![]() However, the ideology holds that white people are a definable race of European ( sometimes Nordic) extraction and that they are superior to other humans, and should dominate them in the nations where they make a significant part of the population. White nationalism, by contrast, is based on race and is very much rooted in the white supremacy on which this country was founded.īoth nations and races are imagined concepts, and “ whiteness” as well as “Americanness” have shown themselves to be very nebulous concepts. MORE FROM POYNTER: AP Stylebook update: It’s OK to call something racist when it’s racist White nationalism It accepts nonwhite members, so long as they accept vaguely defined “traditional” western values. Said’s “orientalism” essentially argued that colonialism constructed “the orient,” then it used this rhetorical construction as evidence of the inferiority of “the orient.” It then uses that false construct to construct the supremacy of the “west” as cultural rather than racial. Said called an “ orientalist” construction of nonwestern cultures as the opposite of western rationalism, science and progress. This ideology is not far from the colonial outlook that preceded fascism, in that it relied upon what academic, political activist and literary critic Edward W. The Proud Boys would call themselves “ Western Chauvinists,” a vague ideology that combines the myth of a golden era with open misogyny and a predilection for violence, all wrapped up in a frat-boy-meets-skinhead aesthetic. 6 places them alongside Trump (using Paxton’s definition) in the pantheon of modern fascists. Fascists see democracy as a means, not an end, and the growing evidence that the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers played a pivotal role in the putsch attempt of Jan. 6, citing the way Trump had mastered modern media and presented himself as the last redoubt against the “radical left.”įascists who succeed tend to rely on the street violence of “shirt movements,” like the blackshirts in Italy or Adolf Hitler’s brownshirted Sturmabteilung. Paxton called Donald Trump a fascist after the events of Jan. However, there have been nonwhite and gay fascists (like Ernst Röhm) since the 1930s. It pursues redemption by cleansing violence, relies on a charismatic male leader and laments the impact of decadent liberalism.įascism does not need to coincide with white nationalism, although it can. It relies on a sense of crisis and the victimhood/decline of the “chosen group” that it feels has been undermined by the insidious actions of a scapegoat group. At its core, fascism puts the needs of one group above the rest of society. I tend to use an abridged version of “The Anatomy of Fascism” author Robert Paxton’s “motivating passions” when trying to define fascism. It’s even debated in the academe whether fascism is an ideology or an aesthetic - a way of looking, behaving and speaking without a coherent worldview attached. It’s constantly evolving, and we haven’t really had that many instances of it to use as guardrails on our way to a definition. Fascismįascism is perhaps the most nebulous concept, and the one most often misused. There’s nowhere near enough space here to condense whole libraries of books, but I have included links and references to further reading. This article tries to offer come conceptual clarity. Understandably, there’s some confusion about where the dividing lines lie. Many of my colleagues more used to dissecting the differences between two parties that share a narrow neoliberal consensus have been, through no choice of their own, forced to cover the difference between white nationalism and western chauvinism in the last few months. ![]() ![]() A few months later, I read dozens of explainers about the group that confused them with everything from fascists to anarchists - and sometimes both at the same time. One of my colleagues looked up the strange word and told me I shouldn’t be “platforming” them. ![]() In early 2020, I asked for advice on where to pitch an article about the material culture of the Boogaloo.
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