Fascism is Already Here

August 26, 2025

“Terrible things are happening outside. At any time of night and day, poor helpless people are being dragged out of their homes. They’re allowed to take only a knapsack and a little cash with them, and even then, they’re robbed of these possessions on the way. Families are torn apart; men, women and children are separated. Children come home from school to find that their parents have disappeared. Women return from shopping to find their houses sealed, their families gone. The Christians in Holland are also living in fear because their sons are being sent to Germany. Everyone is scared.”
- Anne Frank

The increasingly divided United States of America has been witnessing the rapid collapse of democracy before our very eyes. The free America our people have fought and died for is already gone; fascism is here. Our checks and balances have failed, and the structures we rely on to reinforce the integrity of our free country are rife with corruption, openly collaborating with one another to seize power and push our country deeper towards authoritarian rule under the almighty fist of a single party.

Our American people have bought into the lie of the mythic past, readily willing to accept lies as truth, readily willing to divide each other and blame out-groups for our problems, increasingly enthusiastic to hand over supreme, executive power to a single party that can brutalize perceived enemies to restore our country to a believed – however false – “great” past.

Truth is under attack. Democracy is under attack. America is under attack.

Lessons From History

After the Great War, Germany’s economy was in shambles with inflation and unemployment peaking due to post-war debt and the Great Depression, respectively. Germany fell into a hyperinflation crisis, destroying the value of the German mark and making savings worthless. The middle class was devastated, and Germans could not afford groceries or other basic necessities during these crises; their money was worthless during the hyperinflation crisis, and they had no income during the depression. [1]

The frustrated and increasingly impoverished German people during this time became disillusioned with their ineffective politicians, feeling humiliated on the world stage after the Treaty of Versailles. While nationalism had been strong in Germany already, the post-war crises increasingly radicalized nationalist sentiment into believing that out-groups were responsible for Germany’s failures. In particular, they blamed Jews and communists, among others, as traitors of Germany. [2]

With economic despair fueling increasingly radical nationalist thought, it gave way to a new, radical politician from the fringes of German politics who promised to fix Germany’s economy, bring back jobs, make necessities affordable, and restore Germany to greatness. This man appealed to the masses disillusioned with the establishment and desiring radical change. He seized ultimate power with both popular and political support to enact his agenda and punish their enemies – both things he succeeded at. His name was Adolf Hitler. [3]

Hitler’s rise to power was not an isolated incident. Just to the south, Benito Mussolini had already seized power in Italy. Their political ideologies are what we today call fascism. While fascism is often loosely defined due to its use as a political pejorative label in modern contexts, its actual ideological definition revolves around ultranationalist belief coupled with authoritarianism, suppression of dissent, the scapegoating of a perceived out-group, and the idea of a national rebirth. [4]

Palingenetic ultranationalism, specifically, is a definition of fascism that describes this: a belief in a mythic past that was robbed from a people by an out-group, justifying a social revolution – and with it, politicians willing to take any means necessary – to rebirth the nation and restore the mythic past that they were owed. [5]

Fascist Mythicism and Hate

Mythicism is at the core of fascist thought. Mussolini openly declared in 1922 that it’s not important the myth be true for fascists:

“We have created our myth. The myth is a faith, it is passion. It is not necessary that it shall be a reality.”
- Benito Mussolini [6]

I believe it’s evident that the vitality of mythicism to fascists is one of the reasons why propaganda and rejection of reality are key tools used by fascists to enclose themselves in a distorted, conjured world, in which any means necessary to achieve their fabled national rebirth are justified: the seizure of supreme power by a single party, the persecution of scapegoats, and the brutalization of perceived criminals.

Once you can convince a people that their nation was once great and that an out-group took that away from them, you can take advantage of their seeds of prejudice to fan the flames and turn it into hatred. Hate is one of the most powerful emotions a person can feel: hate drives people to forget rationality, and hate drives people to reject reality. The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command. (George Orwell, 1984).

It is for this reason that I believe fascism is an inherently hateful and unstable ideology. Fascists are caught in a doom loop: the people’s hate justifies the actions of the powers in order to chase a lie, but the mechanism of fascist hate is based on the persecution of out-groups; as out-groups extinguish, new ways to divide a people into in- and out-groups must be manufactured in order to continue justification of power.

“First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”
- Martin Niemoller, “First They Came”

Silence is complicity.

Any fascist who believes they are a part of the in-group and therefore safe, supporting the persecution of out-groups, is shortsighted. With every out-group purged, the fascist should ask themselves: how long until I am next? Not even those at the top are safe; Hitler famously ordered the murder of his former close friend and ally, Ernst Rohm, as a part of the Night of Long Knives. [7]

Fascism is an inherently hateful and unstable ideology without a win condition. The means through which fascism is perpetuated and justifies its own existence as a societal structure are the same means through which it extinguishes such a society. If we don’t learn from the mistakes of history, we will be doomed to repeat the atrocities that befell this world less than a century ago.

Unfortunately, history tends to rhyme.

A Disillusioned Country

“Make America Great Again” is a phrase that should make anyone horrified, because it is directly and openly selling the idea of a mythic past to the population.

I was a strong opponent of Donald Trump in 2016, but I truly had no idea how much damage he and his allies would bring to the country. The 2024 election is likely going to go down as one of the most important elections of our lifetimes, and Donald Trump’s re-election was–is–a major regression in the free world.

I will refer to Donald Trump and his political allies collectively as the “Trump Regime,” and I will refer to his supporter-base as “MAGA.” I will not refer to them as Republicans, the GOP, or conservatives, as I understand that not all agree with their radical and fascist ideologies and frankly, the Trump Regime and MAGA are so far-right that there exists serious ideological difference between them and traditional conservatives today.

While this offers understanding, this doesn’t offer forgiveness. Complicity is what allows fascism to rise.

The conditions that allowed the Trump Regime to rise to power are concerningly similar to the conditions that allowed Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party to rise to power. I am empathetic to MAGA because I, as a working class American from a proletarian background who lives in an agricultural community, understand their struggles: cost of living is too high, wages are too low, housing and groceries are unaffordable, inflation is making our dollar weaker, and unemployment is high – these are struggles that resonate not just with MAGA, but with the 99% of Americans. Obviously, with this comes the sentiment that our traditional establishment politicians in DC were ineffective at governance, and we desired a strong leader from outside the establishment who wouldn’t hold back punches in office in order to make meaningful change that alleviates our issues.

In 2016, I supported Bernie Sanders’s campaign, who recognized that the American people were being robbed by the oligarchy. Wealth is concentrated in the elite few rather than the working many, vastly expanding power for them but continuing to rob working class Americans as cost of living increases and wages stay stagnant, losing purchasing power over time as inflation depreciates the value of the dollar. Bernie was a strong leader from outside the establishment – an independent who didn’t abide by the norms of the Democrats, appealing to working class people such as myself who desired improvements in our quality of life but were disillusioned with the ineffective governance of the Democratic party.

MAGA chose Trump.

The Trump Regime

The United States is currently at the start of our second Trump presidency, and the parallels between Trump and traditional fascist leaders are clear to see.

Trump appeals to the masses with his promises to make living affordable for working class Americans again, despite favoring the rich [8][9]. He has formed a cult of personality, rewarding loyalty and appeasement over truth ; he has surrounded himself with yes-men ; he has created a strong follower base willing to accept anything he says as truth and readily willing to delude themselves and reject reality at his command [10][11][12]. He has perpetuated the myth of a past “great America” that we must return our nation to from decline, despite our American history being filled with a long history of genocide, slavery, and discrimination [13][14][15][16]. He has repeatedly attacked media that criticize him; he has withheld funding from universities that criticize him; he has perpetuated deceptive and deceitful conspiracy theories against political opponents that criticize him [17][18][19]. He has blamed immigrants – regardless of citizenship status – for America’s problems; he has begun the rounding up and removal of “unwanted” populations; under his regime, the use of military force against civilians in broad daylight has become normalized [20][21][22][23]. He has deployed military forces in states against their governors’ will [24]. He has done all of this, and so much more – and let’s not forget when MAGA tried to take over the Capitol [25].

Fascism is Here

My fellow Americans, we must realize that fascism is not something vanquished and diminished to just the history books – it’s here today, and it’s in our streets. It hides itself under euphemisms and suits, its ideology spreading like a virus in the minds of our people, deceiving us into advocacy or complacency. It numbs us, making us unwilling to take action because we believe that we the people are powerless. It entices us, making us believe that our problems can be solved if we just get rid of the “unwanted” groups, not understanding that the goalposts will always change and we will continue subdividing one another until we have extinguished all but the most insulated, and when the most elite of the elites realize that they cannot eat money then they’ll turn on each other as well.

Nobody is safe. Fascism is a threat to all of us. The only difference is what order in the chopping block we all are.

The reality is that there was never a “great America” that existed in the past. Our American history is full of sin, of hate, of genocide, of death, of war, of discrimination – but that is not what defines our America. What defines our America is our perseverance, our love, our unity through all these times. America is a nation of immigrants; our diversity and willingness throughout history to fight for each others’ rights, each others’ right to exist, each others’ right to have as equal an opportunity as every other one of us – that’s what makes us American.

“Make America Great Again” perpetuates a myth, because there was never a time when America was great – there were only times when we were becoming greater through unity and strength and perseverance. We make America greater every day by fighting for the America we believe in.

Instead of saying “Make America Great Again,” let’s just “Make America Great” – for all of us.

* Remember that Wikipedia is not a primary source; it is an encyclopedia. Please refer to Wikipedia’s own citations for primary sources when doing your own research.