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Comment by coldcode | Hacker News Reader

Fascism rose in popularity 100 years ago as a political option. Perhaps it is undergoing a renaissance. I have no idea why anyone thinks its a good idea unless you are the person in charge but it seems to attract support.

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Because you probably live a comfortable life. For people who are struggling and see no hope of changing for better they often support more extreme policies just to "rock the boat". Years of rising inequality in many societies have created more people who'd like to have things change drastically.

This doesn't really match up to what I see, which is the people who find fascism attractive also idolizing and politically supporting the wealthy. Usually the people admittedly wanting to "rock the boat" are talking about social politics, which leaves little room for sympathy when the tool used is fascism. It speaks of hatred and nihilism, not desperation and inequality.

Inequality can be the root cause, but it is a hard problem to solve. Let alone powerful people who control the media would never want it to be solved. The result is people are not ready to face it directly. Instead they pick an easier solution such as fascism/racism, hoping the solution works somehow. Example: how many people blame foreigners for the absurd housing market? Because it's easier to blame someone else than thinking critically and find the root cause.

Additionally, it makes them more susceptible for the "someone to blame" agenda that these groups use. If your life is great and you have excess, this falls on deaf ears. This also leads towards terrorism and other violence as the futility of this life creates cracks for indoctrination.

What did Fascism rise in popularity in response to? Economic hardship (the Great Depression). Maybe the current trend is growing in the same soil.

> I have no idea why anyone thinks its a good idea

Facsism yesterday : Persecute minorities

Fascism today : Help persecuted minorities

Sounds good to me.

>Fascism rose in popularity 100 years ago as a political option.

more generally totalitarism rose as that option with 2 major branches - either political class/party based, i.e. communism, or national/ethnical identity based, ie. fascism

>Perhaps it is undergoing a renaissance.

giving the increased technological opportunities for the totalitarism (and some, who didn't learn history, even argue - need - as totalitarism entice with seemingly easy solutions to a lot of modern issues) combined with knee-jerk "hide back into national village with good old traditional lifestyle" reaction to globalism it would be strange if we don't see the rise of nationally/xenophobically colored totalitaristic style tendencies.

> it seems to attract support.

populism is extremely natural and foundational to fascism as fascism panders to the perceived core identity of the subject mass of people.

>why anyone thinks

that is the point. Looking at videos and reading about the Nazi rallies, China Cultural Revolution events, USSR Great Purge and whole Stalin period, ... - it is pretty clear that it isn't the higher, the "thinking", level of the brain that gets to drive, it is that lizard part.

I think the precursors are very important in understanding this. In India, before the current Modi regime, there was a strong need for a strong leader. Congress (previous ruling party) suffers from Family rule and sycophants. Modi looked like a god-send to the masses. Now with a strong majority and into the 2nd term, the Fascist undertones are starting to emerge.

I can not not to find parallels with Xi. Just Modi, he looked like a god sent safe candidate for party leadership: unaligned, far from being a clear kleptocrat, and having just enough of his own skill and charisma to hold the seat on his own till last of nineties era elites retire.

Now people who propped him out can't regret it more.

It preys directly on human psychology by creating myths about how life used to be great and invoking nostalgia and frustration in broken people who just need guidance. No one who likes fascism sees it the way normal people do, because it's designed to trick people and weed its way into collective society and psyche.

This is why we must make a continuous effort to stomp it before it spreads and never listen to people who call us silly for saying Modi is a fascist just because he isn't Hitler's level yet.

> broken people who just need guidance

What kind of guidance do you suggest?

This is institutional, i'm not suggesting just 'talk it out' with people. You need a complete paradigm shift in legislation to even begin talking about the structures needed to be put in place to help educate people.

Until people can protect themselves against it, for now best we can do is make sure fascism is called out so it doesn't reach anyone.

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