In what year did World War II start? Depends on the country, for the USA was 1941, for Poland was 1939 but the indicators can be traced well into the 1920s.
History is repeating
Nobody wants to think that their cozy existence could end up in an authoritarian global armed conflict. That was the case also back in the 1920s. Fast forward 100 years later, and many people are just as distracted and oblivious as they were back then. And those who raised the alarms were ignored, mocked, and ridiculed. These indicators are happening again, and I for one want to prevent authoritarianism from galvanizing.
One of the catalysts for WWII was the rise of Benito Mussolini into power on October 31, 1922 – you can thank this blunder to King Emanuel III for appointing Mussolini as the Italian Prime Minister. Mussolini was already a very divisive figure, and he was also a narcissist psychopath. However, Mussolini’s toxic masculinity was for some reason seen as an attribute, and the King thought Mussolini would be able to bring some discipline to align all factions.
So, yes authoritarian discipline is exactly what happened – but in the worst possible way. Mussolini is known as the father of fascism, because he is the one that instituted this form of authoritarianism. Essentially, he wanted to bring the “prestige of the Roman Empire” back to Italy. To this end he mobilized a violent eradication of anybody who would disagree with him. He also invaded Ethiopia – because the more sophisticated Italian military was able to squash them quite easily. Mussolini was also cozying up to other extreme-right tyrants, for example Hitler and Franco.
Mussolini wanted to “Make Italy Great Again” – literally that was their slogan – how onymous is that, right? Hitler also used “Make Germany Great Again” – and subsequently was able to capitalize on Mussolini’s tactics and took them to the next level. One of those tactics was to find a scape goat for all “the -good population -troubles” – and that is why they specifically targeted Jewish, Roman people (gypsies), homosexuals, disabled people, or anybody else who could be an easy target. This dehumanization did not occur overnight – it took some time to normalize it. Much like divisively dehumanizing rhetoric is being normalized right now, and anybody who calls it out gets mocked or humiliated by neo-fascists.
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The disgusting fascist playbook
Like it or not, the fascist movement is on the extreme right of the political spectrum. One of the reasons why people feel so “patriotic” and “justified” to do whatever is it that they are mandated to do under fascism, is because they are also strongly devoted to a divine deity. That way whatever they are doing, even if it is genocidal in nature, it will seem as though it was “divinely mandated” – a struggle between “good and evil” – and they tout themselves the “good” – even if they are the genocidal crowd. Surprise!
Not everybody was onboard with Mussolini’s doctrines and tactics before he galvanized his power, and even back then people saw him as a narcissistic psychopath and foresaw the danger that was rapidly approaching – and how his ego was going to drag everybody along with him.
However, there was no shortage of people who thought these warnings were tangential, hysteria-based, irrelevant, hyperbolic, false, you name it. And people who were looking the other way were in denial even though there was rising violence, raids, and other brawls against particular segments of the population. These were happening very gradually – at first. Once the fascists galvanized their power, this violence escalated exponentially.
Once he got complete power it did not matter if somebody was a fan of Mussolini and the fascists. As he gained unilateral power, everybody realized that if they spoke out of turn Mussolini’s thugs would thusly kill whomever complained. In other words, although many were still in denial that Mussolini and his thugs were bad news, they very well understood what the penalty for disobedience was.
So, what’s the lesson? History is repeating itself, but this time is not only from one regime. There are multiple regimes in the world who are falling and have fallen into neo-fascism. The USA itself is at risk of falling for a neo-fascist regime. That is why the 2024 election is going to be so pivotal on how the world will look in 2025, or if we are embroiled in global conflict.
This is how you spot if you’re favoring the fascist candidate. They are divisive, and will attack groups of the population, will use “god” as a weapon against all sinners. They will also prompt violence, and claim that the current system is the worst it has ever been, even if the numbers and statistics that are measurable and demonstrable prominently display the opposite. A fascist will traffic in the court of public opinion, they are wimps in the sense that they are thin-skinned when called out, but would be very much onboard with giving their opposition demeaning nicknames, and quite frankly sophomoric epithets.
Their arguments are controversial, and the talking points are very easily debunkable, they will get their base to emphasize in the “anger” but make them believe they are “patient” and “tolerant” of others only until the “dear leader” is ready to set all those dissenters straight. However, they never fight an issue on the merits, instead they attack a person’s looks, or any other physical or low-hanging-fruit “flaws.”
I’ve written several articles, and my book Authoritarianism & Propaganda the Puppet Master Tools to expand in detail about these disturbing indicators. This article is meant to give you some insight, and awaken your introspection in the event you’ve fallen victim to their narrative.
If you have, don’t beat yourself up, because this trap is designed to highjack your best and most noble values – via your biases. If anything, you can defuse the neo-fascist power by calling them out, and help others escape. History is repeating, and this time will be a lot worse than WWII. That’s what I want us to prevent – together. HLC