by Peter Löcke //
Never again! Never again fascism! Since the end of the Second World War, generations of schoolchildren have been confronted with the darkest 12 years of German history. For almost 80 years, German school classes have been educated, informed and sensitized about what happened between 1933 and 1945, how the Nazi regime, the Second World War and the Holocaust came about. The educational goal? Never again! German National Socialism, linguistically equated with Italian fascism, must never be repeated. Have we all not been listening? I think so. I just fear that, despite identical lessons, different messages have been received. In the digital space as in real life, discussions are getting out of hand. Former friends are calling each other fascists. I've experienced it myself. How is that possible? In my opinion, the reason is simple. Fascism is defined in different ways. I would like to present three common definitions for discussion, as neutrally as possible. What do people perceive as fascism?
Fascism on the political map
In psychology, there is the term "inner beliefs". These are values that are taught at school and at home, internalized as a child and often not questioned for a lifetime. There are also political beliefs, such as the teaching of a right-left map, which is rarely questioned. On this map, communism is on the far left and German National Socialism, fascism, is on the far right. So on the far right is evil personified. Although the far left has never worked in reality, has caused much suffering and cost millions of lives, see the GDR and worse left-wing dictatorships, the left-wing spectrum still has an infantile advantage. Here, the greatest possible distance to fascism is maintained on the political map. This is why communism is still romanticized by many people today. Far left is antifa, far left is the antithesis to far right fascism on the internalized political right-left map. There are also historical arguments for this world view. After all, communists were persecuted by the National Socialists, and the SPD still prides itself on having voted against the Nazis' Enabling Act. The people who are now taking to the streets in the "fight against the right" carry this world view, this definition of fascism, within them.
Fascism in the literal sense
"Fascism means bundling (...) A group (...) bundles itself around a certain argument and excludes those who do not want to bundle themselves around this argument. That is fascism and has nothing to do with the right."
Fascio equals federation. Political scientist Ulrike Guérot explains the phenomenon of fascism in a literal sense. Guérot gives examples. Stay at home, keep your distance & vaccinate! These were the morally exaggerated arguments in the fight against corona. We must now all take to the streets in the fight against the right! This has been the morally inflated demand since mid-January, since Correctiv's research. This is not only a different definition of fascism than the right-left map, according to this definition, the fight against the right is itself fascist. Who is calling for this fight? Leading media, companies, schools, universities, churches, trade unions, almost all political parties and related NGOs are calling in unison for the fight against the AfD in particular and the fight against the right in general. This is a bundling of all social groups around a common goal. But bundling means fascism. It is therefore fascism in the fight against fascism. In this case, the Italian writer Ignazio Silone would be right. His most famous quote?
"When fascism returns, it will not say: I am fascism! No, he will say: I am anti-fascism."
Fascism according to Umberto Eco
On 23.11.2022, Markus Langemann interviewed top economist and former State Secretary Prof. Heiner Flassbeck for more than an hour. It was primarily about the consistent incompetence in the highest political circles of government. But it was also about fascism. Flassbeck reproduced the words of Umberto Eco, an Italian and writer like Silone. According to Umberto Eco, what is the decisive factor in fascism?
"Much more important than uniforms and raising hands is that they reject knowledge, that they reject objective discussion. (...) Fascism already knows everything and doesn't want to know anything else (...) We know everything. We are the good guys. The others are the bad guys."
War, climate, corona - who are the good guys on these issues who already know everything and reject any objective discussion? Merkel's advice was not to talk to these critics of the measures, these deniers, in the first place. No discussion because it wasn't worth it. Why didn't Christian Drosten discuss the issue with scientists who held opposing views? Bhakdi and Wodarg always offered an objective discussion, although they were vilified in the worst possible way. Drosten rejected this because he didn't need it. It is exciting to listen to today's climate scientists such as Dr. Marc Benecke, actor, criminal biologist and author. Benecke is on tour at universities, giving lectures on climate change and giving students advice if they come across critical people who even remotely question man-made climate change and its consequences. His advice to students?
"Turn around and buy a soda."
That is Benecke's argumentative tip. Fascism rejects any objective discussion.
Never again! Never again fascism. That is still being taught to schoolchildren, and rightly so. Are schoolchildren also taught what the essence of fascism is? I doubt it. I even doubt that the teachers know.
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9 Responses
I am very grateful to Mr. Löcke for this article, which in my view gets to the heart of the matter. When I pass what I have written on to my circle of friends, which consists mainly of academics who are now
enjoy almost exceptionally rich pensions, most will turn around and buy a coffee or a Kölsch.
Denn Widerspruch wollen viele (immer noch) nicht oder jetzt erst recht nicht, wenn ich das mal nur auf die Impferei beziehe. Sich allein unter diesem Aspekt mit Neuem (siehe RKI Files) befassen oder gar darüber diskutieren zu müssen, würde mich sehr ängstigen, wenn ich zwei- oder dreimal geimpft wäre oder mir sogar – damals noch voller Stolz – den vierten „Pieks“ hätte
geben lassen. – Zeitweise wollte ich dieses Umfeld verlassen und mir ein neues aufbauen. Doch dank Corona habe ich vieles erst neu begriffen, beruflich und privat. Daher wähle ich Freunde jetzt eher danach aus, wer es, wie ich, wertschätzt, sehr kontrovers miteinander zu diskutieren, ohne unsere gemeinsame Basis zu gefährden. Mit dieser „Selektion“ lebe ich ehrlich. auch selbst genau hinzugucken, wer es mir trotz heftigster Meinungsverschiedenheiten noch wert ist, miteinander befreundet zu bleiben. Die meisten sind es, manche nicht. Und von denen habe ich mich endgültig getrennt.
Thank you for this article. Everyone should read it!
The main characteristics of fascism are the abolition of freedom of expression, bringing the press into line, fighting opposition and denying the natural sciences. And extremely important, the division of people into the valuable and the useless. Look at what is going on in our state right now.
This term fascism doesn't get us anywhere, I think. Of course Silone and Eco are right. Ortega y Gasset described it very well around 1920 in the "Revolt of the Masses". In future discussions I will call the fascism currently practiced Bolshevism, because the underlying agenda of the WEF, "You will own nothing and you will be happy", although fascistoid, is profoundly Bolshevist.
Very successful presentation.
I have long wondered why we rarely read or hear this kind of stocktaking in this context, even though it is so obvious. Apparently, the vast majority of the population is a dull mass of people who have been conditioned to believe that fascism originally had something to do with Adolf Hitler, brown uniforms and the industrial extermination of human beings ... and that this should be placed on the right. One as wrong as the other, although this right/left categorization also needs to be clarified first...
An ostracized German politician once spoke of the German education catastrophe - nothing could be more true; right up to academic circles - perhaps especially ...
As part of a foreword in books, you often read somehow appropriate sayings, bon mots or quotes from personalities from contemporary history.
Ich erinnere mich an eines in einem medizinischen(!) Wörterbuch von 1984 (Stichwort : „Symptomlos krank“ bzw. „positiv getestet“ und deswegen ab 2020 – nicht nur – quarantänisiert…)
„Befragt, wie seine erste Weisung lauten werde, würde er Herrscher des Reichs der Mitte, soll Konfuzius geantwortet haben : >> Die Bezeichnungen und Überschriften prüfen<<"
Thank you for this article, as always analyzed to the point. Most of the do-gooders who think they are clever locate themselves in the first part of the article. Their facial expressions are always beautiful when you point out the commonalities of socialism, such as people, collective, colorful uniformity, whether national, ecological or otherwise. This causes the synapses in the upper brain to burn out because the far left and far right suddenly form a circle.
I grew up in the GDR as a child and started questioning things quite early on. I found the anti-fascist protective wall strange, the people behind it were free, could go anywhere on vacation, buy anything and occasionally send it as a parcel. That's not how I had imagined it. We had pioneers, a well-organized, enforced community and my innocently naive question about the difference to the organizations of the Nazi era caused me to gasp. I didn't equate, I compared and found parallels between the supposedly good left and the evil right. So this classification was not acceptable to me.
Representing the spectrum along a circular line and not along a straight line is a very accurate image
Bei mir war es „die Diktatur des Proletariats“, die mich nachdenklich machte – wie können Proletarier gleichzeitig Diktatoren sein und andere unterdrücken wollen?Auf meine skeptische Nachfrage – wie denn Diktatur und Proletariat zusammenpassen – wurde ich mit empörtem Schweigen bedacht.
The skepticism has remained and it is used extensively in the assessment of current events. Since I have been studying the left more intensively, it has become increasingly clear that left and right have a lot in common. Starting with language and adding that neither can exist without an enemy.
This article has confirmed one thing to me once again: Education (including character building) in the best sense of the term is the strongest weapon against do-gooders who want to know everything better, teach, educate and suppress. And education starts at home and must be accompanied for a long time.