Paul Cantrell
A post saying “Please don’t anthropomorphize fascists” just crossed my TL (not linking to avoid dunking), and…as much as I appreciate the snark, I can’t endorse that.
Don’t get me wrong: I’m on 100% board with “Don’t coddle fascists,”“Don’t infantilize fascists,” “Don’t be gentle with fascists.”
Punch fascists, yes please. “Be compassionate” is NOT where I’m going. Where I’m going is “never think it couldn’t be you, or me, or the person next to you.”
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Paul Cantrell
If I take any bite-sized insight from Hannah Arendt’s “Eichmann in Jerusalem,” it’s that fascists •are• people: ordinary, boring, could-be-anyone human beings. “The banality of evil” means, among other things, “the human-ness of evil.”
The only things that keeps you or me or any human being from being fascist is vigilance against fascism.
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Paul Cantrell
I suspect there’s a great comfort in the idea that fascists aren’t real humans. It means we’re off the hook, doesn’t it? “We’re people, so that could never be us! We’re different!”
It’s a comfortable idea.
Dangerously comfortable.
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Paul Cantrell
But if I’ve avoided succumbing to fascism, it’s because I’ve had the privilege of wonderful parents, teachers, friends, peers, people all around me who’ve helped me spot patterns of oppression and cruelty in the world and •in myself•.
Privilege. Good fortune.
Not being a different species. Not — I am saying this slowly — genetic superiority.
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Paul Cantrell
Cruelty, authoritarianism, genocide, all the parts of humanity I abhor most — I am •unwilling• to entertain the idea that the potential for these things does not exist somewhere in me.
I am unwilling because I never, ever want fascism to take root in me. I don’t know how it would happen, but I do believe it would start with complacency.
I believe that it •could• be me, or you, and therefore we must fight every day to make sure it never is.
Antifascism is a practice, not a genetic trait.
/end
Paul Cantrell
@CatHat @DontMindMe
Lack of empathy is a species trait, and the species is human.
Empathy is also a species trait of humans.
We’re contradictions. Evolution’s experiment with what we call “higher intelligence” is still in progress. It’s the choices we make about what we do with that determine who we are.
Hat. AuDHD cat. 😷n95 🍉 💔
@DontMindMe @inthehands yes.
And you display it
Should Be Writing
@inthehands
Their utter incapacity for empathy does come off as something like a species trait 🤷♂️
Paul Cantrell
@moondog548 @kechpaja
It is our life’s work. And it is not a binary or absolute thing; we live in systems we cannot fully control, and we cannot make them vanish any more than a fish can remove pollution from the ocean. Total non-participation in harmful systems is impossible! But unlike the metaphorical fish, we have agency to fight the pollution.
moondog548
@kechpaja @inthehands This in particular is an urgent message!!! not just a best practice optimal kinda thing.
kechpaja
@inthehands Also, don't contribute to building dehumanization (social) infrastructure that can then be turned on other groups.
Paul Cantrell
@Loungeiguana
“His code is not his own; it is that of his class—no worse, no better, He fits easily into whatever pattern is successful. That is his sole measure of value—success. Nazism as a minority movement would not attract him. As a movement likely to attain power, it would.” 👀
Loungeiguana
@inthehands this reminds me of this essay, which is well worth a read: https://harpers.org/archive/1941/08/who-goes-nazi/
Paul Cantrell
@Loungeiguana What a fascinating study — of fascism but also of its time, of its author. Thank you.
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