In this article I would like to talk about the book How Fascism Works, by Jason Stanley, as well as give my perspective on some of the points I think are important. Jason is a Philosophy professor at Yale University who intends to explain the main characteristics of Fascism and how fascist leaders exploit their victims, their targets and the public. While I believe Jason does a good job superficially, he addresses the issue from a liberal perspective. As I will exemplify ahead, Jason gives too much focus to fascist leaders and their tactics without questioning how exactly they are able to work in concert with capitalist systems to achieve their goals.

In chapter one, Jason discusses "the mythic past" that fascists so often rely on. This is not hard to notice in most fascist rhetoric. Fascists need a past where everything was great before their target group came along or grew in visibility to justify their hatred for their target group. From a leftist perspective, it's interesting to note how a similar image of greatness is constructed under capitalism. In the case of capitalism, it's common propaganda that society was much more rudimentary before the Industrial Revolution, after which poverty was quickly reduced and material conditions were greatly improved, particularly thanks to capitalists and economic liberalism. However, this is not really what we see nowadays. This contributes to the frustrations that fascist leaders exploit, because then people are also lead to believe that society should be much more prosperous than it is, which they often follow with the claim that a minority group is responsible for current limitations.

Chapters three and four revolve around anti-intellectualism and unreality. These can be exemplified as the dislike of academics and the notion that society is meant to be structured a certain rigid way. Once again, Jason mentions real cases, but he shies away from a criticism of capitalism. In the case of anti-intellectualism, the fact that we are routinely directed towards whatever is more productive and pays better shows that the capitalist logic can reinforce the fascist imaginary. Those who would rather pursue an academic life, or those who choose majors that aren't perceived as very industrious, are labeled as either not contributing to society or making it worse.

Fascists point of view often demands the reinforcement of what they believe to be natural, their heritage from a glorious past. The patriarchy is an example of this unreality. Just pay attention to how boys are manipulated to play with cars, weapons and action figures, while girls are expected to content themselves with taking care of toy babies or playing with fake home appliances. Capitalism has the power to make this imaginary seem natural to us. Those academics who dare criticize the natural order of things under capitalism? They are demeaned as destroying “western civilization”.

Finally, as Jason says, in their own unreality, fascists believe that the dominant group (white men, followed by their submissive wife and children) do everything in their power to make society great. They dangerously claim the responsibility for social decay falls on the shoulders of minorities, whom they perceive as parasites who leech on government benefits without putting in the work to better their situation. By this part of the book, it’s disappointing how Jason spends so much time criticizing fascism but fails to address its twin evil, capitalism, in spite of many shared concepts. Hopefully future authors make this important and natural connection.

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