On Microfascism: Gender, Death, and War

Key selling points:

• Avoids rehashing histories already available elsewhere; will address the contemporary fascist resurgence in the most up-to-date possible fashion, including recent spectacular mobilizations.

• Goes deeper than accounts that focus on organized movements and leaders, examining what needs to happen before • these movements can emerge and revealing that the seeds of embryonic fascism are in fact all around us.

• Diverges from other accounts by emphasizing the role of our culture’s widespread sexism and misogyny in the creation of a fascist worldview.

• Reveals the fundamental nihilism—the wish for destruction—at the heart of contemporary fascism in the US, whose fanatics seek the “elimination” of their perceived enemies while remaining strangely indifferent to their own survival.

• Images that don’t make sense now routinely fill our television screens. Everyone wants to know—how did these people get this way? This book will tell you in a way that no other book has tried to.

• Think you don’t know any fascists? You do. This book suggests that fascism is in fact all around us, in embryo, before it emerges with recognized movements and leaders.

• This is not a journalistic account of the rise of the far-right or an attempt to construct an abstract general theory of fascism. Nor is it an account that reaches back for historical analogies, trying to explain contemporary American fascists in terms of European history. Instead, it is an explanation of the deep psychological and political forces that create • the fascists we see today, who are now forcing their way into our lives with increasing virulence.

• This book will distinguish itself from others on the topic by reaching deeper, exploring how fascists come together through a culture of violence and hatred before • they form organizations or annoint leaders, as well as the way that this culture becomes not just propaganda but a way into action • .

• In this way, it provides the elements of a theory of effective anti • -fascism, by suggesting what we might do to nip these movements in the bud.

• This book also suggests that fascism is not • a marginal phenomenon we can safely assume will burn out because it has little purchase among mainstream Americans. Bratich identifies the way in which the fascist mind exists in embryo inside many of us.

• This book, in contrast to other works, understands that contemporary fascists don’t necessarily wish to seize state power, at least in the way that we ordinarily understand it. First and foremost, Bratich argues, they are possessed by a wish to destroy • those whom they hate, even if it means destroying themselves in the process.

• Given the insurrection last week at the US Capitol, which was more violent and more dangerous even than initially reported and which was felt to be a victory by many in the contemporary fascist movement, there is no more urgent political task in this country than combating the growing far-right, which Bratich calls, without hyperbole, “eliminationist.” This is a book dedicated to the proposition that we must know our enemy in order to defeat them.

• Bratich is a commentator of growing renown on this phenomenon. Mainstream media experience includes the Newark Star-Ledger • , South Dakota Public Broadcasting, and other outlets. Moreover, Bratich is a sought-after lecturer on this and related phenomenon in academic circles, and has immense public-speaking experience. Bratich is positioned to bring his deep research into these phenomena to an increasingly mainstream audience.

• This book is for readers who want to go beyond news reporting on the increasingly spectacular facsist mobilizations that promise to continue to unsettle the country, and who want to understand the depths of the hatred and despair that drives people into the politics of violent elimination. More and more people are going to have to be involved in combating this movement, if only to protect themselves and those they love, and it is crucial to understand the enemy in order to defeat it. The political situation in this country means that soon everyone will be called to become an activist; this book is a field guide for those called to act. Beyond this, scholars will appreciate the substantive theory of the relationship between culture and politics that underpins the book.

• The rise of the far-right is not just an American phenomenon, but is occurring across the Western world. In this way, international audiences will benefit not just from the unique theory of fascism presented here, but the analysis of concrete figures, events, and mindsets offered by the book.

© 2022 Common Notions (E-bog): 9781942173618

Release date

E-bog: 1. februar 2022