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Fascism, "Mean" Progressives, And Enabling. How Do We Proceed? [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2023-07-11

First off, what is enabling behavior? According to PsychCentral.com here are the basics:

1. Making excuses. Despite your best intentions, you make excuses for the bad behavior of the person or people in question. In the case of fascists, this might mean you go around saying that their bad behavior is the result of economic insecurity (when in fact most Trump supporters — and most fascists throughout history — are more wealthy than we are). Or it could mean saying that they come from parts of the country or families that have racist/fascist beliefs (when in fact we all know people who grew up in such families but chose to evolve out of that nonsense). In our digital world, rural people aren’t secluded, they all have access to at least some reasonably proper moral values, if through nothing else than Hollywood movies, Taylor Swift, or even Disney at this point (never thought the day would come when I’d have to say that). It might mean saying that fascists are becoming fascists because of cancel culture (ie ethical consumerism) or the younger generation’s inclination to just ghost family members who become fascists. But no, these are excuses.

2. Ignoring your own needs. In the case of fascists, this could mean putting social or family cohesion above your own needs to feel safe (and be safe) in our communities. It could mean being too generous with the amount of time we should expect to wait to feel safe (or to feel safe again) given the fascist policies and attitudes that are being spread by the right in 2023.

3. Avoiding conflict. When it comes to fascists, this might manifest in fooling ourselves into believing that if we don’t condemn and confront fascists that their inherent human nature will pull them back to the light on its own. There are some that believe that fascists become fascists to spite us and that it’s the conflict and the confrontation that make them what they are. It’s important to not try to avoid confronting fascists as it will only embolden them to push the line further and further.

4. Taking on their responsibilities. This is a big one and it’s something that we on the left have been brainwashed into doing in our Christian-dominated society in my opinion. At the larger scale, Blue states subsidize the bad behavior of Red states via oversized tax contributions. We really should find new ways to protect minorities in red states while forcing the Red state wealthy to pay their fair share. But this really does percolate down to every aspect of our society where volunteers and other charitable people step in to fill the gaps our society has allowed to form in our safety net (gaps that fascists actively slice out of our safety net). We should redouble our efforts to make sure private charity isn’t as necessary as it’s become. Private “Go Fund Me” initiatives are just the most modern online version of our failure as a society in my opinion. We also all have to work way too hard to keep our democracy from falling out from under us. And it just never stops because frankly our Constitution and our Supreme Court have baked in a lot of the things that prop up fascism and prevent us from getting closer to eradicating it. It can make us feel hopeless since that’s such a tough thing to change via amendments. But in a healthy democracy we all wouldn’t have to work this hard to take on the responsibilities that our laws should be handling for us. The laws aren’t there because fascists either prevent them from being something we can enact or they’re constantly eliminating the laws we need from the books.

5. Experiencing resentment. This one is pretty much universally felt on the left and a clear sign that we’ve all been enabling this nonsense to varying levels for far too long. We’re all wiped out and exhausted and we all resent having to pull so much of the weight in our society to cover for the bad behavior of fascists.

6. Lending financial support. This is pretty similar to #4 above when it comes to talking about a society.

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So, taking all of this into account, it’s pretty understandable that from time to time some of us would slip into insulting ways of talking about fascists given the amount of resentment we feel as members of a country that enables fascism. The level of resentment and the amount of pain (both psychological and real) is certainly too much for many if not most normal human beings to handle. As the incarceration rate for women who get “illegal” abortions starts to ramp up, it’s only going to get harder and harder. My advice would be to not worry so much about insulting language and focus less on berating people about not taking the high road or being our own better angels. If Joe Biden can cuss, then let’s not get so worked up about progressives who may sometimes use words that aren’t the best and may dehumanize a bit the very real fascists we’re dealing with. That’s not going to be something we can realistically control at the big demographic level. It’s not really something we can expect of our fellow progressives in times like these and frankly insulting words aren’t something that are going to drive fascists to be fascists any more than they already were going to be. The thing driving them to be fascists is a) Fox News and other fascist propaganda outlets , b) rightwing leaders (like politicians and influencers online) increasingly using fascist rhetoric and c) the increasing radicalization of now-extremist rightwing groups that started to form in the wake of the Tea Party movement (a backlash against a black president). Some now point to the events in Waco and 911 as other catalyzing moments for rightwing militias and their permeation into average rightwing society.

In my opinion, we should take all of this energy we’re using on policing how people talk about fascists and use it on figuring out how we can increasingly stop being enablers of fascism in any of the cases that we still are. We can’t continue to fight fascism with one or even two arms tied behind our backs. Enabling behavior is a big part of what’s holding us back in my opinion. And yes, it’s because at the root of things we’re progressives and we feel empathy and we feel bad for these ugly people. But it really is about finding a tougher brand of love at this point, a more functional brand of love, or it really could all fall apart.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/7/11/2180530/-Fascism-Mean-Progressives-And-Enabling-How-Do-We-Proceed

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