It seems appropriate to mention the difficulty in identifying Fascism, especially in its modern covert form. I think that perhaps the reason that Fascism is so hard to quantify and communicate stems from its aim of totalitarian control. To be total requires the casting off of coherency. For indeed, little is coherent between all things. As one of my professors has noted, a theory of everything explains nothing at all. To embody everything is to live in such contradictory that you are forced to embody nothing at all. One cannot subsume the totality of society into itself without engaging in immense contradiction.
And what is Fascism if not contradictory? Fascism is so difficult to define that scholars have, for the most part, ceased trying. Sure you can look at Google and find a definition but it is about as valuable as a rock at the bottom of your shoe. Identifying the "Fascist minimum" is an exercise of futility. Fascism is always a mass movement but it always seeks to dominate the masses. Fascism seeks to end the struggle between classes but cannot do away with the elite and indeed it calls for immense stratification of people. Fascism seeks a national rebirth but it always destroys the soul of its nation. Fascists cannot overcome these dynamics. No one can make sense of these dynamics. Because of this, perhaps comfortingly, Fascism is destined to fail. Not because it collapses under the weight of itself, but because it renders itself incompatible with life. Every time. Without fail. At some point people, whether foreign or domestic to the regime, are forced to cast Fascism down or become permanent victims of the barbarism.
However, I find no comfort to be found in this fact. In every instance, this casting off of Fascism comes far too late for comfort and comes with a high cost. Fascism has never been destroyed because the regime couldn't maintain itself any longer. It has always been destroyed because the people, foreign and domestic, could not accept it any longer. In Germany's case, the world could no longer tolerate its existence. Fascist Italy was destroyed through a joint effort of the Italian people and the Allied powers. Japan faced the same fate as Germany. The concerning through line between all of these examples, rather obviously, is the involvement of foreign powers in the destruction of the Fascist regime. Domestic opposition failed to cast off Fascism on its own.
What a terrible and terrifying reality.
Yet there can be no denying that Fascism planted the seeds of its own destruction, the trick is figuring out how we, the people, harvest what is sowed. Any effort to harvest proves dangerous. The Fascist understands well what he sows and takes great effort to prevent the harvesting. Those who seek to try are punished. Made examples of. Killed. Reduced to slaves and then killed. There are few problems a Fascist encounters that cannot be solved, he believes, with violence. He is a hammer, all before him are nails. It is, I believe, his greatest weakness.
None of this goes into how to resist Fascism, or how to harvest. Sadly I must confess to not knowing the secret to effective resistance myself. Wait for somebody to invade? That seems to work. Perhaps my lack of answers on this front is advantageous. Perhaps the principle of flexibility of tactics is the best choice here. How we resist should perhaps be decided on a case-by-case, individual-by-individual, community-by-community basis.
What I do know is this. Fascism thrives on the appearance of strength. Fascism strives to be seen as a unifying, empowering, strong phenomenon. The Fascist considers this to be necessary. This necessity can be turned against it. Once the Fascist ceases to appear strong, when the Fascist ceases to provide a sense of community and purpose, everything begins to crumble around him.
I think an element of our strategy becomes clear. Make the Fascist look weak. Deny him victories. Ridicule him. Afford him no courtesy which you would provide anyone else. To protect ourselves from Fascism we must make Fascism the ideology of weak, ineffective men. Men who will drag YOU down with them in their failure. This message in particular is important. Fascism always has a mass movement surrounding it. We must separate the Fascist from his followers. The Fascist is ideologically committed, we should consider him lost to us forever. His followers, by and large, are not ideologically committed. They are in it because they think they get something out of it. A sense of masculinity, maybe. Perhaps the Fascist allows his followers to think they're finally taking charge of their lives. We should endeavor to get them to think differently about this. The Fascist is dragging YOU down with him. He is not leading YOU to ultimate victory, he is leading YOU to damnation. We must make the Fascist look weak.
An equally important part of resisting; protecting those targeted by Fascists. We must do this at every step of the way. The Fascist draws strength from his ability to declare an enemy and then vanquish them. These enemies will always be minority groups. They will be vanquished with the tools of the old Democratic regime, under the guise of Law and Order. The very concept of which will be invoked time and time again to justify the elimination of "undesirables." We will surely fail to protect these people, time and time again, despite our efforts. But such efforts are necessary. Succeeding in this effort makes the Fascist look weak.
The fight against Fascism is not simply an exercise against a competing faction of society or the casual competition between political parties (despite how certain elected officials may be acting). The struggle against Fascism is a struggle against barbarism. It is a fight against oppression and tyranny. One cannot fight against this barbarism without trying to protect those most at risk of attack. Every aspect of our resistance, I state again, must prioritize the protection of others and ourselves.
In doing this we must also maintain that we do not desire the power the Fascist wields. We maintain that no one should have the power the Fascist wields. We maintain that no one should be victim to the whims of a dictator. We maintain that we will defeat Fascism altogether or not at all. We will maintain that we are the staunch opponents of Fascism and will not be content until we see it destroyed.
The task before us is daunting. At times victory will seem so far from us it will appear as though a dream. Yet we must try. We must succeed. There is no future if we do not try.