As good a time as any to remind folks of the 14 properties of “ur-fascism” (described by Umberto Eco, who grew up in Italy under Mussolini, in his 1995 essay Ur-Fascism). Not all need be present for single regime to be fascist, but a Venn diagram of all fascist regimes will cover them all.
CULT OF TRADITION. The old ways are best. The New is not worthwhile.
REJECT MODERNISM The development of Western philosophy post-Enlightenment is seen as a descent into depravity. See also : Reject post-modernism, which is seen as an even greater descent into irrationality.
ACTION FOR ACTION’S SAKE. Action is to be taken without reflection or introspection - that’s for weaklings and degenerates. Often seen in a derision of “intellectual elites”.
DISAGREEMENT IS TREASON.Analytical criticism cannot be allowed. A pantomime of discourse may be allowed, but only within the accepted framework and only if reaching the foregone conclusion.
FEAR OF DIFFERENCE. Outsiders are your enemy. Those who are different are evil and want to corrupt you and destroy all you hold dear.
APPEAL TO A FRUSTRATED MIDDLE CLASS Capitalising on genuine frustrations by pointing them toward convenient scapegoats. Real concerns used a recruiting tools.
OBSESSION WITH A PLOT. There is a conspiracy run by THEM. You are besieged by THEM. THEY are behind all your ills. THEY are working in the shadows to enslave and destroy you.
THE ENEMY IS BOTH STRONG AND WEAK. When rhetorically convenient, THEY are all-powerful. When rhetorically convenient, THEY are feeble, stupid, weak. The rhetorical focus shifts regardless of self-contradiction, because all that matters is positioning the enemy where the speaker’s goal requires them to be at any given moment.
PACIFISM IS THE ENEMY. LIFE IS ETERNAL WAR. There must always be an enemy to fight. When that enemy is defeated, another must be found. When they cannot be found, they must be created, even from within. There is always the promise of a Final Solution bringing Ultimate Triumph, but it can never be achieved.
CONTEMPT FOR THE WEAK. Elitism disguised as populism. Everyone of US is superior to THEM, cockroaches and drains on society that they are. But people are sheep who require strong leaders, who are by their nature superior to others.
EVERYONE IS TAUGHT TO BE THE HERO. A CULT OF DEATH. Where in myth the hero is exceptional, in fascism everyone must be the hero. They crave heroic death, the reward for heroic life. In seeking it, they send others to die. (See also: Militarism).
MACHISMO. Disdain for women and femininity. Intolerance of non-standard sexuality and gender expression.
SELECTIVE POPULISM. The People are viewed as a monolith with a single will, as interpreted (in reality, determined) by the leaders. Democratic institutions are viewed as illegitimate because they run counter to the narrative of the existence of a single Voice Of The People.
NEWSPEAK. Vocabulary cannot expand. If anything, it must shrink. Variation and nuance in dialogue means variation and nuance in thought. This cannot be allowed. Therefore categories must be binary. Definitions are simple and limited. If it cannot be boiled down into snappy catchphrase it does not exist.
Look we all want a robo dog but if you kill someone with a sledgehammer to steal theirs, they are going to find you. There’s no way a 75k$ dog doesn’t have gps
we are killing the dog
NO.
ALL DOGS ARE PRECIOUS.
Even robot ones.
its not a dog, its a machine used and designed for police surveillance and the entire reason they made it dog shaped is so idiots like you would go “awwww robot dog how precious” instead of seeing them as the oppressive tools they are.
we’re killing the fucking dog
That’s not a robot dog.
It’s a four-legged robot spider.
It is not a dog, a spider, a chicken, a horse, a fish, a tick, a mosquito, a tapeworm or a baby
It is a weapon
There is nothing morally wrong about breaking weapons that are hurting people for any reason other than to prevent those people from hurting others worse
the dog robots are fully capable of hurting people, and badly. failsafes that would prevent that have not been installed. the police are deploying a thing out in public that can maim anyone who touches it wrong.
look, when i was a kid i was passionately in love with the idea of robots–that humans would one day create another sort of intelligence to share our world with– and believed very firmly that we should respect and protect all our robot friends from the start, so there would be no violent humans-against-robots revolution or anything.
anyway it turns out that the people trying to keep end-stage capitalism running are really banking on us feeling more love for the robots than for the kind of people they’re going to be using the robots to oppress.
so like. maybe lets all agree right now that if a robot is being used to hurt a person, you need to smash the fucking robot. they’re going to make the robots really cute. they’re going to show us so many movies about how much robots need to be loved. and then they are going to use robots to hurt people.
let’s try not to fall for it, okay?
And don’t forget that scary af episode of Black Mirror, Metalhead. Robot dogs can fuck right off.
They created a weapon, told you to call it a friend and watched as your empathy became their trap and tool.
Literally cannot emphasize enough that my #1 writing advice is to stop being afraid. Stop being afraid of sounding too cringe, or too stupid, or too horrifying, or too horny, or too weird, or too much, or too little, or too you. You need to put your entire pussy into your art. Sure, it won’t be to everyone’s tastes, but if you keep yourself to the blandest tamest safest roads possible you will be of no one’s tastes, not even yours.
omfg i forgot that i never showed tumblr my greatest achievement. my pride and joy, my pi-ass de résistance
you’re welcome
if you reblog this i am kissing you on the mouth. no that is not negotiable. we are in love now. we are dating. we are planning the wedding. i will be with you on your wedding night
