"We're All Fascists Now"

In his 3-7-18 New York Times article, "We're All Fascists Now," Bari Weiss analyzes the many strategic distractions plaguing the left-wing in "the Disassociated States of America" (an increasingly apt phrase coined by my late friend and colleague, Walter Bowart).  What follow are a few relevant excerpts:

"We live in a world in which politically fascistic behavior, if not the actual philosophy, is unquestionably on the rise. Italy just gave the plurality of its vote to a party that is highly sympathetic to Vladimir Putin. The Philippines is in the grip of a homicidal maniac who is allying himself with Xi Jinping. Mr. Xi just anointed himself president for life and has banned the words 'Animal Farm' and 'disagree' from Chinese internet searches. Bashar al-Assad is winning in Syria, where half a million people have so far been slaughtered. Dictatorship and starvation have descended on Venezuela. At its annual conference in Washington last month, the Conservative Political Action Committee gave its stage, and its enthusiastic applause, to a member of France’s National Front. That’s just a short list.

"Yet these are generally not the extremists that leftists focus on. Instead, they seem to believe that the real cause for concern are the secret authoritarians passing as liberals and conservatives in our midst [...].

"Why are so many demonstrably non-fascist people being accused of fascism?  [...]

"Partly [...] it is the result of a lack of political proportion and priority. It’s instructive that students at the University of Chicago spent their energy a few years back protesting Dan Savage, the progressive sex columnist who used the word 'tranny' in a talk that included a discussion about reclaiming words, while ignoring a lecture the very same week by former Senator Rick Santorum, the Pennsylvania Republican who has compared gay relationships to bestiality. Freud called this the narcissism of small differences [...].

"There are consequences to all this 'fascism' — and not just the reputational damage to those who are smeared, though there is surely that.

"The main effect is that these endless accusations of 'fascism' or 'misogyny' or 'alt-right' dull the effects of the words themselves. As they are stripped of meaning, they strip us of our sharpness — of our ability to react forcefully to real fascists and misogynists or members of the alt-right."

To read Weiss' entire article, click HERE.