Who are the Fascists?

 

Much of the criticism of the Woke movement and Critical Race Theory centers around their Marxist underpinnings.   And while that is certainly true, I believe it is an incomplete view.  As we begin to observe more of Wokeism and how it behaves, I am coming to the realization that the movement is more of a hybrid between Communism and Nazism.   It has as many characteristics of Nazism as it does Maoism or Bolshevism.

Luke Holland’s documentary, Final Account opened last weekend and provoked questions in my mind about the similarities between National Socialism and Wokeness.  Holland interviewed elderly Germans that had some role in the Third Reich.  The film opens with camp survivor Primo Levi’s quote, “Monsters exist, but they are too few in number to be truly dangerous.  More dangerous are the common men, the functionaries ready to believe and to act without asking questions.” 

I have long been fascinated by the question of how an otherwise civilized nation could find itself in the grips of such a totalitarian, toxic regime.   Holland’s film helped me fill in some of the gaps.  Some of the interviewees denied that they knew exactly what was going on.  Some admitted their complicity.  Some were swept up in the collective fervor, the camaraderie of summer camps and such.  Some exhibited no guilt at all.  One unashamedly and flatly said, “I don’t blame Hitler.”   I was struck by the lack of emotion of many of the interviewees, confirming in my mind Hannah Arendt’s claim of the banality of evil.  Probably the most interesting was Hans Werk, who, in a roundtable with younger Germans implores them, “don’t let yourself be blinded.”

The film delves into the normalization of Jew hatred—the inculcation of antisemitism in schools and the gradual exclusion of Jews from economic and social life in Germany.   In several scenes depicting photographs, signs can be seen in the background with the admonition, “Jews Not Welcome Here.”  The normalization of Jew hatred in Germany began at an early age with nursery rhymes talking about “sharpening the knife to stick in the Jew’s belly.”

Final Account gave me some insight into how ordinary people signed on to the heinous Nazi ideology.  Coupled with reading Richard Evans’s voluminous three volume history of the Third Reich,  I am arriving at some insights into the Woke movement as it spreads its tentacles across the United States.   As I contemplate the evolution of  Wokeness, and in particular, the Critical Race Theory aspect of it, it is clear to me that it is borrowing as much from the Third Reich as it does from the Communist revolutions in Russia and China.

First, Wokeness has its own brownshirts.  In fact, it has three branches—Antifa, BLM and pro-Palestinian thugs.   Each has evidenced no inhibitions about harassing, hurting, and even killing people.   Antifa is still laying siege to Portland with very limited response from the authorities.  BLM harasses and assaults people in restaurants. loots, throws bricks and frozen water bottles at cops and their chants express a desire to do much more.  We saw pro-Palestinian mobs harass and assaulting Jews out in the open last week.   Last week, a mob of BLM supporters closed down a block of retail stores because they were open and “disrespecting Malcolm X’s birthday.”

Second is the indoctrination of its ideology through the school systems. In many states, including Illinois, CRT is now mandated.  And it is happening at all levels of the education system, including higher ed.  This parallels the indoctrination of national socialism in schools and camps throughout Germany.

“The dumbing-down of university education and professional training, with its emphasis on ideological indoctrination and military preparedness rather than on the traditional acquisition of knowledge and skills, added to this regimentation of professional activities to produce a palpable demoralization amongst many professionals.”

-R. Evans, The Third Reich in Power p.444

And again,

“Thus state and Party were both undermining the socializing and educating functions of the family.  Baldur von Shirach [head of Hitler Youth] was aware of this criticism and sought to counter it with the allegation that many poor and working-class children did not have a proper family life anyway.”

-R. Evans, The Third Reich in Power p. 279

We are seeing CRT indoctrination implemented as early as kindergarten, all the way through higher education, without any questioning whether or not it is even a discipline worthy of study.  My own alma mater, The University of Chicago is now contemplating gracing it with an entire department.  And the dumbing-down is rampant.  As I write this, Princeton has announced that it will eliminate Greek or Latin requirements for Classics majors in pursuit of “inclusiveness.”

Third, and most pernicious, is the normalization antisemitism that is embedded within Wokeness and CRT.  About 4 or 5 years ago, I guest lectured at a business class at the University of Illinois-Chicago. While I was waiting, I spied on a bulletin board that had a flyer posted on it, out in the open, that stated conspicuously and in bold letters, “White Privilege Starts with Jewish Privilege.”   I removed the flyer, snapped a photo of it to document it, and, horrified, crumpled it and threw it in the trash.  I felt like I was in 1930’s Germany.

That flyer was my first clue to where this was all headed.  We see signs of it everywhere.  From the treatment of Orthodox Jews by DeBlasio in New York during the pandemic, and attacks on Jews by street thugs, to the open antisemitism of Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib in Congress (which Democratic leaders refuse to condemn) to the open physical attacks on Jews after the missile attacks on Israel by Hamas.  

The hatred, resentment and intolerance fostered by the Woke movement is broader than Jews, but they are at the epicenter.  That flyer told you what the Woke movement is thinking.

Finally, there is the rank corruption within the movement, from entitled politicians to the leaders of BLM,

“Aryanization was only one part of a vast and rapidly growing system of plunder, expropriation and embezzlement under the Third Reich.”

-R. Evans, The Third Reich in Power, p. 400

Replace “Aryanization” with “Black Lives Matter” and the sudden real estate holdings of Black Lives Matter founder Patrisse Cullors immediately jumps to mind.  So do the recipients of the “reparations” in Evanston, and the government largesse bestowed on black farmers and citizens of Oakland, as well as the six figure salaried “diversity officers” and “consultants,”  preaching CRT within various school systems.  Black Lives Matter received hundreds of millions of dollars in donations in the wake of George Floyd’s death,  yet there isn’t a single program, institution, building, or the like that anyone can identify that the organization sponsored or built that actually improved the lives of black people.  The Illinois Senate just passed a Black Wall Street measure, aimed at providing loans and other financial assistance to black owned businesses in majority black communities.  Whites and Asians are not eligible.

To be sure, the parallels with National Socialism are not identical.  The Wokeness movement is not nationalistic, but rather international in scope.  It has yet to fully militarize (although the erection of razor wire and deployment of the national guard at the Capitol were disquieting).   It does not yet have a single, charismatic leader, but rather a cadre of high priests and priestesses.  Yet, Wokeness and Critical Race Theory share more than a few similarities with Germany’s National Socialist movement, and I am beginning to see Wokeness as a hybrid of Communism and Nazism.  Many Republicans claim to be “fiscally conservative,” yet “socially liberal.”   Perhaps the adherents to Wokeism are most appropriately described as “fiscally Marxist,” yet “socially Nazi.”