I recognize it’s a bit long, but it’s worth a read. In any case, here are some parts I found interesting:
>The influential philosopher Jason Stanley, until now a professor at Yale, will—together with renowned European historians Timothy Snyder and Marci Shore—leave that elite US university for Canada’s Munk School at the University of Toronto. This, says Stanley, protests Trump, who harasses universities with accusations of antisemitism and coerces them with financial threats. When asked whether he would speak of the present-day US in terms of “fascist conditions,” Stanley’s answer was equally succinct and definite: “Yes, of course.” He sees no other, more fitting concept: “Trump is a fascist. His movement is fascist.”
>But things are not quite so clear, as the testimony of one of the leading researchers on fascism shows. Robert Paxton, a professor at Columbia University and decades-long luminary of comparative-historical research, stresses that Trump, in contrast to historical fascists, neither wants a strong welfare state nor commands uniformed paramilitaries: “this is not the style of Americans.”
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>When the world’s leading scholars of fascism gathered for a conference in Rome in January 2025, the Italian historian Enzo Traverso, who teaches at Cornell University, delivered a fascinating address. According to him, fascism studies can no longer presume to study a merely historical phenomenon from the vantage point of stable democracies. He questioned whether the concept of fascism could adequately capture the novelty of the current situation. Finally, he made a case for the concept of “post-fascism.” Contemporary fascism is neither completely new nor straightforwardly equivalent to historical fascism. Undeniable instances of continuity and links to the past exist alongside new ways to destroy democracy. Traverso agreed with several other historians that, today, state-terrorist violence is the exception rather than the rule. After all, Western post-fascism emerged not from World War I, but rather a peace lasting a solid seventy years. The working class is fully integrated into the movements of Le Pen, Salvini, Orban, and Trump. Post-fascism’s new enemies are not primarily the Jews, but rather migrants, Muslims, and black people, as well as liberal groups—from bourgeois bohemians to environmental activists to advocates for LGBTQI rights.
Terrariola on
Fascism with the revolutionary and messianic language replaced with racism and depression.
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There is no paywall.
I recognize it’s a bit long, but it’s worth a read. In any case, here are some parts I found interesting:
>The influential philosopher Jason Stanley, until now a professor at Yale, will—together with renowned European historians Timothy Snyder and Marci Shore—leave that elite US university for Canada’s Munk School at the University of Toronto. This, says Stanley, protests Trump, who harasses universities with accusations of antisemitism and coerces them with financial threats. When asked whether he would speak of the present-day US in terms of “fascist conditions,” Stanley’s answer was equally succinct and definite: “Yes, of course.” He sees no other, more fitting concept: “Trump is a fascist. His movement is fascist.”
>But things are not quite so clear, as the testimony of one of the leading researchers on fascism shows. Robert Paxton, a professor at Columbia University and decades-long luminary of comparative-historical research, stresses that Trump, in contrast to historical fascists, neither wants a strong welfare state nor commands uniformed paramilitaries: “this is not the style of Americans.”
.
>When the world’s leading scholars of fascism gathered for a conference in Rome in January 2025, the Italian historian Enzo Traverso, who teaches at Cornell University, delivered a fascinating address. According to him, fascism studies can no longer presume to study a merely historical phenomenon from the vantage point of stable democracies. He questioned whether the concept of fascism could adequately capture the novelty of the current situation. Finally, he made a case for the concept of “post-fascism.” Contemporary fascism is neither completely new nor straightforwardly equivalent to historical fascism. Undeniable instances of continuity and links to the past exist alongside new ways to destroy democracy. Traverso agreed with several other historians that, today, state-terrorist violence is the exception rather than the rule. After all, Western post-fascism emerged not from World War I, but rather a peace lasting a solid seventy years. The working class is fully integrated into the movements of Le Pen, Salvini, Orban, and Trump. Post-fascism’s new enemies are not primarily the Jews, but rather migrants, Muslims, and black people, as well as liberal groups—from bourgeois bohemians to environmental activists to advocates for LGBTQI rights.
Fascism with the revolutionary and messianic language replaced with racism and depression.