One of the most perceptive analyses of Trump and his followers was written more than two decades ago. I’m talking, of course, of Umberto Eco’s oft-discussed essay on what he calls Ur Fascism or Eternal Fascism, his attempt to set forth the central features that define Fascism. I reread it today for the umpteenth time, and was struck again by its eerie prescience.
Though it contains precisely zero references to Trump — who at the time was just a real estate mogul with a penchant for boasts and bankruptcy — Eco’s 14-point checklist describing what makes a fascist a fascist applies to Trump and Trumpism in so many ways it’s scary.
Let’s go through the list, shall we? The bold parts are Eco’s categories; the rest is my commentary.
The cult of tradition: Trump frequently harks back to what he sees as a former golden age for America. His slogan, after all, is Make America Great Again.
The rejection of modernism: Trump has famously said that he thinks “a lot of modern art is a con.” In the final days of his campaign a number of his most fervent followers convinced themselves that Hillary was a literal devil worshiper because her campaign chair John Podesta was once invited to a so-called “Spirit Cooking” dinner held by performance artist Marina Abramovic. Many of Trump’s fans seem to actually believe that her artistic performances are in fact Satanic rituals.
The cult of action for action’s sake: Trump is a whirligig of pointless action who repeatedly declared that Hillary was unfit for president because sometimes she took a day or two off from campaign events, and was even known to go to sleep from time to time.
Disagreement is treason: Trump has repeatedly called the press “corrupt” for not accepting his version of reality. During his rallies he regularly led what Orwell might have called “two-minute hates” against journalists covering his campaign. Trump’s fans ultimately began chanting “lügenpresse” at journalists; the term, German for “lying press,” was originally made popular by, yes, literal Nazis in literal Hitler’s Germany.
Fear of difference: Do I even need to cite examples here? Trump’s campaign, which began with a bizarre attack on Mexican immigrants, was largely based around Trump’s weaponization of this primal fear.
The appeal to a frustrated middle class: Again, do I even need to bother with examples? Trump’s whole campaign centered around his attempts to convince white middle-class Americans that they had more to fear from poor people of color than from wealthy tax-avoiders and serial-bankruptcy-declarers like him.
The obsession with a plot, possibly an international one: Trump, like many of his followers, is both a proud nationalist and a conspiracy theorist. He kicked off his political career alleging that Obama wasn’t born in America; last week he declared that the anti-Trump protests that have sprung up all over the country in the wake of his electoral college victory are the work of “professional protestors, incited by the media.” Trump’s fans on the alt-right blame everything on a cabal of Jewish globalists, a charge Trump himself echoed in the final ad for his campaign.
The followers must feel humiliated by the ostentatious wealth and force of their enemies: You might have thought that Trump, in many ways the poster boy for ostentatious wealth, would have had a hard time pretending that Hillary and her supporters were the privileged ones. But Trump was somehow able to convince his fans he was a sort of “billionaire Robin Hood,” as Trump admirer Piers Morgan put it, while portraying Hillary as “a career politician who has repeatedly fleeced her positions of power to make millions of dollars for herself and her husband, and who carried with her a permanent smug sense of entitlement to be America’s first female president.”
Life is permanent warfare: Trump is someone who will go to war against a former beauty queen on Twitter at 3 AM. He’s always fighting someone. His advisors and surrogates also live in a constant state of war — from ideological scrapper Steve Bannon, the former Breitbart boss who Trump just picked as chief White House chief strategist, to spokeswoman Katrina Pierson, known to wear a literal necklace of bullets during her media appearances. Meanwhile, Trump’s alt-right fans — particularly those who learned virtually everything they know about politics from 4chan and Gamergate — are happy to serve tirelessly in Trump’s unofficial meme army.
Popular elitism: Given Trump’s penchant for superlatives, is it any shock to find his fans declaring themselves “the best supporters?”
Everybody is educated to become a hero: Declaring that “I alone can fix it,” Trump famously presented himself as the one true savior of American society. This makes voting for him, or wearing a Make America Great Again hat, itself a kind of heroism.
Machismo: The constant sexual boasting (including his casual admissions of sexual assault); the relentless misogyny; the schoolyard threats of violence — does anyone doubt that Trump wants the world to see him as the ultimate “alpha male?”
And then there’s that whole Wrestlemania thing.
Against “rotten” parliamentary governments: Trump clearly has very little comprehension of how government works, seeming to think that the president has or should have almost unlimited power. We’ll just have to see what happens the first time a legislative body stands in the way of his political desires.
Ur-Fascism speaks Newspeak: Trump’s fans have invented a whole weird lingo of their own, calling themselves “nimble navigators” and/or “cenntipedes” and flooding the web with Pepe memes. Trump hasn’t adopted any of this lingo for himself, but he does speak his own, distinctively Trumpian, version of American English — big league! Trump’s speeches are collections of slogans and platitudes; he regularly reduces his opponents to single insulting adjectives — “lyin’ Ted,” “little Marco,” “crooked Hillary.” Trumpspeak, like Newspeak, is an impoverished language filled with thought-stopping cliches.
So there we have it.
Trump basically ticks every one of Eco’s fourteen points. And of course many of his supporters are Hitler-worshipping, Jew-hating, Holocaust-advocating white supremacists. All Trump seems to be missing, Fascism-wise, is an armband.
If you haven’t read Eco’s essay, go read it now. If you have read it, go read it again.
H/T — Thanks to Skiriki, who pointed out some of Trump’s similarities to Eco’s Eternal Fascist in the comments here yesterday.
EDIT: Added more on Trumpspeak.
I belive hitlers conviction and whole belief in his ideals is what persuaded people to vote for him. I don’t see that with trump. He is contradictory. He’s not quite sure. One day he says a thing the next day he says another. What he is is a mystery. But it is not the same as hitler. The real threat of trump is the people he has empowering to act on their beliefs. They are the ones with conviction. Trump is just their permission slip.
All trump wants is power and he simply said and did what was needed to get it. That was his spin.
Hitlers spin was to hide his real goals of genocide and empire building just long enough to get voted into power.
@Neveragaine
I apologize for my extreme wrongness about that. Everything just seems pretty wrong right now. So naturally I’m no exception.
I was doing research for a paper yesterday about internet anonymity and decided to include research about the Dark Triad of personality traits and after reading it I realized our new fondler in chief seems to exhibit all three. Note I am a college student and unqualified to diagnose anybody this is just an observation
@Valentine: agree with what you said re Trump. He flip-flops so much that I’m not even sure what a Trump presidency will look like, but his more deplorable supporters are frickin scary.
I might disagree with you about Hitler, however: Hitler announced his plans for genocide in Mein Kamp, and it was a large part of why many of the German people supported him- many, many Germans agreed with his notions.
Yeah, a lot of Alt-Righters and MRAs such as Davis Aurini think that Dark Triad traits are actually positive attributes in someone’s personality. They also think women are extremely attracted to those traits, so it makes sense that they would idolize someone that appears to have them. Plus it means you’re a badass Alpha male and helps you make cool Reservoir Dog videos.
@WWTH:
Because America’s sick of experts!! /s
@sliami:
Anybody who voted for Trump voted for racism too. They may not have liked or wanted the racism, just the “change”, but it’s part of the deal. It’s like buying a box filled with venomous snakes, when all you want is the box. You persuade yourself it’s all about the box, the snakes don’t matter…but nope, you paid for the snakes too. Some of that money goes to the snake breeders, and that money will encourage them to breed lots more poisonous snakes (bigger and with even more venom) because hey, snakes sell. If you bought that box of snakes, it’s because you wanted the box more than you hated the snakes. Well, congratulations: now your house is infested with snakes. Are you going to tiptoe around them and pretend they’re harmless?
Trump was very explicit that his idea of ‘change’ is to make all the scary unconventional people go away and restore white cishet men to the top of the pyramid. There is no excuse for Trump voters pretending they didn’t know this, or they knew it but weren’t okay with it but had to vote for Trump anyway because omg EMAILS.
Just out of interest, where is this from?
@Stephen Lawt
It’s a good idea not to even speculate about diagnosis on here. Check out the comments policy on that.
By the way,
Is so accurate and gross and sad. I feel sick. 🙁
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/julian-assange-questioning-swedish-allegations-1.3849507
….I want to say that there is a fight to be fought when it comes to either stalling this figure from taking office, or preventing him from affecting anyone adversely if he does.
I want there to be the ability to fight.
I want there for there to be that possibility, at the age of 16.
But maybe it’s just the result of a good lick of music playing as I type.
In all seriousness, we have much to do, ladies, gentlemen, and esteemed individuals of neither title.
@Makroth
No shit Sherlock. And? A is part of B does not mean that A is B. You can be a populist without being a fascist, and that’s Trump case. Fascism has a particular ideological backbone, which Trump lacks completely. Just because people have lazily started using “fascist” as a way to say “mean right-wing person” does not mean that words stop having meaning.
Sure thing, love. Also, don’t insult people with mental disabilities, it’s against the comment policy and not acceptable.
No shit Sherlock. You don’t even know my position on modern art, if it is even relevant to have a position on it as a whole. My point is that there is a wide and interesting debate about the status of modern art, where people much more competent than David argue about many points, and thus deciding that Trump is a fascist in part because he thinks modern art is a con, because the nazis held a similar belief (which isn’t even true: nazis did not think modern art was a con, they believed it influenced people to become degenerates, hence the need to destroy it. Read.) is miserably simplistic.
If you had any understanding of fascism at all, you would know what. Even in Eco’s vapid list, it contradicts at least one element. But if you want to disregard any item going against the idea that Trump is a fascist just so you can continue panicking, do.
Bannon is neo-fascist. Pence is a religious traditional republican and as such, a moron. I thought the article was about Trump, though.
There’s nothing to disprove. The article and the reactions are a messy mix of half-digested political notions by people who spent too much time on blogs. The direct consequence of the bubble-era Internet, and nothing with any substance.
@kale:
If you can mold this unintelligible gibberish into English, I’ll be happy to address it.
@Scildfreja
Finally!
@ vicky p
Theresa May having a further subtle dig at Farage (it’s a little joke based on an old Princess Diana interview)
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/nov/14/theresa-may-does-not-need-third-person-nigel-farage-in-trump-relationship-no-10
Yeah, how dare we judge Trump by the people he intends to have in his administration? That has nothing to do with Trump! Stop being hysterical!
I have sought to make clear to my kids and other young people that opposition to Trump and Trumpism is not just a leftist action. It’s an anti fascist action, and people on every part of the political spectrum apart from the extreme right should vigorously oppose it.
I think that the fact that we now have a fascist POTUS SHOULD be a wake up call. But we also have swings to the far right in many parts of the world, and of course a denial by many. How bad can it get? I fear that it could get very very bad before the ‘average’ person does realise that this is indeed fascism.
@Little lurker
I’ve not read mein kampf but from talking to people who have its a boring confusing pile of shit. I’m not sure it influenced voting that much.
I do have one personal story though that i think I’ve told here before. But i shall repeat it also. Anyway. My grandparents were in berlin in the 30s when Hitler was campaging. My grandma used to say afterwards they thought he was so carasmatic and hopeful and he would make Germany better. They believed him. And when they came back to their home country they thought things would improve after devistation left from the Great War.
Then, years later they were part of a group of people giving sanctuary to jews fleeing hitler. As a result some of my family is Jewish now.
I just mean to say, if my liberal grandparents were tricked, you can hardly say hitler was playing up his genocide plans to get people to vote. He tried to hide them behind making life better for germans.
@MassHysteria
-pinches bridge of nose- There are multiple things incorrect in your statement. Unfortunately, with a pre-calculus class looming (on a new topic, no less), I ask of my fellows to please correct you.
*singing in reverent tones* Shuuuuuuuut uuuuup, Wooooooooooodeeeeeeee.
@MassHysteria
If you want to convince people, try actually providing details about why Trump isn’t a Fascist instead of ranting and insulting people. Especially when historians who are experts on Fascism do agree that Trump is at least a borderline fascist.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/interrogation/2016/02/is_donald_trump_a_fascist_an_expert_on_fascism_weighs_in.html
@MassHysteria
I’m not really sure ”fool” is ableist, but if people here think it is, i won’t use it anymore. Speaking of which, you should probably change your username. Whatever. As long as you’re not ableist in your posts. It’s not up to me.
Would you prefer the term ”dictator”? ”Tyrant”? ”Bully”? I think ”plutocrat” is a fairly accurate descriptor.
If he’s really ”okay” with gay marriage he’ll fight to preserve it. I really don’t think he cares to do that. His only real objective is aquiring power. Considering his position right now, it would against his best interests to try to preserve gay marriage (or indeed any civil right). The only thing he cares about making great is himself. And Pence said he would be very active as VP. Why would Trump try to go against him?
His campaign tagline combined with his behaviour, the policies he has presented and the people he has appointed makes him fascist enough for me.
I read one of the other articles in Scildfreja’s post up there, and I can’t figure out how people ignore the fact that Islamic extremists were literally celebrating over Trumps victory.
The evidence is right there FFS! From the people themselves no less!
@ Alan
Ha! Well, well, well.
@Makroth – Agent of the Great Degeneracy
Fools were people dancing around in colourful clothes and stupid hats while making jokes.
So no, it’s not.
I keep hearing guests on NPR/Michigan Radio encapsulating the Democratic party’s fault as an over-reliance on “identity politics, that they should be focusing more on economic issues, and it makes me angrier and pissier each fucking time.
It’s like they’re allergic to the fact that identity is THE basis of bigotry and economic suppression! What the fuck is the matter with these people? You can’t say “it’s the economy, stupid” and then denigrate the personal as “identity politics”.
If the personal is political, then the personal is by necessity economic. Ignoring that our president-elect ran on a clear platform of bigotry is ignoring that he ran on a clear platform of economic suppression of women and minorities.
Oh goody, the “you’re a bunch of hysterical bedwetters” electionsplainer contingent has arrived.
@TommyS
You can go ahead and admit it out loud, Tommy. You’re a Donald Trump fan.
If you’re not, why are you defending him?
Well, gerrymandering, voter suppression, the Supreme Court striking down a key provision of the Voting Rights act in 2013, and James Comey’s eleventh hour antics also had a lot to do with it. You can thank the Republicans for that. (Funny how the Republicans can never seem to win without resorting to dirty tricks.)
I don’t know where you got that definition from, but it’s incorrect. Fascism, as usually construed, is an extreme right-wing nationalistic and authoritarian ideology. Donald Trump fits that definition to a T.
Exactly what are we misinformed about? The signs are all there. Look who he’s appointing to his cabinet. Look at the inflammatory statements he’s made. Look at his failure to address the entire nation since he became president-elect. Look at his proposed tax plan, which will gut the poor and middle class even further and enrich the 1%. Look at the KKK, planning to march in a victory parade in North Carolina. Look at all the Trump supporters who are out on “patrol” with their pickup trucks and Confederate flags, driving around colleges and neighborhoods trying to intimidate. Look at the Trump supporters who have been newly emboldened to grope women openly on the street because “the president said we can do this now”. Look at the uptick in school bullying. Look at the rash of hate crimes, graffiti, and harassment since election night.
Get your head out of the sand. Hell NO we’re not okay with this new brownshirt version of America. If you have any knowledge of history, and any tiny scrap of morality still fluttering among the charred remnants of your soul, you shouldn’t be okay with it either.