How Fascism works: the politics of us and them

Book Review (Jason Stanley)

"My interest in this book is in fascist politics. Specifically, my interest is in fascist tactics as a mechanism to achieve power."

So begins Jason Stanley in this very readable volume. Over ten chapters he analyses ten aspects of fascist tactics and politics, drawing examples from early 20th century Europe, as well as other examples, and then helping you understand how this has played out in America in recent times. The book was published in 2018, and so right in the midst of the first Trump administration, but its analysis is just as pertinent today.

The ten chapters cover: the mythic past, propaganda, anti-intellectualism, unreality, hierarchy, victimhood, law and order, sexual anxiety, (cities), and labour. While some of these are straight-forward or transparent, it's chilling reading through the first few chapters and daily seeing and hearing these played out. For example:

Publicizing false charges of corruption while engaging in corrupt practices is typical of fascist politics, and anticorruption campaigns are frequently at the heart of fascist political movements. Fascist politicians characteristically decry corruption in the state they seek to take over, which is bizarre, given that fascist politicians themselves are invariably vastly more corrupt than those they seek to supplant or defeat. (chapter 2)

Certainly true in our immediate present. But the sections of this book that I found most interesting begins around chapter 5: hierarchy. Stanley begins by contrasting how equality is one of the bedrocks of liberal democracy, whereas fascism holds to a hierarchical view in which hierarchy is natural. In particular men over women, and the chosen nation over others. And the right critique of liberalism is that its unjust for privileged groups to share their power with groups that aren't deserving.

This plays into chapter 6: victimhood, which explores the way in which majority groups, when they perceive any shift away from their dominance, perceive it as discrimination and victimisation.

Forty-five percent of President Donald Trump’s supporters believe that whites are the most discriminated-against racial group in 54 percent of Trump’s supporters believe that Christians are the most persecuted religious group in America.

...

increased representation of members of traditional minority groups is experienced by dominant groups as threatening in various ways.

(chapter 6) keep in mind this is 2018.

This, when you think about it, makes perfect sense of the discourse that fuels men feeling they are disempowered by feminism and discriminated against, of whites feeling like moves towards equality and greater representation of minorities mean it's not "okay to be white", and of President Trump's executive order to establish a taskforce to "eradicate anti-Christian bias". For all that I think many American 'Christians' are not Christian at all, it is still a country which is majority Christian. The idea that they are persecuted is, on the facts of it, ludicrous.¹

The exploitation of the feeling of victimization by dominant groups at the prospect of sharing citizenship and power with minorities is a universal element of contemporary international fascist politics. (chapter 6)

But then Stanley goes on to discuss nationalism, and the discussion is profoundly interesting because he distinguishes between nationalist movements as a response to colonialism, which are kinds of nationalism aiming at equality, as opposed to fascist nationalisms, which is "nationalism in the service of domination". This is not at all the example he uses, but you can see this play out in Scottish nationalism, which has generally been associated with the independence movement there and a progressive attempt to assert independence and equality with England and on the stage of Europe, over against English nationalism which is driven by the kinds of rhetoric aimed at dominance and hierarchy.

Chapter 8 is interesting for how it explains sexual anxiety. Stanley discusses how the fascist ideal of patriarchal masculinity encompasses the picture of the male as provider and protector of family. The perceived loss of status from equality for minorities and women, and the real pressures of economic hardship, provide the perfect context for fascist politicians to distort economic anxiety, by portraying various forms of 'threat' to the family. That includes immigrants, of course (ch 7) who are portrayed as 'criminal' by nature; but it includes sexual deviance as well. That played out in Nazi Germany, it's played out in 21st century America. The manufactured panic, fake news, constant lies, and hyper-fixation on sexual minorities, all feed a political purpose. They have nothing to do with reasoned positions or policies, everything to do with scapegoating the other.

Chapter 9 discusses the city/rural divide, and particularly the way that cities are ideologically posed as places of corruption, in contrast to the idealised 'purity' of rural folk and their values. It is tragically ironic that anti-immigrant messaging succeeds very well in areas with few actual immigrants. Chapter 10 in turn discusses the valorisation of labour: "we" work hard, "they" are lazy. This is tied to racism: "the single largest predictor of white Americans’ attitude toward programs described as “welfare” is their attitude toward the judgment that black people are lazy" ; and this coupled with the widespread ignorance that most beneficiaries of welfare programs are white. But the lie that the other is lazy and doesn't want to work, is deployed in fascist society to create the conditions under which is becomes 'true' - by punishing minorities and depriving them of work. The solution to this is, unsurprisingly, labour unions. Stanley describes these as the one effective way modern societies have discovered which "create mutual bonds along lines of class rather than those of race of religion"; unions bind humans together in labour, across differences, in a way that is an antidote to fascism's politics of division.

Of the books I have read or am currently reading, this one is perhaps one of the most straightforward and accessible in terms of (i) identifying key typical features of fascism, (ii) explaining how they played out in real-world historical examples, (iii) showing how they've played out in Trump's first presidential campaign and first administration. You as a reader will not have to work hard to see all ten of these at play in Trump's current regime. You can literally play bingo with this book. I think I used to have some hesitation about wielding the label 'fascism' for what's happening in 2025 America, but the more I educate myself the more convinced I am that it is exactly the right label for current events. With differences, yes - 21st century fascism has more flavours of oligarchy, technocracy, and less of other features; but it is fascism all the same. And given that this book was written in light of Trump's first term, the unfolding reality of his second term ticks all these boxes, on a daily basis.

If you'd like to skip this book and watch a 10min video instead, here's the cheat version:

1. I think Trump's EO is in no way a win for Christianity, though I am sure I am about to read a whole bunch of takes on it that claim it is, "vibe shift" etc.. Trump, Musk, and the driving intellectual and political voices of this regime are not Christians, and aren't interested in Christianity except as a social vehicle of politicisation and weaponisation for their agenda