Fascism Doesn't Knock On Your Door Suddenly – It Sneaks Up On You

'A spectre is haunting Europe, America and beyond — the spectre of fascism...' So should we begin the reading of our times, perhaps, when we look at Salvini's Italy, Orban's Hungary, Edoğan's Turkey, and even Trump's USA.

Yet, many wonder whether or not the name of the spectre is right. Is it the shadow of fascism? If so, has it already taken us hostage?

According to Fintan O'Toole, the issue is serious and has urgency. In his article, he reaches striking conclusions, and helps to further the debate.

To grasp what is going on in the world right now, we need to reflect on two things. One is that we are in a phase of trial runs. The other is that what is being trialled is fascism – a word that should be used carefully but not shirked when it is so clearly on the horizon. Forget “post-fascist” – what we are living with is pre-fascism.

As an example, he takes the case of Salvini and Trump, the rising masters of the trial runs.

It is being done in Italy by the far-right leader and minister for the interior Matteo Salvini. How would it go down if we turn away boatloads of refugees? Let’s do a screening of the rough-cut of registering all the Roma and see what buttons the audience will press. And it has been trialled by Trump: let’s see how my fans feel about crying babies in cages.

It is not that fascism has suddenly appeared before us, O'Toole argues. It seeks the right conditions, and creeps inch by inch.

Fascism does not need a majority – it typically comes to power with about 40 per cent support and then uses control and intimidation to consolidate that power. So it doesn’t matter if most people hate you, as long as your 40 per cent is fanatically committed. That’s been tested out too. And fascism of course needs a propaganda machine so effective that it creates for its followers a universe of “alternative facts” impervious to unwanted realities.

Step by step, says O'Toole, people of Europe and elsewhere are being groomed to accept the unacceptable.