How Fascism Works

1. Fascism Weaponizes a Mythic Past to Justify Present Actions

The function of the mythic past, in fascist politics, is to harness the emotion of nostalgia to the central tenets of fascist ideology—authoritarianism, hierarchy, purity, and struggle.

Nostalgia as a tool. Fascist politics consistently invokes a "pure" mythic past, tragically destroyed by globalism and liberal cosmopolitanism. This past is often religiously, racially, or culturally homogenous, serving as the foundation for national identity. The goal is to create a link between nostalgia and the realization of fascist ideals, such as authoritarianism and hierarchy.

Patriarchal family ideal. The patriarchal family is a central component of this mythic past, with the leader of the nation analogous to the father in a traditional family. This structure reinforces authoritarianism, as the leader's strength and power are seen as the source of legal authority. Gender roles are strictly defined, with women primarily valued as mothers and wives.

Erasing inconvenient truths. This invented history often involves erasing or diminishing the nation's past sins, such as slavery or genocide. Confederate monuments in the United States, for example, arose as part of a mythologized history of the South that de-emphasized the horrors of slavery. This erasure legitimizes the vision of an ethnically pure, virtuous past nation.

2. Propaganda Distorts Virtuous Ideals to Mask Objectionable Goals

The role of political propaganda is to conceal politicians’ or political movements’ clearly problematic goals by masking them with ideals that are widely accepted.

Concealing problematic goals. Fascist movements use propaganda to mask their true intentions with widely accepted ideals like freedom, anticorruption, and law and order. This allows them to unite people behind otherwise objectionable ends. Richard Nixon's "war on crime," for example, was used to conceal a racist political agenda.

Anticorruption campaigns. Fascist politicians often decry corruption in the state they seek to take over, even though they themselves are often more corrupt. This tactic is used to evoke corruption in the sense of the usurpation of traditional order, rather than of law. Fabricated charges of corruption were used to end Reconstruction, for example.

Subverting liberal ideals. Fascist propaganda often uses liberal democratic ideals as a mask to undermine themselves. The Confederacy used the concept of liberty to defend slavery, and Hitler presented dictatorial rule as democracy. This involves specious arguments that the antiliberal goal is in fact a realization of the liberal ideal.

3. Anti-Intellectualism Undermines Education and Expertise

Fascist politics seeks to undermine public discourse by attacking and devaluing education, expertise, and language.

Attacking universities. Fascist politics seeks to undermine the credibility of institutions that harbor independent voices of dissent, such as universities. This is often done by leveling accusations of hypocrisy, such as claiming that universities suppress right-leaning voices. The Trump administration, for example, has aggressively pursued this agenda.

Targeting academic disciplines. Certain academic disciplines, such as gender studies, are often singled out for attack. Professors and teachers in these fields are accused of disrespecting the traditions of the nation. Universities are often denounced as sources of "Marxist indoctrination."

Rejecting expertise. Fascist politicians reject the value of expertise, removing any requirement for sophisticated debate. They often mock and devalue science and other forms of knowledge. This allows them to create their own realities, shaped by their own individual will.

4. Unreality Replaces Reasoned Debate with Conspiracy Theories

Fascist politics replaces reasoned debate with fear and anger.

Promoting conspiracy theories. Conspiracy theories are a critical mechanism used to delegitimize the mainstream media, which fascist politicians accuse of bias for failing to cover false conspiracies. Examples include "Pizzagate" and the "birtherism" conspiracy. These theories are often aimed at out-groups and function to denigrate and delegitimize their targets.

Undermining trust. By spreading wild conspiracy theories, fascist politicians undermine trust in basic democratic institutions. This destabilizes the shared reality that is required for democratic contestation. Objective truth is drowned out in the resulting cacophony of voices.

Exploiting irrational fears. Conspiracy theories provide simple explanations for otherwise irrational emotions, such as resentment or xenophobic fear. The idea that President Obama is secretly a Muslim pretending to be a Christian, for example, makes rational sense of the irrational feeling of threat many white people had upon his ascension to the presidency.

5. Hierarchy Naturalizes Group Differences to Justify Domination

According to fascist ideology, by contrast, nature imposes hierarchies of power and dominance that are flatly inconsistent with the equality of respect presupposed by liberal democratic theory.

Rejecting equality. Fascist ideology rejects the principle of equality, arguing that nature imposes hierarchies of power and dominance. This is often justified by invoking nature itself, with the claim that natural law places certain traditions and groups over others. The Confederacy, for example, was founded on the principle that black people are not equal to white people.

Legitimation myths. Fascist ideology takes advantage of a human tendency to organize society hierarchically, and fascist politicians represent the myths that legitimize their hierarchies as immutable facts. These myths often involve claims of racial or ethnic superiority. The goal is to displace reality with power.

Exploiting loss of status. Those who are accustomed to the benefits of hierarchy can be easily led to view liberal equality as a source of victimization. This sense of aggrieved loss and victimization is exploited to justify past, continuing, or new forms of oppression. Empires in decline are particularly susceptible to this tactic.

6. Victimhood Exploits Dominant Groups' Fears of Lost Status

Fascist politics feeds off the sense of aggrieved victimization caused by loss of hierarchal status.

Inverting equality and discrimination. Fascist politics often mixes up the notions of equality and discrimination, with dominant groups claiming to be the victims of discrimination. White Americans, for example, often overestimate the extent of progress toward racial equality and believe that whites are the most discriminated-against racial group. This is used to justify right-wing policies.

Nationalism of the oppressed vs. domination. There is a crucial distinction between nationalism that arises from oppression and nationalism that is used for the sake of domination. The former seeks equality, while the latter seeks to preserve or gain a position at the top of a hierarchy. However, this difference can be invisible from the inside.

Weaponizing anguish. Fascist propaganda typically features aching hymns to the sense of anguish that accompanies loss of dominant status. This sense of loss is manipulated into aggrieved victimhood and exploited to justify oppression. The Men's Rights Activist (MRA) movement, for example, crystallized the loss of privilege experienced as victimization.

7. "Law and Order" Divides Citizens into Lawful "Us" and Criminal "Them"

Fascist law-and-order rhetoric is explicitly meant to divide citizens into two classes: those of the chosen nation, who are lawful by nature, and those who are not, who are inherently lawless.

Creating an "us" vs. "them" divide. Fascist law-and-order rhetoric is explicitly meant to divide citizens into two classes: those of the chosen nation, who are lawful by nature, and those who are not, who are inherently lawless. This is often used to target minority groups, such as immigrants and black Americans. By describing these groups as a threat to law and order, demagogues can create a strong sense of national identity.

Criminalizing entire groups. Politicians who describe whole categories of persons as "criminals" are imputing to them permanent character traits that are frightening to most people, while simultaneously positioning themselves as our protectors. This undermines the democratic process of reasonable decision making, replacing it with fear. The use of the term "riot" to describe political protests is another example of this tactic.

Mass incarceration. The history of National Socialism is a textbook example of fascist political national identity formation. The National Socialists used what surely must be the most common method of sowing fear about a minority group—painting them as threats to law and order. This has led to the mass incarceration of American citizens of African descent.

8. Sexual Anxiety Reinforces Traditional Gender Roles and National Purity

If the demagogue is the father of the nation, then any threat to patriarchal manhood and the traditional family undermines the fascist vision of strength.

Threats to patriarchal manhood. Fascist politics often promotes fear of interbreeding and race mixing, of corrupting the pure nation with "inferior blood." This fear is often sexualized, with the targeted group portrayed as a threat to the patriarchal norms of the fascist state. Transgender individuals and homosexuals are often used to heighten anxiety about the threat to traditional male gender roles.

Rape as a weapon. The crime of rape is basic to fascist politics because it raises sexual anxiety and an attendant need for protection of the nation's manhood by the fascist authority. This is often used to justify violence against minority groups. The "Black Horror on the Rhine," for example, was a German propaganda campaign that spread false rumors of mass rape of German women by French soldiers from African colonies.

Attacking trans women. Given the significance of gender hierarchy to fascist ideology, politicians have been trying to foment mass hysteria about trans women. This is often done by arguing that transgender girls are likely sexual predators. This is a way of placing the very idea of manhood at the center of political attention, gradually introducing fascist ideals of hierarchy and domination by physical power to the public sphere.

9. "Sodom and Gomorrah" Targets Cosmopolitan Urban Centers as Sources of Decadence

That afternoon, at the former officer’s dacha, I learned to shoot from the man who raises rabbits for food but does not have the heart to kill them. The animal lover, discussing the cultural attitudes that make this region distinctive, explained it thus: “for example, if homosexuals arrived in our town, we would kill them.”

Cities as sources of corruption. Fascist ideology often portrays cities as sources of decadence and sin, particularly sexual decadence. This is contrasted with the purity of the countryside, where traditional values are supposedly preserved. Hitler, for example, described Vienna as a "poisonous snake."

Rural vs. urban divide. Fascist politics often aims its message at the populace outside large cities, to whom it is most flattering. This is especially resonant during times of globalization, when economic power swings to the large urban areas. The pervasive sense that city dwellers are living off the taxes of the hardworking rural population is a powerful force in fascist politics.

Rejecting pluralism. Large urban centers tend toward particularly high degrees of pluralism, which is a threat to fascist ideology. Cities therefore usefully serve as a proxy target for the classic enemies of fascist politics, such as financial elites, "cosmopolitans," liberals, and religious, ethnic, and sexual minorities.

10. "Arbeit Macht Frei" Dehumanizes Minorities Through Forced Labor and Economic Exclusion

In Nazi ideology, Jews were lazy, corrupt criminals who spent their time scheming to take the money of hardworking Aryans, a job that was facilitated by the state.

Hard work as a virtue. In fascist ideology, hard work is a virtue, and laziness is a sign of inferiority. This is used to justify placing certain groups lower on a hierarchy of worth. The slogan "Arbeit Macht Frei" (work shall make you free) was emblazoned on the gates of Auschwitz and Buchenwald.

Dismantling the state. Fascist ideology often involves dismantling the state and replacing it with the nation. The state is seen as an enemy, redistributing the wealth of hardworking citizens to "undeserving" minorities. This is often accompanied by a rejection of welfare programs.

Creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. By subjecting members of a despised minority to brutal treatment and then sending them as refugees across borders into other countries, fascist movements can create an apparent reality underlying their claim that members of that group are lazy and dependent on state aid or petty crime. This is what Arendt meant by transforming lies into reality.

Last updated: March 27, 2025