Tbilisi, Philly: Using violence for purity
Far right outrages provide a teachable moment for the complacent
As proof copies of How To Stop Fascism hit the doorsteps of reviewers, there’s been a predictable reaction, exemplified by Ed West’s article for Unherd, entitled “Fascism isn’t coming”.
In it, myself and the antifascist academics Tim Snyder and Jason Stanley are accused of crying wolf over the far-right danger.
The fascist groups are small, says West. Trump is merely a “national populist” and has left the scene. Fascism was expansionist, violent and youthful, while modern right-wing populism is the opposite — defensive, democratic and prevalent among the elderly.
Echoing Francis Fukuyama, West attributes progressive concern over the far right to the boredom contingent on the end of history. For the left, he says:
“the truth, that we’re living in a free society and that the path to heroism has been cut off; that we have nothing greater than the worries and regrets of our everyday life, is too much to bear.”
In the real world, as I write, far-right groups in the Georgian capital Tbilisi have managed to stop the country’s Pride march by storming the offices of the organisers, beating activists over their heads with golf clubs, while Orthodox…
