Hey there, fellow Rebels,

Today we will touch a topic that is key for understanding the current situation on the global political stage. We will try to answer some questions that many people turn to within the emerging fascist era all of us witness unfolding in Realtime. We will try to answer the questions: what is fascism? Why is the term used so much currently and when is the use of it valid? What are the two main strings of fascist ideology in the United States right now and why are they so successful? What makes them so dangerous? And what can we do? We will try to keep this as brief as possible - without cutting of important knowledge that we hold as antifascist educators.

Buckle up, we're going in!

Many people are struggling to understand what is currently going on - especially in the United States where we see democracy eroding faster than Laura Loomer switches her opinion on the absoluteness of free speech when said is targeting far right politicians. Yesterday Lisa and I sat together in our bedroom discussing the declaration by the Trump administration of Antifa as a terrorist Organization when Lisa threw in the question "What is their end game?". At first I brushed it off with an annoyed "what is any authoritarian governments end game? - absolute and unchallenged power", but I quickly realized - many people, especially in the US are scared right now and asking themselves the exact same question. So we dove in. We want to share the outcome with you.

To get closer to the answer of that question we have to understand what political ideology is at bay.

What is fascism?

The first question we have to answer seems, at first, a very simple one. Fascism is often described as a political ideology or movement, that has very clear principles, like:

- Authoritarianism

- Leader principle

- Mass mobilization

- Militarism

- Ultranationalism

But if you really look at the scientific discussion about this topic, you will see that there have been widespread discussions about the topic and they often reflect the standpoint and class perspectives of the political and societal class dimensions they are discussed in.

Robert Paxton for example, lists the following characteristics in "the anatomy of fascism":

- Cult of national unity, devaluation of pluralism and individual rights.

- Enemy images (foreigners, minorities, "internal traitors").

- Willingness to use violence as a legitimate means, politics as a struggle.

- Leader principle: charismatic, authoritarian leadership that embodies "the will of the people".

- Mobilization of the masses, also via paramilitary structures.

- Rejection of liberal democracy and parliamentary procedures, emphasis on action rather than debate.

All of these are more or less straight forward and can be found in all historical fascist movements to a certain degree. All of these therefore – in one way or another – are part of the definitions of fascism we get from the scientific discussions around the movement.

When you go deeper into the history of successful fascist movements, there seems to be more to it, though. Why for example was the fascist movement in Germany so successful, powerful and destructive, while smaller fascist movements like the Ustascha in Croatia or the Nyihilasok in Hungary wouldn't have had the means to survive without their bigger allies like Germany and Italy? The answer is layered here, but a key part to understand why American fascism is on the rise so quickly is quite simple - and a crucial part of it was lost in the anti-communisn of the cold war.

1 The Germans, like no one else, created a mystification of the German race, the "Herrenrasse". Germany above all, blending in a natural rebirth after the devastating terms of the Versailles treaty after World War I, which destroyed national pride and threw people into social and economical despair with a mystical take about Germanic history as a warrior people and a mass mobilization through the promise of economic stability and becoming powerful in the world again. Really, it was "make Germany great again". This mass mobilization worked in the historical conditions of 1930s Germany really well - far better than in smaller, elitist fascist projects. This mystification of a national rebirth is described by British scientist Robert Griffin as “Palingenetic Ultranationalism” – An extreme form of nationalism that holds as it’s core the mystification of a National rebirth after suffered humiliations to a National or collective identity.

2 The more important lesson - the one which was buried by the anticommunism of the cold war, that the success of German fascism taught the allies soon after conquering Germany was a capitalist truth: the Germans, unlike any other fascist regime, won over the capitalist elite and made them the core element of their ideology. Not just the war industry, buy many others too, as companies like Volkswagen, Bayer BASF, IG Farben - just to name some high profile examples -prove, profited massively of Hitlers politics. Through his mass mobilization and then through merciless persecution of working class leaders and unions and their elimination he completely obliviated working class organization. He connected mass production to his ideological core of German greatness and mystification of the master race and his imperialist expansion and enslavement of half of Europe created a vast amount of cheap workers to further expand economical power. Really, the core of Hitlers politics was protecting and empowering the interest of big capital, which won him a large basis of support among German industrialist elites that gladly supportef him and profited of his ideology – and enabled him to have the means for his imperialist expansion plans. So this was really a symbiotic relationship. If they could not win them over, they simply seized their means of production and nationalized them.

Marxist antifascist scientists like Reinhard Kühnl therefore included an element in their definition of fascism which proves true again in the United States of 2025: fascism is an ideology that is largely created to protect the interests of big capital and destroy working class organization. The red scare in the 1950s and after quickly buried this conclusion, that was backed by the vast investigations of the allied forces during and after the Nuremberg trials, uncovering the broad involvement of German companies in NS-politics.

Why is the term used so much right now? Is that usage valid? What can we gain from correctly using it?

The term fascism is often used in a very limited way, equaling any authoritarianism to fascism. It is also often associated with Hitler and therefore with the leader principle alone. It is also often used as a derogatory term. We should not participate in that. But still: we are in the midst of the beginning of a new fascist era, which is already very successful and far more dangerous than the one in the 20th century. It is very natural, therefore, and quite a healthy reaction to be honest, that people do recognize this upcoming wave of fascist politics and name it. We would do well being more precise with it though. The term “fascism” itself only helps us as far as analyzing what kind of fascist movement we have in front of us. Ask yourself the question:

- What is the core of their political ideology?

- Who is backing them/profiting off of them?

- Who are they coming for at first? Which are the weakest links of society or clearest targets of their movements we have to defend?

- What are their strategies and the political stories they tell? Are there stories successfully convincing people and why? Can we attack their narrative and provide better solutions and stories?

Only if we turn to questions like this the definition as fascism helps us analyze what we are up against – and how we can defeat them. Sun Tzu taught us in “The Art of War” that gathering intelligence about the enemy is the main factor for success on the battlefield – no matter where and how (on or off the battlefield) this information is collected. This information is crucial to knowing how we can fight. In my opinion, there are some major battle points we have to focus on addressing.

1. What is their narrative and how can we create a better narrative to convince working class people that they are actually pawns in a game of rich men and to join our struggle to really better their lives? How do we cultivate a compassionate culture - even through the hurt and the struggle that MAGA followers have rained upon us and their leader’s scapegoat-targeted minorities – and allow radicalized white people to join our struggle if they are willing to learn and if we are able to convince them? I think this is a key part of our fight: realizing that the culture war their leaders waged on us is what divided us, overcoming our egos and our very real injuries from what they have done to us and our peoples and putting the fight against fascism to the front of our agenda. Fighting to really organize the working class and win back hearts and minds. I don’t have THE answer for this, but there are people out there who are doing a great job in this question already. Look at Zohran Kwame Mamdahni – he is a real leader : A Muslim socialist who is driving the political establishment before him in times like these? This is almost a miracle. He does this by uniting New Yorkers behind common issues and a narrative around “A better New York is possible – if we are willing to leave behind the political status quo and really dare to attack change – against conservatives, but also against corporate democrats who stand in the way of working class people’s empowerment. And there are many more like him. Try to find the people that tell these stories, that build these narratives. And as hard as it is, try to win over hearts and minds of working class people. But protect your hearts and souls at the same time. This will take a toll on you, especially if you haven’t found the right way to do it and run against ideological walls and barriers. Watch out not to exhaust yourself. Join unions, for example, and focus on their collective struggles. Dive into political organizing like it was taught by the late and great Jane McAlevey. Organize your communities behind a common cause as many people as possible can get behind. The defunding of public education for example can be a uniting cause. Leave aside other struggles for now that take away from your energy.

2. Once we really achieve mass mobilization on our side, its’s time to look at who is really backing the fascist movements and by boycotting, campaigning against them and even striking within their companies, we can get their money flows to take damage – and this is something we will shortly explain, is one of the most effective ways of hurting todays fascism. It even makes sense to join their companies and movements, their institutions and associations right now – infiltrate them, gather information, start organizing workers, and prepare for the endgame of general strikes – but be really careful wit this. It can get you killed to organize against fascists from within their structures. We really all have to ask ourselves: What are we willing to give? How far are we willing to take our resistance – and then stick with that. Its absolutely okay if this is not your way of resisting – but you could help people that do this kind of work with backoffice admin, IT security etc.

3. All this can happen WHILE organizing against ICE, fighting off military occupation, building underground railroads and support structures, creating exit plans, infiltrating fascist organizations etc. On our Instagram page at our project Finca Altermundialista you will find a highlight called “What now US?” – this is our activist guide that explains how to organize and fight against fascist structures, how to prepare backup-plans and what to look out for if you are new to this type of activism.

What are the two main ideological strings of fascism in the USA right now? What makes them so successful and dangerous?

We have two main strings of fascist movements in the United States right now – and they are so incredibly successful and dangerous because of the immense amount of money from big capital that is backing them to protect their interests against upcoming environmental and social struggles.

The first and right now still more successful one is organized around the MAGA movement and backed by the billionaires behind the heritage foundation. I would describe this as white supremacist, ultranationalist, Christian fundamentalist fascism. They are telling a very successful story of national rebirth (make America great again) and are appealing to key values of a large percentage of the American people – Christian “values” and ultra-patriotism. This makes them really successful, as their narrative falls on very fertile ground. Also, within patriotism and Christian fundamentalism, it is really easy to create common enemies: minorities, immigrants, “Sinners” that support abortion or LGBTQI+-rights – you name it, they have the ideology that makes it easy to fight it.

The heritage foundation is backed by billionaires like the Coors Family, Charles Koch from Koch industries, Barre Seid from Tripp Lite, Richard and Elizabeth Uhilein from Uline, the Scaife Family and the Bradley Foundation. It is key to understanding where these people get their money from and organize against their involvement in this movement to really hurt them. What is their end game? A Fundamentalist theocracy with unchecked power for capitalist oligarchy.

The second string that has largely shown it’s will to cooperate with the first string through involvement of Elon Musk in Doge and the positioning of JD Vance as vice president has already played a big influential part in the current administration, I would describe as libertarian Techno-fascism. This movement, publicly led by Elon Musk, secretly led by former Paypal-founder Peter Thiel and supported by figures like Palantir Founder Alex Carp is just as dangerous or, through their industrial background, maybe even more dangerous than the MAGA movement. Imagine the NSDAP having access to a surveillance and data processing software like Palantir – it makes resistance almost impossible once it is largely implemented. It really is the final boss of dystopian tell tales if we have this software in the hands of a fascist government. What is their endgame?

To understand that, you have to know about the name of Curtis Yarwin. Yarwin is a programmer and blogger from the silicon valley who, through his blog “Unqualified Reservations” has largely influenced the Utopia of the Silicon valley that has become the blueprint for libertarian techno-fascism. They actually want to destroy the state and make it’s influence as small as possible (this is part of their libertarian ideology and very close to the fascist libertarianism of for example Javier Milei in Argentina). They are largely social chauvinists who believe the mere worker is nothing but capital to them. Therefore, their goals are independent free cities that are run like enterprises, with the CEO holding absolute power over his enterprise/city – much like medieval cities had their kings with absolute power.

Curtis Yarvin's core utopia is a radically different social order, which he calls “neocameralism”: Citizens would be more like “customers” or “shareholders” whose interests are bundled economically. Yarvin considers modern democracy to be “dysfunctional” and “inefficient.”

He believes that democracy inevitably leads to corruption, manipulation by the media, and decline. The world should consist of many small, sovereign city-states that are run like start-ups or “governance patches.” Each “patch” competes for citizens (like companies compete for customers). Anyone who is dissatisfied simply moves away. Competition between states should thus produce the “best form of government.”

For him, social stability is the ultimate goal, even if this is achieved through authoritarian structures.

His key-point? “a good dictatorship” is better than a “bad democracy.”

To know how he really thinks it is interesting to turn to his writings about slavery for example, which he describes as often a fairer treatment to black people than modern democracy and a mere form of administration; His takes on race hold the belief, that some races are more capable of “civilization” than others, he regularly quoted outdated racial theory – humans are mere assets for this man.

Now Yarwin has largely influenced billionaires like Peter Thiel and Elon Musk. There are many very good documentaries and articles on these networks, like:

1. Mapping Trump's ties to right-wing tech barons

2. Rachel Maddow sounds alarm on JD Vance's pro-dictatorship influences - Salon.com – Rachel Maddows work on MSNBC regarding the so called Paypal Mafia, the connection to Curtis Yarwin and the influence Peter Thiel has had on the success of JD Vance, now Vice president of the US, is astonishing and a must watch.

Beside their vast influence on the Current US-administration, with Software-companies like Palantir and investments in experiments like floating free cities with associations like the free city foundation, their pop-cultural success in the likes of Musk which reaches a broad basis of young, insecure men who are seeking for identity and their global billionaire-backed networks they are truly a dangerous enemy as well that is not to be underestimated.

Both of these ideological strains are globally well connected and have broad basis of followers in other western countries. In Germany for example, we see cooperation of Conservative Leadership in the CDU-party who have met with the heritage foundation for strategic alignment workshops, Carsten Linnemann as a leading figure has repeatedly declared Trump a role-model for German Conservatives. Christian Nationalist fundamentalism is a big part of the New German right, which has one of the biggest street mobilization of all right wing fractions in Germany. Libertarian movements have popped up through the Corona-denier and the so called “Reichsbürger”-movements, now resulting in networking with international libertarians and far right political leaders from AfD-Party at the Afuera-Festival. Also libertarian politicians like former FDP-Chairmen and Finance Minister Christian Lindner openly sympathized with these movements.

So, we see: It holds true what Marxist antifascists like Reinhard Kühnl said about fascism – as capitalists see their interests threatened by environmental and social struggles, they will use fascism as a partner to defend their interests. Fascism is a movement that is capable of and aimed at destroying workers organization and defending big capital. And today, they are very openly doing so and with such an immense technological and financial advantage that really in my opinion, it is just as dangerous, if not even more dangerous than the fascist era of the 20th century. We better start organizing workers against this, because they damn sure are very successfully organizing against us.