But in the same way that too many Americans engage in Climate Change Denial, many Americans are now engaging in “Fascism Denial.” An existential threat to our humanity seems so enormous and threatening that it cannot possibly be real. If we knew the inconvenient truths about both, we may either feel overwhelmed and powerless, or realize we have to make radical changes to adequately confront them.
…confronting the threat of fascism cannot be predicated on waiting for government action from above, or the results of the next election, but starting to form a patchwork of models from below, at the local, grassroots level. Learning the inconvenient truths about fascism, like learning about the climate crisis, could lead us to actually shift our beliefs and lives, in order for our society to survive and recover.
Something notable to me about a number of articles I’ve read which seem to both accurately portray the current state of American society and to prescribe some necessary actions is that the author is calling for an epistemological shift which Americans seem little capable of, adrift as they are in a sea of infantilizing video dreck. How do Americans turn away from communication via .jpg memes, irony and trite one-liners? How is it that the routines of late-night comedians are newsworthy? Thinking that the alteration of one’s social media avatar constitutes political action is to me obviously delusional, yet that seems the level of much popular discourse.
