Week 3: The Appeal of Authoritarianism
Week 3: The Appeal of Authoritarianism
Why Cruelty Can Feel Moral - and How Radicalization Spreads in the Digital Age
July 21, 2025
Embedded Files
This Week’s Readings
This Week’s Readings
How Fascism Works - Chapter 7-8
How to Stop Fascism - Chapter 4-5
Next week's readings are posted at the bottom of this post. Don't forget to subscribe so you can join the Resistance Book Club!
Hello, Welcome to Week 3 of July’s Resistance Book Club!
Hello, Welcome to Week 3 of July’s Resistance Book Club!
In the previous weeks, we examined what fascism is and the tools fascists use. This week, we dive into why authoritarianism may be appealing. Fascists are afraid of losing power and no longer being the dominant group. This loss of “traditional” hierarchy ultimately leads to fascism, and fascists try to remain in power through fear and violence surrounding an ideology that treats other humans as subhuman. This ideology is derived from irrationalism, scientific racism, and the glorification of violence.
Law and Order
Law and Order
Fascists see law and order through their point of view as the “chosen nation”. Because they are the chosen ones, everyone else is lawless. They want to protect “what’s theirs”; therefore, they will weaponize the law to create the order that they seek. We are currently seeing this through ICE attacking immigrants who are here trying to achieve citizenship legally. Everyone else who doesn’t match their narrow-minded reality as a White Christian Nationalist is painted as criminals, evil, or the “out group”.
"A healthy democratic state is governed by laws that treat all citizens equally and justly, supported by bonds of mutual respect between people, including those tasked with policing them."
African Americans are already disproportionately affected by unfair treatment from the police force, facing a greater risk of incarceration than their white counterparts, so when fascist language is used against these communities, it puts them at even greater risk of the law being weaponized against them.
We see this under Trump’s regime; immigrants are being attacked and locked up without due process. He is weaponizing the military against Democratic states by sending them to the state of California. Concentration camps are being built, like Alligator Alcatraz, and the treatment of immigrants at this facility is coming into question. Sadly, according to Paul Mason in How to Stop Fascism, “systematic slaughter was largely a White affair.” We’ve seen this multiple times throughout history with the White colonization and attacks on the Native Americans, along with slavery in the United States.
Fascists want violence, and if they cannot weaponize the state police force or military, they will create a paramilitary to enforce party norms. We’ve already seen this in Trump’s regime through ICE, but he also has other paramilitary groups enforcing party norms, such as the Proud Boys and other White Christian Nationalist groups.
Sexual Anxiety
Sexual Anxiety
Fascist politics thrives on the traditional patriarchal family; anything that deviates from this viewpoint, such as transgender individuals or homosexuals, creates anxiety in the mind of the fascist because it threatens their idea of what marriage should look like. To the fascist, the patriarchal family looks like the man being the provider and the woman staying home to take care of the children. We see this perpetrated through far-right media of “Trad Wife” content, which is just an illusion of being a stay-at-home Mom because many of these influencers have additional help that the average woman at home would not have. Authoritarians also create fear and anxiety around minority groups, making them perceived as sexual predators; immigrants and transgender individuals. Factually, this is inaccurate. Illegal immigration does not increase crime. Immigrants are more vulnerable to sexual abuse themselves, and trans individuals are targeted rather than being predators. This sexual anxiety leads Christian Nationalists to weaponize the Bible and claim that these are acts of sexual impurity, and this is the very reason why Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed. We will explore this more in next week’s readings. Fascists, ultimately, want to control what other people do with their bodies.
Overall, fascists want to control their opponents through fear and inciting violence.
Overall, fascists want to control their opponents through fear and inciting violence.
With warmth,
Amy
Working Towards Improvement
How do you see 'law and order' being used in political rhetoric today?
I would love to hear your insights from this week’s readings by either leaving a comment or chatting in the Substack Community Chat!
Next Week’s Readings: The Path to Resistance
Next Week’s Readings: The Path to Resistance
How Fascism Works - Chapter 9 + Conclusion
How to Stop Fascism - Chapter 6-9
Reflections to consider while reading:
Reflections to consider while reading:
What small acts can you take to challenge fascist narratives?
Were you led to believe that sexual impurity was the reason for the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah?
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