We have heard it quietly mentioned for years that the United States, and much of the world, is slowly slipping toward fascism. The term is one that is often misused and misunderstood. However, it seems that today there is an imperative to understand its true meaning, and to determine if, in fact, the world is once again moving to such dark times.
For our purposes today, we will examine the words of the Italian philosopher and political and social commentator, Umberto Eco. Among his writings, he produced a list of what he called 14 common features of fascism. As some of us observe the appalling conditions in the US and other Western nations, it is important to understand these points, and determine if they are, in fact, besetting these governments. It is also important to note that fascism isn’t a “one size fits all” ideology. It’s features also overlap and sometimes even contradict each other. In Eco’s words, …“the fascist game can be played in many forms, and the name of the game does not change.” We will see if this deadly game is, in fact, being played again in the West.
Here are Eco’s 14 points, with commentary:
1. The cult of tradition. Eco said this: “One has only to look at the syllabus of every fascist movement to find the major traditionalist thinkers.” Over the decades, many long-held and,sadly, long-revered traditions have been shattered. Women are employed in large numbers, and have been granted a wide range of rights, including that of bodily autonomy. Workers were recognised as humans with needs and wants, and were given the right to organise, strike and bargain for example, for better wages,benefits and working conditions. The absolute right of the employer to control these issues was slowly diminished. Children ceased to be seen as only a step above slaves, where they were forced to work long hours in dangerous conditions. Child labour laws became the norm, breaking with “time-honoured” traditions. Time and space prevents relating other examples. But in recent times, we see these benefits being eroded.
2. The rejection of modernism.As Econ explained: “The Enlightenment, the Age of Reason, is seen as the beginning of modern depravity.” In the United States, government officials bemoan current trends, and long for the ‘good old days”. Those current trends that are so roundly rejected by fascists include integration, tolerance for non-normative sexual behaviour, women in the workforce, women’s rights and anything related to diversity, equity and inclusion.
3. The cult of action for action’s sake. We will quote Eco again: “Action being beautiful in itself, it must be taken before, or without, any previous reflection. Thinking is a form of emasculation.” In the US today, Tesla-company owner Elon Musk leads the so-called “Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)”. He and his naïve and very inexperienced team are taking action, and it seems to be without any previous reflection. An NBC news report of February 14, said this: “In his first weeks in office, Donald Trump has taken unprecedented action to invite corruption in the federal government and to undermine the guardrails meant to protect against it….” The idea that disgruntled, fired employees could take state secrets to a high-bidding foreign nation can also not be dismissed. But Trump and his minions crow about how much Musk is doing. Yes, there is lots of action, but little consideration of how the chips may fall. And regarding the last point in this component, Trump has shown his admiration and awe for men he sees as powerful dictators.
4. Disagreement is treason. Eco’s words: “In modern culture the scientific community praises disagreement as away to improve knowledge.” And we’ve already discussed the fascist disdain for modernism.
Even prior to the election, Trump proclaimed that his political opponents would pay a high price for their actions. On September 20, 2024, an article in the Guardian said this: “Donald Trump’s sweeping threats if he wins the presidency again to name a special prosecutor to ‘go after’ Joe Biden and take legal action against other foes would subvert the rule of law in America and take the country towards authoritarianism, former justice department officials and scholars have warned.”
On October 18, weeks before the 2024 election, Bloomberg reported this: Trump posted“…on social media, ‘WHEN I WIN, those people that CHEATED’ — Democrats, in his dark fantasy of election fraud — ‘will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law, which will include long term prison sentences so that this Depravity of Justice does not happen again.’”
5. Fear of difference. As Eco explained: “The first appeal of a fascist or prematurely fascist movement is an appeal against the intruders.” During his first term, Trump issued a ban against Muslims entering the country and vowed to build a wall between Mexico and the US to keep out immigrants. During his first campaign for the White House, The Washington Post quoted: “When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. They're not sending you. They're not sending you. They're sending people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems with us. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.” Currently, he is endorsing the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip, not seeming to recognise them as having the basic human rights that every individual on the planet is entitled to. He is strong-arming Canada into increasing its border “security”,despite no risk to Canada from immigration.
6. Appeal to social frustration.Again, we will review Eco’s words about this feature of fascism: “One of the most typical features of the historical fascism was the appeal to a frustrated middle class, a class suffering from an economic crisis or feelings of political humiliation, and frightened by the pressure of lower social groups.”The shrinking middle class is, indeed, frustrated, as prices for basic good shave skyrocketed in recent years. Entitlement programmes such as food stamps and other safety net components for the poor are portrayed by the government to the middle class as benefits for lazy, undeserving people who are taking money out of the pockets of the middle class to buy cigarettes and lottery tickets.Trump, a billionaire, has somehow managed to convince the middle class that he “feels their pain”, and will resolve many of their issues. He accomplished this despite living in almost obscene luxury around the world.
Tapping into social frustration is not new. During Ronald Reagan’s term as president,he decried the “welfare queen”, the person, usually female, who was defrauding the government of thousand of dollars through misuse of the welfare system. He implied that this person was the norm, rather than an anomaly. But it all played well to his base.
7. The obsession with a plot. In Eco’s description, he states that “here is the obsession with a plot, possibly an international one. The followers must feel besieged.” Today, conspiracy theories abound. Some, while ridiculous, are basically harmless, such as the persistent belief that former President Barack Obama wasn’t born in the US.Others are more dangerous, such as the Deep State, which purports that political officials threaten “…to thwart the will of the people and undercut the constitutional authority of the president they elected to lead them.”
Other“enemies” include Jews and Muslims,and many people seem to see the party of which they are not a member as the “enemy”. One study examined Democrats’ and Republicans’ beliefs about each other.“…[M]any Republicans told us that Democratic voters were ‘brainwashed’ by the propaganda of the mainstream media,’ or voting solely in their self-interest to preserve undeserved welfare and food stamp benefits.” Democratic views of Republicans weren’t much different. “Democrats inferred that Republicans must be ‘VERY ill-informed,’ or that ‘Fox news told me to vote for Republicans.’ Or that Republicans are ‘uneducated and misguided people guided by what the media is feeding them’.”
8. The enemy is both strong and weak. Eco explained: “By a continuous shifting of rhetorical focus, the enemies are at the same time too strong and too weak.” We hear today about the threat of Lebanon, and its weakened position. Iran, we are told, poses a threat to world peace, yet is contained by US military might.Even Palestine, victimised as of this writing by unspeakable genocide, is seen as a threat to Israel, the most powerful nation in the Middle East, backed by the most powerful in the world.
9. Pacifism is trafficking with the enemy. Eco said, in reference to this point, that “…there is no struggle for life but, rather, life is lived for struggle.” We see this in the US government’s view that anyone who opposes military action of any kind is weak at best, and a traitor at worst.This, too, is not new in the US. “The Nixon administration’s enemies list inspired bipartisan revulsion. Its purpose was, in the immortal words of President Richard Nixon’s White House counsel, to ‘use the available federal machinery to screw our political enemies.’” Even columnist William F. Buckley Jr., a staunch conservative and supporter of Nixon, “called the enemies list ‘an act of proto-fascism. It is altogether ruthless in its dismissal of human rights. It is fascist in its reliance on the state as the instrument of harassment.’” Today, President Trump has made no secret of his plans to weaponise the Department of Justice against those he considers his “enemies”.
10. Contempt for the weak. As Eco said about this point: “Elitism is atypical aspect of any reactionary ideology.” This can best be seen by studying its inverse, adoration for the strong. In December of 2023, “The former president (Trump),again, praised authoritarian leaders including Hungary's Viktor Orban, China'sXi Jinping and North Korea's Kim Jong Un….”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has been singled out for special and repeated praise by Trump. “Despite Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked, brutal war against Ukraine,Donald Trump has repeatedly and unashamedly heaped praise on the Russian dictator – even saying he might have let Russia ‘take over’ parts of Ukraine.”
11. Everybody is educated to become a hero. According to Eco, “…heroism is the norm”. For reasons that have never been clearly or coherently explained, Trump wants his likeness carved onto the mountain that was originally known as ‘The Six Grandfathers’, but was desecrated and the name changed to Mt. Rushmore. Additionally,during his first term, The Atlantic reported this: “The president insists that no administration has done as much as his—echoing similar claims made at moments of difficulty.”
12. Machismo and weaponry. Eco’s explanation: “Machismo implies both disdain for women and intolerance and condemnation of nonstandard sexual habits, from chastity to homosexuality.” Under Trump’s first term,women’s rights to bodily autonomy were removed. In his current term, he has removed protections for members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community. Regarding weapons,a report by the Brady Campaign, issued shortly before the 2024 presidential election, stated that “Trump's Project2025 and Agenda47 are radical manifestos that will lead to guns EVERYWHERE. With guns the number one killer of kids in America, we need to vote like our lives depend on it in – because they do.”
13. Selective populism. As Eco explained: “There is in our future a TV or Internet populism, in which the emotional response of a selected group of citizens can be presented and accepted as the Voice of the People.” The corporate-owned news media plays right into this. USA Today reported this on February 21, 2025, referring to two young Israeli hostages that were killed: “Instead, Kfir and Ariel Bibas were killed with the ‘bare hands’ of their captors, Israeli Defense Forces said Friday in findings based on forensic conclusions and intelligence. Then, their captors ‘committed horrific acts to cover up these atrocities.
“The announcement sent a fresh wave of grief and outrage rippling across Israel, one day after Hamas returned four hostage bodies including the children and what was said to be their mother, Shiri Bibas – but which Israeli authorities said just hours later was not Bibas but an unknown Palestinian from Gaza.”
The only evidence presented was the statement of the IDF, but it certainly elicited an emotional response. Hamas spokespeople have said they were killed by an Israeli air strike,as other “hostages” were killed. Yet this “information” and the response to it is being portrayed as the “Voice of the People”.
14. Fascism speaks Newspeak. Eco’s explanation: “All the Nazi or Fascist schoolbooks made use of an impoverished vocabulary, and an elementary syntax, in order to limit the instruments for complex and critical reasoning.” Donald Trump has personified this. Here are some examples:
· Ina debate in 2016 with Hillary Clinton, he said this: “I’m going to cut taxes bigly, and you’re going to raise taxes bigly.” “Bigly” is not contained in the Merriam-Webster dictionary.
· COVID-19:Trump called it the China virus” and “kung flu”.
· Trump repeatedly used the phrase "enemy of the people" to attack the media. T-shirts were created that said: "Rope. Tree. Journalist".
· In January of 2017, Trump told CNN’s Jim Acosta: “You are fake news. From that moment on, he co-opted and weaponised the phrase to dismiss media reports he did not like.”
· “Trump described climate change, the Russia investigation and his impeachment as a hoax.”
· “Lock her up!” His campaign chant against Hillary Clinton became very popular.
· “Build that wall”. Another frequent chant at his rallies, this, like “Lock her up”excited his base and energised his rallies.
· “Loser”. This is another common Trump insult against those who disagreed with him on any topic.
Note that each of these include short, catch-phrases, with little or no substance,but that appealed to his base.
There are people still alive whore member much of the world suffering as major powers slowly slid into fascism.Unfortunately, few of them seem to be in any elected office. It is cliché, but true, to say that those who forget the past are destined to relive it, and it appears that that is exactly what is happening today. The points listed above are there for the readers to make their own determination about whether or not fascism is on the rise to such a degree that it is extremely dangerous. This writer’s opinion on the topic should be abundantly clear.
Photo: The US, and the world, is slowing slipping into fascism. (by Adobe)