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Friendly Fascism
Project 2025 is just the final domino in a decades-long plan that ends in fascism
Some argue that the term ‘fascism’ functions as little more than a political slur.. As history professor Bruce Kucklcik writes: “the term fascism has functioned in public life primarily to denigrate and insult, operating as the rhetorical equivalent of throwing a tomato at a speaker at a public event”. And certainly there is, at the very least, instability in its usage. But not all uses are equal. And I would argue that, now more than ever, fascism, defined broadly as militaristic nationalism and a contempt for liberalism and electoral politics, should be called out at every turn. But why?
Although far from an erotic thriller, Bertram Gross’s 1980 book “Friendly Fascism” will nonetheless leave you in a state of intense frustration. How could someone give us such a clear warning of what was to come, decades prior? Why didn’t we do anything? One reason is because of the gradual, almost slow-motion nature of friendly fascism.
What is friendly fascism? Rather than relying on a militant takeover or the charismatic strong-man, Gross argues that this form of fascism emerges through the political economy of transnational…
