)
Edit: added "by anyone" on Paul's good advice.
@jima To that I would only add “by anyone” (both parts)
@inthehands Fair. Amended!
@inthehands Othering is a great hobby if you want to avoid making any real progress happen.
@inthehands a lot of times it's about having antibodies - you need to reach people with the vaccine before the antiwoke mind virus gets to them
n95
@julieofthespirits @inthehands its not perfect or permanent.
Like a cold. You are NEVER IMMUNE.
If you forget that you lose the partial immunity you have.
@CatHat @inthehands yeah, there can always be a new strain. I think one of the reasons Trump won was because a lot of people in the US didn't really have antibodies against a right that *wasn't* a Helen Lovejoy right; I'm currently very worried that a lot of Argentines don't have antibodies against a right that's not a gray military officer and that uses a more libertarian/ancap discourse
@julieofthespirits @inthehands
No. White supremacy and eugenics are inherently American.
This has always been here.
Theres no vaccine. Partial immunity can be created by educating people.
Especially kids.
BUT.
The first line of defense is watching YOURSELF.
@inthehands this reminds me of this essay, which is well worth a read: https://harpers.org/archive/1941/08/who-goes-nazi/
@Loungeiguana
“His code is not his own; it is that of his class—no worse, no better, He fits easily into whatever pattern is successful. That is his sole measure of value—success. Nazism as a minority movement would not attract him. As a movement likely to attain power, it would.” 
@Loungeiguana What a fascinating study — of fascism but also of its time, of its author. Thank you.