User:Oceanflynn/sandbox/How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them

How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them is a 2018 nonfiction book by Yale University philosophy professor Jason Stanley. Jacket=""As the child of refugees of World War II Europe and a renowned philosopher and scholar of propaganda, Jason Stanley has a deep understanding of how democratic societies can be vulnerable to fascism: Nations don't have to be fascist to suffer from fascist politics. In fact, fascism's roots have been present in the United States for more than a century. Alarmed by the pervasive rise of fascist tactics both at home and around the globe, Stanley focuses here on the structures that unite them, laying out and analyzing the ten pillars of fascist politics--the language and beliefs that separate people into an 'us' and a 'them.' He knits together reflections on history, philosophy, sociology, and critical race theory with stories from contemporary Hungary, Poland, India, Myanmar, and the United States, among other nations. He makes clear the immense danger of underestimating the cumulative power of these tactics, which include exploiting a mythic version of a nation's past; propaganda that twists the language of democratic ideals against themselves; anti-intellectualism directed against universities and experts; law and order politics predicated on the assumption that members of minority groups are criminals; and fierce attacks on labor groups and welfare. These mechanisms all build on one another, creating and reinforcing divisions and shaping a society vulnerable to the appeals of authoritarian leadership. By uncovering disturbing patterns that are as prevalent today as ever, Stanley reveals that the stuff of politics--charged by rhetoric and myth--can quickly become policy and reality. Only by recognizing fascists politics, he argues, may we resist its most harmful effects and return to democratic ideals."

Content
Yale University philosophy professor Jason Stanley, where he is the Jacob Urowsky Professor of Philosophy. Previous books include Knowledge and Practical Interests, Language in Context, Know How and the award-winning How Propaganda Works. Stanley is a witness to the "consequences of fascism" as his parents fled Nazi Germany. Stanley describes strategies used by fascist regimes that deepen the divide between "us" and "them" based on ethnicity, religion, race, and rural-urban communities, referring to a "mythic past", denying equality, promoting the idea that biologically certain races are superior, using a culture of victimhood, and feeding the sexual anxiety of men. The regimes undermine journalists and reporters, promote anti-intellectualism and the use of propaganda, they spread conspiracy theories, and let fear and anger overtake "reasoned debate", and then call for "law and order" solutions.

Reviews
According to a The New York Times review, Stanley's book—a "slim volume"—"breezes across decades and continents" and says that Donald Trump "resembles other purveyors of authoritarian ultranationalism." Overall, the Times gave a mixed review.

The New Yorker said that How Fascism Works was popular, even though it was by an "academic philosopher"—it "prioritized current events over syllogisms" and "ranged broadly, citing experimental psychology, legal theory, and neo-Nazi blogs."

The Guardian's "rave review" cited Stanley who said that, one of the "ironies of fascist politics" is that it includes the "normalization of the fascist myth" so that talk of fascism is made to appear to be "outlandish". Fascist politics makes us able to "tolerate what was once intolerable by making it seem as if this is the way things have always been...By contrast the word 'fascist' has acquired a feeling of the extreme, like 'crying wolf'."

The Times Literary Supplement (TLS), which gave the book a mixed review, said that How Fascism Works belongs to a "wave of articles, books and op-eds" that warn us of the "return of fascism"—which includes Fascism: A warning by Madeleine Albright, On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder, When The Mob Gets Swayed with contributions by Paul Neuborn, and The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump with contributions by John Gartner. Stanley said in his book that a number of countries—the Philippines, Rwanda, Myanmar, Brazil, Russia, Hungary, Poland and the United States—have currently been "affected by fascist politics".