How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them

by Jason F. Stanley

A distinguishing mark of fascist politics is the targeting of ideological enemies and the freeing of all restraints in combating them.

The goal of ICE is not to make communities safer. ICE’s mission is to reinforce a distinction between “us” and “them.”

Fascist politics includes many distinct strategies: the mythic past, propaganda, anti-intellectualism, unreality, hierarchy, victimhood, law and order, sexual anxiety, appeals to the heartland, and a dismantling of public welfare and unity.

In a healthy liberal democracy, language is a tool of information. The goal of fascist propaganda is not merely to mock and sneer at robust and complex public debate about policy; it is to eliminate its possibility.

Liberal equality means that those with different levels of power and wealth nevertheless are regarded as having equal worth.