Thursday, October 12, 2023

Anti-Fascist Series #12: Funhouse Mirrors

 Strange Bedfellows

Brownshirts.  Strasserism.  3rd Position.  National Bolshevism.  Red-Brown.  Maga-Communism.  Maga-Democrats.  Anarcho-Capitalism. National Anarchism.  Autonomous Nationalism. Social-Fascist” rhetoric.  Neo-Marcyism.  Odd ‘anti-imperialists.’ “Left-Right” unity.   The Trumpen-Left. Republican politicians.  Libertarianism.  Conspiracy theoryism.  The ‘socialism of fools.’  The 'anti-imperialism of fools.' National Socialism.  Fascism. 

What do these all these somewhat esoteric ideas have in common, starting with the Brownshirts?   They all mix left and right perspectives in the interests of deception, the right and the capitalist class.  Every lie has to contain some truth. 

You might have heard or seen so-called allies imitate some of these ideas.  These are examples of morbid symptoms occurring now in the U.S. and on the ‘Left.’  Naomi Klein’s recent book “Doppelganger” about her name-resemblance to another person, Naomi Wolf, examines this issue.  The latter Naomi has transitioned from being a feminist liberal-leftist of some sort to being an ally of Steve Bannon and Alex Jones.  Just like certain ‘anti-war’ types are thinking of voting Republican or for Libertarians like RFK Jr. - including former socialists, liberals, pacifists and Bernie Sanders’ supporters.  Or friends who have turned to MAGA Trumpism wholesale.   

These morbid symptoms are spread by YouTube post-left podcasters and ‘geopolitical’ analysts who ignore class, socialism, proletarian issues, internationalism and revolution - all those ‘hard’ topics.  Doppelganger’ is a soft-left attempt by Klein to deal with this phenomena.  The symptoms are these:  Republicans claiming to represent the working class, as the Democrats’ failure is obvious. Republicans claiming to be anti-war, as the Democrats’ war-mongering is obvious. Wellness gurus denouncing all of ‘western’ medicine, including vaccines and even masks. (Mask use is common in Asia for road and street dust … but most wellness fans have never been there.)  Quack medical solutions. Violent, bloodthirsty rhetoric.  Single issue anti-war types blocking with pro-war types.  Conspiracy theories as the way to understand reality, with suppositions and one slim fact to back them up.  All ‘mainstream’ news is ‘fake news.’  People who buy the ‘filtered’ propaganda from each government.  Deep Green ‘blood and land’ longings.  Blocking or cheering on anti-feminist, ethnic nationalist, fundamentalist, authoritarian and reactionary capitalist forces and regimes. The discovery of very strange bedfellows.  And on and on.     

Lets see if 'comrades' pull back from their rightist positions.  “Doppelganger” is at May Day and a Blog review is forthcoming.

Prior blog reviews on this subject, use blog search box, upper left, to investigate our 16 year archive, using these terms:  “The Black Hundred,” “Against the Fascist Creep,” “The Brown Plague,” “Marxism versus Libertarianism,” “Who Is Ron Paul?” “Crack-Up Capitalism,” “RFK Jr. The Libertarian,” “It Can’t Happen Here” (Lewis), “Caligula on the Potomac,” “Modern Rhinoceroses,” "The Destruction of Reason” (Lukacs) or the words ‘Anti-fascist Series’ or "Naomi Klein.'

Red Frog

October 12, 2023

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