Fascism develops in times of economic or cultural trouble. What you do is you convince folks that their troubles are caused by someone they don’t love, someone *else*. You give permission to hate. You give permission to oppress. You give permission to dehumanize and then kill, as Renee Good’s murderer did after losing control of his temper when Good and her wife declined to show him the expected terrified deference. “I say go get yourself some lunch, big boy,” he was told before the murder.
The penalty for backtalk in fascism is death. “Fucking bitch,” he spat afterwards.
But a fascist government doesn’t give you anything your family needs to be safer or more prosperous unless you’re already part of the elite. It just gives you permission to hate, and to act on that hatred, leaving you poorer and more hateful than when you started.
Come back.
Feel the love for your community.
Feel the pain of your neighbors.
Turn away from cruelty and towards care.
Help us turn back towards democracy.
Heaven save us.
Will Irace
Nehalem