“« FASCIST »” – Social Ecology ABC

Today, the term “fascist” is being used in all sorts of confusing ways. Far right extremists now call their opponents “fascists”. Tendencies claiming to be anarchists point to other anarchist tendencies as suspects of fascist leanings. In short, it’s all nonsense, and it’s important not to get caught up in the confusion. A certain amount of historical knowledge is essential, but so is an effort to clarify the meaning of words. We have to stop waving words around in all directions, often in an abusive manner, when we can see that we’re not helping to make things clearer. One thing is certain: contemporary domination now relies to a large extent on this confusion of the meaning of words, which it manipulates as it pleases and according to its own priorities. The result is the artificial separation of the populations it seeks to control. Yes, fascist tendencies are indeed at work today, at a time when the global capitalist system is turning, in order to survive, towards increasingly totalitarian logics. We won’t free ourselves from this by anathematizing, participating in the accentuation of useless cleavages and feeding hatred. On the contrary, we need to make an ongoing effort to clarify debates, unravel contradictions, encourage reflection, and rediscover a sense of commonality, which also involves developing a commonality of meaning.

Translated by TerKo with the help of a free translation tool.