Philosopher Jason Stanley argued  in his excellent book How Fascism Works, that in essence “fascist politics dehumanizes minority groups.” It does that even if the state is not fascist. I have called this the philosophy of the bully. Pick on the vulnerable. In the recent election in the US the Republicans have made this a major part of their platform.  Pick on the immigrants and the trans kids in particular. Easy targets for bullies. The shocking thing is how many Americans love this.

What fascist policies do, according to Stanley is amplify the divisions in society. It takes advantage of them. For example, in Nazi German the Nazis intensified the beliefs that were already pretty common that German society had been undermined and sold out by Jews and their supporters, even though the percentage of Jews was very small. According to the Holocaust Encyclopedia:

“According to the census of June 16, 1933, the Jewish population of Germany, including the Saar region (which at that time was still under the administration of the League of Nations), was approximately 505,000 people out of a total population of 67 million, or somewhat less than 0.75 percent. That number represented a reduction from the estimated 523,000 Jews living in Germany in January 1933; the decrease was due in part to emigration following the Nazi takeover in January. (An estimated 37,000 Jews emigrated from Germany during 1933.)’

This was really a very small percentage of the people and it was absurd and immoral to lay the blame for Germany’s decline on such small numbers, just as it is absurd and immoral to blame Trans-gender people and their sympathizers for poisoning the United States as so many Conservatives have been claiming.

What fascists do is turn the hated group (the others) into an enemy—i.e. “them.”  Then the world is turned into one of “Us” versus “Them.” And, of course, they [or them] can be dehumanized into something non-human, which makes them ripe for targeting. This is what Jason Stanley said about fascist politics:

“The most telling symptom of fascist politics is division. It aims to separate a population into an “us” and a “them.”  Many kinds of political movements involve such a division; for example, Communist politics involves describing the very specific way that fascist politics distinguishes “us” from “them,” appealing to ethnic, religious, or racial distinctions, and using this division to shape ideology and, ultimately policy. Every mechanism of fascist politics works to create or solidify this distinction.’

And of course, the most extreme manner of “Us’ vs “them” is to dehumanize them. Since it is the most extreme version of this, it can lead to the most extreme consequences—such as placing them into concentration camps and killing them.  That is why it is so disturbing to see Donald Trump and millions of his supporters start this awful process. Once the process is begun it is not clear how we can stop it or how far it can go. Germany demonstrated it can go very far indeed.

Often fascist politicians justify their abhorrent ideas by appealing to a common belief in a mythic past—a golden age where things were great.  For example, Donald Trump says he wants to bring America back to greatness whatever that means. But clearly it was some time in the past where things were great. At least for some—i.e. the privileged. It might be a time when men were men and women were women. Or the whites were in ascendance without any fear that they would be replaced. Again, whatever that means.

What it really means is that it justifies pummelling the others to make things better for those doing the pummelling.

To me it really seems that this is where America is headed.  And Canada, as usual, is not that far behind.