I debated whether to include “medical” in this headline. After all, fascism is fascism, right? It hardly requires a modifier.
Moreover, fascism and the medical profession share a long and sordid history. During the 1930s, German doctors joined the Nazi party at four times the rate of other professionals. Among the Nazis’ most heinous crimes against humanity were their medical experiments on human subjects—atrocities that gave rise to the Nuremberg Code, which states that “the voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential.”
From that international treaty comes our modern notion of “informed consent”—something we’re now ignoring in our push to force-vaccinate everyone regardless of age, health status, prior immunity, or conscience. But I digress.
In a sense, then, the term “medical fascism” is redundant. Nevertheless, I thought it might be helpful to identify the purported rationale for today’s attempted fascist takeover: We must surrender our freedom, we are told, for the good of society, to “combat the virus.”
Our oppressors don’t even bother denying it. They simply frame their tyranny as a matter of “public health.” That none of the draconian, liberty-crushing measures foisted upon us have been effective in “combatting the virus” doesn’t enter into the conversation. We must simply do as we’re told, or else.
This is not, as some on the right have argued, communism or socialism. It is straightforward fascism. That’s easily seen when we compare what’s going on in the US today with what was happening in Germany in the 1930s.
Virulent authoritarianism. One of the scariest things about European Fascism is the speed at which it came to dominate everyday life. Within a few years, you were either all in for “the State” or you were its enemy.
A similar dynamic has emerged in the United States. First, there were “two weeks to flatten the curve.” Then we had more lockdowns, closing small businesses and shuttering churches, followed by additional unconstitutional mandates.
Now we have an Attorney General, at the behest of the President, labelling parents “domestic terrorists” for daring to stand up against corrupt schoolboards. Citizens are encouraged to be “good Germans” and inform on each other; the FBI, like plainclothes Gestapo, is to be the enforcement arm.
Just as it was in 1930s Germany, the message is clear: Shut up and comply, or we will destroy you.
The Nexus of Big Government and Big Business. A key marker of fascism, as opposed to communism or socialism, is the unholy alliance of public and private sectors. Unlike its ideological cousins, fascism leaves production ostensibly to private industrialists—as long as they help the government further its oppressive agenda. The reward, for them, is great wealth plus a seat at the table of power.
This dynamic was apparent early in our pandemic response, when the government literally chose economic winners and losers. Those deemed “essential” did fine working from home even as unessential peons lost their livelihoods. Big Tech reaped fantastic profits, as did Amazon and Walmart, while small businesses were plowed under like dry Okie wheat fields.
More recently, we’ve seen Big Tech colluding with the Biden* administration to suppress information and Big Pharma enjoying an historic windfall for pushing “vaccines” that are neither as safe nor as effective as advertised. Once again, the favored corporations, the government’s partners in oppression, prosper. Everyone else suffers.
Book burning. Speaking of suppressing information, that’s another hallmark of fascist regimes. In 1930s Germany, it meant burning “dangerous” books. The modern equivalent, in our digital age, involves removing people from social media platforms for saying anything that diverges from the official government/elite narrative, even if it’s true. Especially if it’s true. As the inimitable el gato malo says, it has become axiomatic: Since Twitter only bans the truth, whatever Twitter bans must therefore be true.
The point of this modern-day book-burning, like its Nazi predecessor, is to ensure that people hear only the approved messages. Of course, another term for “approved message” is “propaganda”—something at which fascists also excel.
“Othering.” Finally, the Nazis become infamous for identifying one group as the cause of all societal ills. For them, it was Jews, who were blamed for the nation’s economic woes as well as--and this is key--public health challenges. Posters from that era depict Jews as bug-like creatures spreading typhoid and other diseases.
Today, it is the misnamed “anti-vaxxers” being “othered.” They are the reason we can’t get past this pandemic, not technocratic incompetence or the fact that “viruses gonna virus.” They, not stunning government malfeasance, are responsible for runaway inflation, dismal employment numbers, and a looming recession.
The only item missing from the standard list of fascist traits is nationalism. But that is only because the fascists, having seen the light, are all globalists now.
One of the main differences between fascism and communism, in the mid-20th century, is that the latter sought world domination while the former was more inwardly focused (although that didn’t stop them from seeking to conquer their neighbors).
It turns out, though, that pure communism doesn’t work, because governments are woefully inept at controlling the means of production. They either go broke or adopt the fascist model, in which some “private enterprise” is encouraged so long as it serves the state.
China is the poster child for this evolution. And although we might come at it from the opposite end of the political spectrum, are we really that far behind in terms of elitism, cronyism, and oppression?
Thankfully, hopeful signs of pushback have emerged: the Southwest Airlines non-strike strike; the growing success of conservative media outlets like Townhall and The Daily Wire; the rising popularity of covid-policy skeptics like Alex Berenson, Dr. Robert Malone, Dr. Ryan Cole, Dr. Peter McCullough, and el gato malo; and the refusal of many parents to be intimidated by their local commissars—I mean, school boards.
That’s a start. But if we wish to turn the tide, and escape full-on fascism, we will need a lot more of that sort of thing, and soon.
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