How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them

Charges or other negative associations used not for the information they convey but to lower the opinion of others in a target audience, usually an in-group. Simultaneously, conspiracy theories render reasoned discussion and debate effectively impossible.

In understanding fascist thought, it is essential to understand the distinction between the state—which is merely the government or, at most, the country— and the nation, which is central to the fascist worldview. The nation is, to fascists, the superior group of which he they are a part. It gives rise to the entire mythical perception of this in-group as competing against inferior, invading hordes of others. To the fascist nationalist, these “others” are intent on destroying the full glory of the nation by polluting it with liberal ideas and impure blood. The nation, exemplified by the German volk virtually worshipped by Nazis, is the fascists’ conception of all that they strive to become and that which was supposedly lost in the mythic past.

The acceptance as “normal” of that which was previously unacceptable or extreme. Here, this relates to the unknowing acceptance of fascist tactics in a way that undermines democracy.