For any potential commenters who don't understand, fascism isn't when politically motivated threats of physical violence, it's when far-right-wing, ultra-nationalist, centralized autocracy, belief in and support of social hierarchies, strong regimentation of society and the economy, and politically motivated threats of physical violence
Hey wait a second, one of the political parties in the US fits all those descriptions...
Boiled down, fascism is the belief that one group of humans is inherently better than another and as such should reign superior or wipe anyone out that resists. Could be motivated by racial, political or religious beliefs. In the US, it seems like all of those come together.
From an outside perspective, it's the difference between someone looking at you with distaste, and someone aggressively attempting to sink a 9" knife into your gut, repeatedly, while standing in a pile of cut up baby corpses. Just because both sides have issues, doesn't mean the 2 are comparable.
I'm not saying you're intentionally ignorant and I know this is a lot of words to read, but...
For any potential commenters who don't understand, fascism isn't when politically motivated threats of physical violence, it's when far-right-wing,
Which party has more objectively conservative views?
ultra-nationalist,
Which party literally has a group called the Proud Boys? Which party tends to manipulate the American flag for all their causes i.e. Thin blue line? Which party thinks America is strictly for Americans and anyone outside our borders is somehow undesirable?
centralized autocracy,
Autocracy is a system of government in which absolute power is held by the ruler, known as an autocrat.
Which party idolizes their leader, flies flags with his name on it, wears his slogan on their clothes? Which party seems to think that anything their leader says is the truth, anyone who disagrees is a liar (fake news, alternative facts)? Which party literally tried to force their leader into power despite losing the election.
belief in and support of social hierarchies, strong regimentation of society and the economy,
Which party keeps reducing and eliminating social benefits because if you're of a lower economic status, you somehow deserve less? Suggesting that the minimum wage shouldn't be increased? And conversely, which party seems to think that billionaires deserve to have that money because they're somehow smarter or work harder?
and politically motivated threats of physical violence
Which party had a noose hanging outside the capitol on January 6th?
Philosopher Karl Popper described the paradox of tolerance as the seemingly counterintuitive idea that “in order to maintain a tolerant society, the society must be intolerant of intolerance.” Essentially, if a so-called tolerant society permits the existence of intolerant philosophies, it is no longer tolerant.
I too remember in the history books when all the countries banded together holding flowers politely asking the Nazis to stop invading and massacring them.
Chamberlain gets a lot of shit, but he was also responsible for massively ramping up the production of fighter planes, which is the only reason why England survived the Battle of Britain.
I don't buy it. There is a really big difference between a nation fighting an existential war with a military, and performative, mostly nonlethal, vigilante political violence. The latter is useful to fascists for obvious reasons; the experience of violence is at the core of their ideology, they have a clear path for using the trauma for hazing and indoctrination, it attracts attention, it attracts potential sympathy for the same reason it may serve the goals of nonviolent protestors to have violence seen being done to them in the course of their protest.
Trying to engage with them this way seems like it would clearly advance their goals more than it would harm them. How could it do otherwise? Do people think activists respond to light beatings by becoming dissuaded from their activism? I feel like this kind of messaging is pushed either by fascists themselves or by people with goals aligned with fascists, like involving more people in violence and bringing the overall political climate closer to a civil war situation.
Unfortunately, nothing is ever enough for fascists. You can be as peaceful with them as possible and they'll still try to kill you. We had a democratic election in the US in 2020 and when the fascists lost they tried to do a violent coup. How much more peaceful can we be? It's really unfortunate but I think the reality is that fascists only understand power and violence and ultimately you need to throw that all back at them as hard as you can and send them into hiding. The minorities the fash hate will be targeted by them and violence WILL happen against them even if you protest them as peacefully and legally as possible. Minorities deserve to live in peace and security without "paying the cost" of keeping things civil.
Maybe, but the question is how do they understand it? You hit one of those people, how do they interpret and react to that? I don't think it's the way you would want them to. I think there is a threshhold for the level of violence at which terrorism actually works, and that threshhold is way past the point where things get really fucking dark. So you either go there, or you look for better options with fewer side effects, because in this case I think low level violence is clearly going to advance their cause rather than harm it. As for what those other options might be, I don't exactly know, I'm not saying they have to be nice or polite or peaceful, just thought through a little better than advocating casual brawls.