This is Fascism

Rutger Bregman is becoming one of my favourite writers – first for Utopia for Realists (2016), then for Humankind – a hopeful history (2020) (which I reviewed here) and now Moral Ambition – stop wasting your talent and start making a difference (2025) which I have just downloaded. He has just published in the Dutch “The Standard”, his usual haunt, this powerful article which quotes from Jason Stanley’s work

1 – Every fascist invokes a mythic past to justify his tales of a glorious future. 

If emotion is the fuel for fascism, then a fascist draws on a people’s mythic past to spark 

that emotion. Adolf Hitler dreamed of a Third Reich in the tradition of the great German 

Empires, and Benito Mussolini promised to return 20th-century Italians to Roman times. 

“We have created our myth,” said Mussolini in 1922. “The myth is a faith, a passion. 

It is not necessary for it to be a reality…. And to this myth, this greatness, which we want 

to translate into a total reality, we subordinate everything.”  

Trump uses “Make America Great Again”

2 – Every fascist uses propaganda to disrupt public debate and stoke a sense of 

“the enemy.” If a mythic past provides the spark and emotion the fuel, then propaganda 

is the machine the fascist operates to set the masses in motion. The idea is to sow division 

by blaming supposed enemies, foreign and domestic, for the nation’s decline. 

Every fascist points to relatively vulnerable groups. Fascism is like a bully, out to pick on 

the unpopular kid to build himself up. To make the enemy image stick, a fascist will have 

to lie brazenly and systematically, as Adolf Hitler reasoned in his book Mein Kampf: 

“At first all of it appeared to be idiotic…Later it was looked upon as disturbing, but finally 

it was believed.”

3 – Every fascist deliberately undermines the independent thinkers who can counter 

his propaganda. Journalists, artists, academics, and others are sand in the cogs of the 

propaganda machine because they’ve made critical thinking their vocation and public 

discourse their workplace. They are therefore per definition suspect. The fascist will portray 

them as part of a plot, citing as “proof” that they either ignore or debunk his conspiracy 

theories. He’ll take every opportunity to taunt reporters and will set up his own channels 

for spreading propaganda. As soon as he can, he’ll tether the free press and purge educational 

and cultural institutions.

4 – Every fascist destroys the truth. The loss of a shared reality clears the way for the 

propaganda machine. This goes hand in hand with the Big Lie, a propaganda technique 

concocted by Adolf Hitler. The Big Lie is an assertion so colossal that people presume 

there must be some truth to it—because surely no one would dare make up such a 

whopper. And, as Hitler says in Mein Kampf, “… the grossly impudent lie always leaves 

traces behind, even after it has been nailed down.” Hitler exploited existing antisemitic 

sentiment to this end, cooking up the tale of an international Jewish plot against Germany. 

He kept repeating it until people chose to believe him. 

5 – Every fascist establishes a new social hierarchy that’s all about who’s entitled 

to human dignity and who is not. The rights of minorities are stripped away, and people 

are persecuted not only for what they do, but for who they are. The people benefitting from 

this new hierarchy distrust those who speak out against it. An appeal to equal rights and 

equality is thus suspect and subversive. A mob of the meek helps uphold the new order 

out of fear they themselves will be targeted.

6 – Every fascist claims their own group is the victim of a conspiracy or plot. 

An example of this type of conspiracy theory is replacement theory, the idea that one’s 

“own people” are being pushed out by those deemed alien and hostile. Whether it’s a 

“conspiracy of deep-state politicians to kidnap babies,” a “flood of immigrants,” or 

“Jews who corrupt women”—the theory works with “almost any combination of enemies,” 

says historian Timothy Snyder. *
Once so-called enemies at home and abroad are treated as legitimate national security 

threats, the fascist will leverage the powers of the state to go after domestic enemies and 

pursue foreign conflict. 

7 – Every fascist defends rigid gender roles as a pillar of his power. Just as the leader 

is the “father of the nation,” the man is the head of the family—and things have to stay 

that way. Gender diversity is portrayed as a threat to the natural order. Where traditional 

male roles are few, the fascist leader tells us who’s to blame: “gender ideologues” or 

“foreigners stealing jobs.”
Women, meanwhile, are primarily there to have lots of babies, thus strengthening the 

position of the group. Mussolini waged a “battle for babies” for this reason, holding state 

ceremonies for prolific childbearing women and imposing a tax on unmarried men over 

the age of 25. Terms like “contraception” and “abortion” were put on a list of words banned 

in the Italian press. 

8 – Every fascist separates people into hardworking citizens and freeloaders. That 

division fuels the idea that opponents are inferior and lazy by nature, and therefore don’t 

deserve a proper place in society. Hardworking citizens are sorely needed, while the 

others—the intellectual elite, lazy state employees, people on welfare or disability—are 

not.  “Arbeit macht frei” read the signs posted by the Nazis at the gates of hell. But that 

work ethic is a smokescreen. Under fascism, the balance of economic power and the 

distribution of wealth don’t change much. 

9 – Every fascist pits rural against urban. Country life symbolizes the traditional, honest, 

hardworking man, while cities must be cleared of lazy, leftist radicals with their depraved 

ideas on gender, diversity, and inclusion. The Nazis saw farmers, for instance, as the 

“bearers of a healthy folkish heredity, the fountain of youth of the people, and the backbone 

of military power.”  

10 – Every fascist turns the state into a weapon to destroy his opponents. While he 

places himself above the law and rewards loyalists with impunity, the fascist claims the power 

to punish people he deems criminal—and without a fair trial. In this way, he destroys the 

rule of law without ever formally abolishing it.
Mussolini did this by capturing the legal profession. Lawyers were forced to serve “fascist 

justice,” so that representing “antifascists” against loyal party members was out of the 

question.  Hitler, for his part, had an “uncanny capacity for sensing ‘the potential weakness 

inherent in every formal form of law’ and then ruthlessly exploiting that weakness,” 

according to his own attorney Hans Frank. 

Is the US really going Fascist?

Answering the question requires a definition of the word. I wanted to extract the essence of the term from the voluminous texts which have appeared on the subject since the end of second world war but have been defeated by the sheer number of relevant texts, of which I mention a few in Recommended Reading at the end. Paxton’s book ends with a bibliographical essay of almost 30 pages!  

The sociologist Michael Mann has presented a useful definition of fascism, in which he identifies three fundamentals: key values, actions, and power organizations. He sees it as ‘the pursuit of a transcendent and cleansing nation-statism through paramilitarism’.He suggests five essential aspects, some of which have internal tensions:

• Nationalism: the ‘deep and populist commitment to an “organic” or “integral” nation’.

• Statism: the goals and organizational forms that are involved when the organic conception imposes an authoritarian state ‘embodying a singular, cohesive will [as] expressed by a party elite adhering to the “leadership principle”.’

• Transcendence: the typical neither/nor of fascism as a third way – that is, as something transcending the conventional structures of left and right. Mann stresses that the core constituency of fascist support can be understood only by taking its aspirations to transcendence seriously. ‘Nation and state comprised their centre of gravity: not class.’

• Cleansing: ‘Most fascisms entwined both ethnic and political cleansing, though to varying degrees.’

• Paramilitarism: as a key element both in values and in organizational form. Like previous analysts, Mann notes that ‘what essentially distinguishes fascists from many military and monarchical dictatorships of the world is [the] “bottom-up” and violent quality of its paramilitarism. It could bring popularity, both electorally and among elites.

Recommended Reading

Articles are perhaps the easiest way in

Ur-fascism Umberto Eco (1997)

Fascism Anyone? Lawrence Britt (2003) which identifies 14 common features of fascism - 
1. Powerful and continuing expressions of nationalism. From the
prominent displays of flags and bunting to the ubiquitous lapel pins,
the fervor to show patriotic nationalism, both on the part of the
regime itself and of citizens caught up in its frenzy, was always
obvious. Catchy slogans, pride in the military, and demands for unity
were common themes in expressing this nationalism. It was usually
coupled with a suspicion of things foreign that often bordered on
xenophobia.
2. Disdain for the importance of human rights. The regimes themselves
viewed human rights as of little value and a hindrance to realizing
the objectives of the ruling elite. Through clever use of propaganda,
the population was brought to accept these human rights abuses by
marginalizing, even demonizing, those being targeted. When abuse was
egregious, the tactic was to use secrecy, denial, and disinformation.
3. Identification of enemies/scape-goats as a unifying cause. The most
significant common thread among these regimes was the use of
scapegoating as a means to divert the people’s attention from other
problems, to shift blame for failures, and to channel frustration in
controlled directions. The methods of choice—relentless propaganda
and0 disinformation—were usually effective. Often the regimes would
incite “spontaneous” acts against the target scapegoats, usually
communists, socialists, liberals, Jews, ethnic and racial minorities,
traditional national enemies, members of other religions,
secularists, homosexuals, and “terrorists.” Active opponents of
these regimes were inevitably labeled as terrorists and dealt with
accordingly.
4. The supremacy of the military/ avid militarism. Ruling
elites always identified closely with the military and the industrial
infrastructure that supported it. A disproportionate share of
national resources was allocated to the military, even when domestic
needs were acute. The military was seen as an expression of
nationalism, and was used whenever possible to assert national goals,
intimidate other nations, and increase the power and prestige of the
ruling elite.
5. Rampant sexism. Beyond the simple fact that the political elite and
the national culture were male-dominated, these regimes inevitably
viewed women as second-class citizens. They were adamantly
anti-abortion and also homophobic. These attitudes were usually
codified in Draconian laws that enjoyed strong support by the
orthodox religion of the country, thus lending the regime cover for
its abuses.
6.A controlled mass media. Under some of the regimes, the mass media
were under strict direct control and could be relied upon never to
stray from the party line. Other regimes exercised more subtle power
to ensure media orthodoxy. Methods included the control of licensing
and access to resources, economic pressure, appeals to patriotism,
and implied threats. The leaders of the mass media were often
politically compatible with the power elite. The result was usually
success in keeping the general public unaware of the regimes’
excesses.
7. Obsession with national security. Inevitably, a national security
apparatus was under direct control of the ruling elite. It was
usually an instrument of oppression, operating in secret and beyond
any constraints. Its actions were justified under the rubric of
protecting “national security,” and questioning its activities
was portrayed as unpatriotic or even treasonous.
8. Religion and ruling elite tied together. Unlike communist regimes,
the fascist and protofascist regimes were never proclaimed as godless
by their opponents. In fact, most of the regimes attached themselves
to the predominant religion of the country and chose to portray
themselves as militant defenders of that religion. The fact that the
ruling elite’s behavior was incompatible with the precepts of the
religion was generally swept under the rug. Propaganda kept up the
illusion that the ruling elites were defenders of the faith and
opponents of the “godless.” A perception was manufactured that
opposing the power elite was tantamount to an attack on religion.
9. Power of corporations protected. Although the personal life of
ordinary citizens was under strict control, the ability of large
corporations to operate in relative freedom was not compromised. The
ruling elite saw the corporate structure as a way to not only ensure
military production (in developed states), but also as an additional
means of social control. Members of the economic elite were often
pampered by the political elite to ensure a continued mutuality of
interests, especially in the repression of “have-not” citizens.
10. Power of labor suppressed or eliminated. Since organized labor was
seen as the one power center that could challenge the political
hegemony of the ruling elite and its corporate allies, it was
inevitably crushed or made powerless. The poor formed an underclass,
viewed with suspicion or outright contempt. Under some regimes, being
poor was considered akin to a vice.
11. Disdain and suppression of intellectuals and the arts. Intellectuals 
and the inherent freedom of ideas and expression associated with them
were anathema to these regimes. Intellectual and academic freedom were 
considered subversive to national security and the patriotic ideal. 
Universities were tightly controlled; politically unreliable faculty harassed 
or eliminated. Unorthodox ideas or expressions of dissent were strongly attacked,
silenced, or crushed. To these regimes, art and literature should serve the 
national interest or they had no right to exist.
12. Obsession with crime and punishment. Most of these regimes maintained 
Draconian systems of criminal justice with huge prison populations. 
The police were often glorified and had almost unchecked power, leading to 
rampant abuse. “Normal” and political crime were often merged into trumped-up 
criminal charges and sometimes used against political opponents of the regime. 
Fear, and hatred, of criminals or “traitors” was often promoted among the 
population as an excuse for more police power.
13. Rampant cronyism and corruption. Those in business circles and close to 
the power elite often used their position to enrich themselves. This corruption 
worked both ways; the power elite would receive financial gifts and property 
from the economic elite, who in turn would gain the benefit of government 
favoritism. Members of the power elite were in a position to obtain vast 
wealth from other sources as well: for example, by stealing national resources. 
With the national security apparatus under control and the media muzzled, 
this corruption was largely unconstrained and not well understood by the 
general population. 
14. Fraudulent elections. Elections in the form of plebiscites or public opinion 
polls were usually bogus. When actual elections with candidates were held, 
they would usually be perverted by the power elite to get the desired result. 
Common methods included maintaining control of the election machinery, 
intimidating and disenfranchising opposition voters, destroying or disallowing 
legal votes, and, as a last resort, turning to a judiciary beholden to the 
power elite.
Ur-fascism and Neo-fascism Andrew Johnson (2020)

Adorno write of such a danger - “National Socialism lives on, and even today we still do not know whether it is merely the ghost of what was so monstrous that it lingers on after its own death, or whether it has not yet died at all, whether the willingness to commit the unspeakable survives in people as well as in the conditions that enclose them.”

On Tyranny – reading guide Dave Forrest (2021)

How to Spot a Fascist  Terry Trowbridge (2022)

Fascism - a comprehensive reading list (2025) contains some interesting and unusual reads

Is It Fascism? Dan Garner (2025) 
When Trump first ran for office in 2016, Paxton and other scholars were asked if 
Trump was a fascist. Some said yes. Some said no. Paxton was among those who said no. 
But the January 6th insurrection changed his mind. Immediately afterward, 
he published a short essay explaining why. An excerpt:
Trump's incitement of the invasion of the Capitol on January 6, 2021 
removes my objection to the fascist label. His open encouragement of 
civic violence to overturn an election crosses a red line. The label 
now seems not just acceptable but necessary. It is made even more plausible 
by comparison with a milestone on Europe's road to fascism—an openly 
fascist demonstration in Paris during the night of February 6, 1934.
On that evening thousands of French veterans of World War I, bitter at 
rumors of corruption in a parliament already discredited by its inefficacy 
against the Great Depression, attempted to invade the French parliament 
chamber, just as the deputies were voting yet another shaky government into 
power. The veterans had been summoned by right-wing organizations. 
They made no secret of their wish to replace what they saw as a weak 
parliamentary government with a fascist dictatorship on the model of Hitler 
or Mussolini.
…
In the United States, after the ignominious failure of a shocking fascist 
attempt to undo Biden's election, the new American President can begin his 
work of healing on January 20. Despite encouraging early signs and the 
relative robustness of American institutions, it's too soon for a responsible 
historian to say whether he'll be more successful in sustaining our Republic 
than European leaders were in defending theirs.
That last sentence makes for painful reading today.
Last October, after Donald Trump was called a fascist by the man who had been 
his longest-serving chief of staff — the four-star Marine Corps general John 
Kelly — The York Times ran a lengthy profile of Paxton and his changed view 
about Trump and fascism. From the Times:
"This summer I asked Paxton if, nearly four years later, he stood by his 
pronouncement. Cautious but forthright, he told me that he doesn’t believe 
using the word is politically helpful in any way, but he confirmed the diagnosis. 
“It’s bubbling up from below in very worrisome ways, and that’s very much like 
the original fascisms,” Paxton said. “It’s the real thing. It really is.”
I agree with Robert Paxton that Trump and his movement are fascist. I also 
agree that it is not politically helpful to say so (thanks largely to 
generations of leftists who turned the word into a lazy insult.) That’s why 
I generally avoid calling them fascist. Generally. But not always.
As Paxton noted in The Anatomy of Fascism, a “radical instrumentalization of 
truth” is a routine feature of fascism. To the fascist, truth is contingent. 
What is good for the fascist is true; what is not, is not. Does that remind 
you of anyone?
This “radical instrumentalization of truth” makes standing and stating a truth 
regardless of political expedience an anti-fascist act.
And that is why, despite believing it is not politically useful to call Trump 
fascist, I sometimes do. It is my small way of insisting the fascists will 
not win.
Ray Dalio wrote an interesting book in 2021 (listed at the end) about which 
he posted today (I don't understand how he can put such a long post on X!!)
Books
Three Faces of Fascism Ernst Nolte (1969) the renowned German historian offers a 700 page 

analysis

Fascism – a readers guide ed Walter Laqueur (1976) the longest read at 488 pages
Fascism Michael Mann (2004) 436 pages
The Anatomy of Fascism Robert Paxton (2006) 335 pages summarised here
The Nature of Fascism Revisited Antonio Pinto (2012)

Chapters three and four provide a critical overview of new interpretations based on two review articles in which some major works on fascism are debated: Michael Mann’s “Fascists” and R. O. Paxton’s "Anatomy of Fascism. The first book asks the classic questions: Who were the fascists? How did they grow? Who supported them? And what are the conditions most conducive to their taking power? Mann attempts to construct a dynamic model that is not merely a taxonomy of fascism. Like Mann’s study, "The Anatomy of Fascism is also a critical reaction to some aspects of the ideological centrism of recent years. Because it was written by a historian, criticism of culturalism is more present in Paxton’s book, with the author more marked than Mann by the historiographical debates. By claiming ‘what fascists did tells us at least as much as what they said’ (a stance criticised by historians such as Sternhell and Roger Griffin), Paxton attempts to locate the ideas in their rightful place. If Mann’s research concentrates on the conditions leading to the growth of fascist movements, Paxton’s studies the processes involved in their seizure of power and the nature of the resulting regimes.

Global Capitalism and the Crisis of Humanity Bill Robinson (2014) 
OK no mention of fascism in the title but, in 256 pages, he discusses the nature of the new 

global capitalism, the rise of a globalized production and financial system, a transnational 

capitalist class, and a transnational state and warns of the rise of a global police state to contain 

the explosive contradictions of a global capitalist system that is crisis-ridden and out of control. 

Robinson concludes with an exploration of how diverse social and political forces are responding 

to the crisis and alternative scenarios for the future.

Fascism – the career of a concept Paul Gottfried (2016) The author reveals in his intro his “paleoconservative” leanings – in 236 pages.

How Fascism Works – the politics of us and them Jason Stanley (2017 book) Probably the 

best read on the subject (and mercifully brief – at 145 pages)

Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order Ray Dalio (2021)

On Tyranny

I have been rereading Timothy Snyder’s On Tyranny – 20 lessons from the 20^th Century (2017) which he has helpfully summarised here

Eugène Ionesco, the great Romanian playwright, watched one friend after another slip away into the language of fascism in the 1930s. The experience became the basis for his 1959 absurdist play, Rhinoceros, in which those who fall prey to propaganda are transformed into giant horned beasts. Of his own personal experiences Ionesco wrote:

University professors, students, intellectuals were turning Nazi, becoming Iron Guards, one after the other. At the beginning, certainly they were not Nazis. About fifteen of us would get together to talk and to try to find arguments opposing theirs. It was not easy….From time to time, one of our friends said: “I don’t agree with them, to be sure, but on certain points, nevertheless, I must admit, for example, the Jews…,” etc. And this was a symptom. Three weeks later, this person would become a Nazi. He was caught in the mechanism, he accepted everything, he became a rhinoceros. Towards the end, only three or four of us were still resisting.

Ionesco’s aim was to help us see just how bizarre propaganda actually is, but how normal it seems to those who yield to it. By using the absurd image of the rhinoceros, Ionesco was trying to shock people into noticing the strangeness of what was actually happening. The rhinoceri are roaming through our neurological savannahs. We now find ourselves very much concerned with something we call “post-truth,” and we tend to think that its scorn of everyday facts and its construction of alternative realities is something new or postmodern. Yet there is little here that George Orwell did not capture seven decades ago in his notion of “doublethink.” In its philosophy, post-truth restores precisely the fascist attitude to truth—and that is why nothing in our own world would startle Klemperer or Ionesco.

Fascists despised the small truths of daily existence, loved slogans that resonated like a new religion, and preferred creative myths to history or journalism. They used new media, which at the time was radio, to create a drumbeat of propaganda that aroused feelings before people had time to ascertain facts. And now, as then, many people confused faith in a hugely flawed leader with the truth about the world we all share. Post-truth is pre-fascism.

These are twenty lessons from the twentieth century Snyder published 8 years 

ago, first as a kind of online declaration, and then, with historical examples, 

in a pamphlet called On Tyranny. They were written in advance of the first Trump 

presidency, and have been used since in the U.S. and around the world. 

For those who want democracy and the rule of law in the United States after 2024, 

I would only add: now is the time to organize, to prepare to win locally and nationally, 

and to talk not only about what is to be lost but what can be gained. 

I wrote On Tyranny in a defensive mode; but freedom is something not only to be defended 

but to be defined and to be celebrated. As for me, I believe that if we can get through 

the next year, things could get better. Much better. For now, four years after Trump’s 

attempt to end democracy and the rule of law in the United States, a reminder of the lessons.

 I recall them now in then hope that I won’t have to do so again a year from now.

1. Do not obey in advance.  Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. 

In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will 

want, and then offer themselves without being asked.  A citizen who adapts in this way is 

teaching power what it can do. 

2.  Defend institutions.  It is institutions that help us to preserve decency.  They need our 

help as well.  Do not speak of "our institutions" unless you make them yours by acting on 

their behalf.  Institutions do not protect themselves.  They fall one after the other unless 

each is defended from the beginning.  So choose an institution you care about -- a court, 

a newspaper, a law, a labor union -- and take its side.

3. Beware the one-party state.  The parties that remade states and suppressed rivals 

were not omnipotent from the start.  They exploited a historic moment to make political life 

impossible for their opponents.  So support the multiple-party system and defend the rules 

of democratic elections.  Vote in local and state elections while you can.  Consider running 

for office.

4. Take responsibility for the face of the world.  The symbols of today enable the reality 

of tomorrow.  Notice the swastikas and the other signs of hate.  Do not look away, and do 

not get used to them.  Remove them yourself and set an example for others to do so.

5. Remember professional ethics.  When political leaders set a negative example, 

professional commitments to just practice become more important. It is hard to subvert a 

rule-of-law state without lawyers, or to hold show trials without judges.  Authoritarians need 

obedient civil servants, and concentration camp directors seek businessmen interested 

in cheap labor.

6. Be wary of paramilitaries.  When the men with guns who have always claimed to be 

against the system start wearing uniforms and marching with torches and pictures of a 

leader, the end is nigh.  When the pro-leader paramilitary and the official police and military 

intermingle, the end has come.

7. Be reflective if you must be armed.  If you carry a weapon in public service, may 

God bless you and keep you.  But know that evils of the past involved policemen and soldiers 

finding themselves, one day, doing irregular things.  Be ready to say no.

8. Stand out.  Someone has to.  It is easy to follow along.  It can feel strange to do or say 

something different.  But without that unease, there is no freedom.  Remember Rosa Parks.  

The moment you set an example, the spell of the status quo is broken, and others will follow.

9. Be kind to our language.  Avoid pronouncing the phrases everyone else does.  

Think up your own way of speaking, even if only to convey that thing you think everyone 

is saying.  Make an effort to separate yourself from the internet.  Read books.

10. Believe in truth.  To abandon facts is to abandon freedom.  If nothing is true, then 

no one can criticize power, because there is no basis upon which to do so.  

If nothing is true, then all is spectacle.  The biggest wallet pays for the most blinding lights.

11. Investigate.  Figure things out for yourself.  Spend more time with long articles. 

Subsidize investigative journalism by subscribing to print media.  Realize that some of 

what is on the internet is there to harm you.  Learn about sites that investigate propaganda 

campaigns (some of which come from abroad).  Take responsibility for what you communicate 

with others.

12. Make eye contact and small talk.  This is not just polite.  It is part of being a citizen 

and a responsible member of society.  It is also a way to stay in touch with your surroundings, 

break down social barriers, and understand whom you should and should not trust.  

If we enter a culture of denunciation, you will want to know the psychological landscape 

of your daily life.

13. Practice corporeal politics.  Power wants your body softening in your chair and 

your emotions dissipating on the screen.  Get outside.  Put your body in unfamiliar places 

with unfamiliar people.  Make new friends and march with them.

14. Establish a private life.  Nastier rulers will use what they know about you to push you 

around.  Scrub your computer of malware on a regular basis.  Remember that email is 

skywriting.  Consider using alternative forms of the internet, or simply using it less.  

Have personal exchanges in person.  For the same reason, resolve any legal trouble.  

Tyrants seek the hook on which to hang you.  Try not to have hooks.

15. Contribute to good causes.  Be active in organizations, political or not, that express 

your own view of life.  Pick a charity or two and set up autopay.  Then you will have made 

a free choice that supports civil society and helps others to do good.

16. Learn from peers in other countries.  Keep up your friendships abroad, or make 

new friends in other countries.  The present difficulties in the United States are an element 

of a larger trend.  And no country is going to find a solution by itself.  Make sure you and 

your family have passports.

17. Listen for dangerous words.  Be alert to use of the words "extremism" and "terrorism." 

 Be alive to the fatal notions of "emergency" and "exception."  Be angry about the treacherous 

use of patriotic vocabulary.

18. Be calm when the unthinkable arrives.  Modern tyranny is terror management.  

When the terrorist attack comes, remember that authoritarians exploit such events in 

order to consolidate power.  The sudden disaster that requires the end of checks and 

balances, the dissolution of opposition parties, the suspension of freedom of expression, 

the right to a fair trial, and so on, is the oldest trick in the Hitlerian book.  Do not fall for it.

19. Be a patriot.  Set a good example of what America means for the generations to come. 

 They will need it.

20. Be as courageous as you can.  If none of us is prepared to die for freedom, then all of 

us will die under tyranny.

These lessons are the openings of the twenty chapters of On Tyranny, which has been updated to account for the Big Lie, the coup attempt, the war in Ukraine, and the risks we face in 2024.  On Tyranny has also been published in a beautiful graphic edition, illustrated by Nora Krug.https://clc.overdrive.com/media/5727494?cid=1545173

Recommended Reading
Ur-fascism Umberto Eco (1997 article)
Ur-fascism and Neo-fascism Andrew Johnson (2020 article)

Adorno write of such a danger.

“National Socialism lives on, and even today we still do not know whether it is merely the ghost of what was so monstrous that it lingers on after its own death, or whether it has not yet died at all, whether the willingness to commit the unspeakable survives in people as well as in the conditions that enclose them.”

How to Spot a Fascist  Terry Trowbridge (2022 article)
The Anatomy of Fascism Robert Paxton 2006 book
Global Capitalism and the Crisis of Humanity Bill Robinson 2014 book