#never thought I'd be the target of a fascist regime

[fragiledewdrop]

I had noticed this choice and I loved it, but I am reblogging this addition in particular because it highlights something that's been bothering me for a while.

I am not an historian, although I have studied my fair share of history, so take what I say with a grain of salt, but I'd be very thankful if those who see this would stop a moment to read.

It seems that a lot of people are learning about the camicie nere from this post. While I am glad there is a link for further reading here, I want to point out the black shirts were not nazis. They were fascists.

I have noticed that people, especially non-europeans, tend to conflate the two, but I think it's important to know that nazism and fascism are two different things. There would be A LOT to say about this, but the short version is that nazism is very much tied to the political and social climate of Germany during the 30s. Fascism was born in Italy - way before nazism- and had very different characteristics. It was also, obviously, a fruit of the time and circumstances, but the term also has a wider meaning that can be applied to different political movements. Umberto Eco explained it quite well (I have seen this essay reccommended a lot on tumblr, but it's for good reason. Eco lived through Mussolini's dictatorship. As an Italian who has had the same things described in similar tones by several family members, I urge you read it).

I don't say this to be nitpicky.

Nazism, as an ideology, was a specific cocktail of nationalism, revanschism, extreme racism, eugenetics, violent anti-bolschevism and of course antisemitism (it's important to note that the latter two where conflated: communism was thought to be a direct creation of "the jews"). It harkened back to Germany's traditional pagan past, and was often tied to forms of mysticism.

Fascism was very different. Fascists were also (still are) firmly anti-communists. They were nationalists. But, for example, they were not raging antisemites (no more than the rest of Western society at any rate). Mussolini and the camicie nere did not base their ideology on racism, which Hitler very much did. Racial laws were passed in Italy, yes, but only after Mussolini and Hitler became allies: in almost 20 years of regime until then, it had never been an issue.

Do you see why that's important? A fascist may not come to you saying he hates jewish people, or any other racial group for that matter. That doesn't mean they are not dangerous in other ways, or that they, given the chance, won't turn on the first convenient target without remorse.

Crucially, Mussolini did launch a brutal colonial campaign in Etiopia. There was of course racism there, and it was significant- but again, it was not the driving force behind any political decision, and honestly? It wasn’t worse than what democratic governments from England and France had been doing around the world for two centuries. That's a whole other kettle of fish.

So if you are looking for blatant, in your face racist or antisemitic ideology as a warning sign for fascism? Think again. Look closer. That's not all there is. It's not how it starts.

It starts with the systematical intimidation and eradication of political enemies. It starts with the loss of freedom- the freedom to vote, to express dissent, the freedom of press, of assembly. It starts with the formation of a militia. It's power based on raw strength. And it's not only socialists being beaten and killed. It's every party being dissolved, including the moderates, the catholics, the conservatives who supported the fascists's rise to power. It's workers being deprived of their unions. Those are the signs. That's what leads to utter control over every aspect of society, of individual life. It leads to artists and scientists being silenced, to children being systematically brainwashed, to history being censored. It leads to the kind of society that will follow its "duce" into a suicidal allegiance with the worst dictator you can immagine. A kind of society that won't bat an eye when that results in the deportation and murder of innocents citizens.

Hitler also started like this, but he already had all his plans in mind, and they were known. He had talked about the "jewish problem", and the stab in the back, and the Volk, and the Lebensraum before seizing power. In Italy, in Spain, in Hungary, there was nothing of the sort. Fascist dictators still rose to power.

You won't spot burgeoning fascist ideology if you are looking for nazism. You won't. And that's dangerous, because I honestly do not think there are a lot of actual nazis in the world today. There are, however, a lot of fascists. More than you would think, if you are looking only for Goebbels 2.0, or for the progammatic madness of Hitler's speeches after the Munich Putsch.

Another key difference: the nazis were not connected with any form of organized religion. As I hinted above, they had their own kind of spirituality that often went against Christianity in many ways.

On the other hand, it could be argued that Mussolini's most long lasting heritage is his pact with the Catholic Church. He couldn’t have come to power in Italy with the church working against him, with the pope opposing him in his own country, and he knew it. He seeked a deal, and turned it into an ideological weopon. Franco in Spain was also supported by many members of the church.

So fascists have and will use religion for their gains, especially if they can convince you they are the last barrier against the godless degenerates that want to destroy your way of life.

The nazis very much DID NOT.

I haven't been able to stomach reading all of Mein Kampf, but I have read several passages during the years. I have been studying nazism since I was a teenager, because it terrifies me like little else. From what I have been able to understand, that ideology would have been doomed in any other country, in any other time. Fascism, on the other hand? That's an export product, and a successfull one at that.

It's an endemic illness that lurked through all post WW2 Europe and of which Nazism was but one manifestation. It's a beast that evolves, and it survives. It's "twenty centuries of stony sleeped/vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle". It's been fed, and continues to be fed, by the fear of radical reform and the fear of 'the other'. Except radical reform is no longer the Comintern, and 'the other' is no longer the socialist and the jew (although I am not trying to say antisemitism isn’t still an issue. At all)

And one last thing. Dictators in general, and fascists in particular, rarely care about ideology beyond a certain point. They want power, and they'd do anything to obtain it and mantain it.

Mussolini started out as a socialist. He was kicked out from the party when he advocated for Italy to break neutrality to fight in WW1. He was still, however, an anticlerical republican. In the Programma di San Sepolcro, the first program of the Fasci, the fascists say they want, among other things, the requisition of the church's property, a tax on capital aimed at the "partial requisition of wealth", and the right to vote for women.

They did not hesitate one second to throw all that to the wind when they realized they needed the church, the king, and the borgeoisie. Ideology was negotiable to them. That's incredibly dangerous.

The nazis, on the other hand, tended to be fanatical to the point of utter lunacy. When it was clear the war was lost Hitler killed himself. Goebbels and his wife reportedly also killed themselves and their children because they didn't want them to live in a word without nationalsocialism.

What did Mussolini do? He fled.

My grandfather, who was 14 at the time and had been raised the perfect little fascist, who trusted Mussolini more than god, once told me that that flight was the greatest betrayal of his life. Much like Umberto Eco, he had to deal with the fact that all he knew was a lie.

Not all people his age share his perspective. I still can't help wishing that those who feel the appeal of fascist leadership would listen to what he has to say.

To be clear: I am not saying nazism isn’t dangerous, nor that there aren’t aspects of it that have survived. But to conflate nazism and fascism is to miss a lot of much needed context and nuance.

Sorry for the long post. This probably lacks depth- there's a lot more to be said, and I am not an expert. It's also coloured by my own personal opinions and experiences, especially because I have been feeling a lot of rage about these topics lately. To be blunt, you do not grow up where I did without having a few openly fascist relatives, aquaintances, teachers and family friends. The current political situation does nothing to defuse tensions, so forgive me if I lost control a little.

I do hope, however, that it can be a starting point for looking into this. And that if you do, you'll remember Crowley's choice of shirt as the thing that prompted you to. That, and the fact that you got to see a Nazi devoured by a spider for eternity.

hi! i hope you’re having a good night! i was wondering what the significance of crowleys blue shirt and red tie in the 1941 flashbacks mean? they usually wear all black, so i was just wondering if it meant something :)

It meant that Crowley was not going to let anyone mistake him for a Blackshirt during WW2.