Joan Braune’s Understanding and Countering Fascist Movements combines philosophical and activist vantage points in its commentary on fascism and far right radicalisation, offering unique insights for the present moment. Braune showcases an unusual capacity to weave themes anchored in social critique with philosophical reflection alongside an incisive understanding of oppression and how it reproduces itself in society. The book provides clarification as to the nature and the core characteristics of fascism: it is a right-wing ideological, philosophical, social, and political movement that targets the left as a matter of course. The author demonstrates clearly throughout the text that fascism operates through manipulation, distortion, and deception, purporting to offer solutions to social ills that only a robust, self-conscious movement of the left can remedy. Fascism has a relationship to, and is embedded in, capitalism, though it is not reducible to it and should not be interpreted solely through the lens of ‘misdirected anger by oppressed workers’ (8). Fascism is motivated by irrational forces, is always violent, and is driven by the imperative of attaining power, although it is always already connected to power (2). Fascism also includes, among other things,
racist and sexist prejudices, conspiracy theories, scapegoating, genocidal ambitions, an emphasis on an ‘us’ and a ‘them’, a cult of violence, and authoritarianism. The privileging of a ‘movement’ or ‘people’ over the rule of law, nostalgia for a past social order, apocalyptic visions of the future destruction of the present social order, the use of armed paramilitary forces, and the belief that a natural hierarchy has been usurped and must be restored (7).
Braune makes it abundantly clear that fascism offers false solutions to social problems, especially alienation, which exacerbates existential ennui, and that a robust and well-organized Left is the only political force that is up for the interrelated challenges of combatting alienation, mobilizing against capitalism, and offering a meaningful vision for the future while also responding to a myriad of interconnected oppressive structures (7-9, 134-135).
The twin themes of responsibility and accountability also loom large in Braune’s discussion of those who leave fascist spaces. Indeed, insofar as they promote agency, self-awareness, a commitment to rehabilitation, and a commitment to providing redress for harm caused, the emergence of a strong sense of responsibility and accountability among those who have been involved in far-right movements is a prerequisite for a healthy and sincere transition to a new identity and reintegration into society (30-33, 113-121). I take Braune to be calling for a stronger sense of responsibility at both the individual and social levels in relation to the process of forging a more authentic and ethical identity following individuals’ disengagement from fascism, despite her recurring emphasis on existential motifs in her analysis of the void (read malaise and alienation) engendered by capitalism. Notably, Braune challenges simplistic and toxic rehabilitation narratives that center the welfare and perceptions of fascist ‘formers’ at the expense of the vulnerable communities they victimized (107-114). Unduly emphasizing rehabilitation and journeys of self-transformation, such narratives uncritically foreground the experiences and character of those who have caused serious harm while downplaying the standpoints of victims and structural issues.
In chapter 1 Braune offers an intriguing discussion of Erich Fromm and Simone Weil’s potential contribution to thinking through ways to combat and engage the socially pervasive void of meaning—that shapes the human experience under late capitalism—that makes it easier for people to be recruited into fascist movements and that is also encountered by those who decide to leave far right spaces. The question of adopting and sustaining a viable identity after exiting fascist spaces is foregrounded in this discussion (13-15, 16-33). Opening with a sophisticated discussion of Fromm, Braune notes that his insights about authoritarianism and the mechanisms of escape from alienation that sustain it might serve as the foundation for understanding contemporary fascist ideology and practices. The mechanisms of escape in question are sadomasochism, destructiveness, and conformity, and all three play a role in the construction of an idol, a process that is presupposed in identification with and submission to authoritarian leaders and ideals (16-20).
Braune perspicaciously observes that Fromm’s religiously influenced critique of capitalism, idolatry, and destructiveness has affinities with Simone Weil’s mystical repudiation of idols of various kinds, including capitalism and nationalism (20-27). Similarly to Fromm, Weil identifies destructiveness as a reaction to suffering, a lack of meaning, and social instability (22-23). Weil’s originality consists in having identified various “compensations” as reactions to the void, with destructiveness as one of them (25). As is the case with Fromm, Weil’s critique of idolatry was premised on the need to be able to identify the (ultimately unsettling) reality lurking beneath illusions as part of the transformation of both individuals and societies in healthier directions (20-27). Although this void of meaning is exacerbated by capitalism, both thinkers recognized that it was also endemic to the human condition (22). Under conditions of social instability, the void leads some to embrace patriotism and far right formations and ideologies (27-30). Braune insists that the void is what initially draws individuals into fascist spaces, and thus that Fromm’s and Weil’s prescriptions regarding the void, and the possibility of embracing it through a direct encounter, which is amenable to questioning core aspects of one’s personality, character, and existential commitments, could be used to both prevent people from being seduced by fascism in the first place and also encouraging and enabling those who have already been recruited to exit fascist spaces (27-33).
In chapter 2 Braune takes up the question of how contemporary fascism operates and what its underlying ideological and intellectual premises are. This includes an exploration of the different meanings of the term ‘accelerationism’ and decides to focus on one variety of accelerationism in particular, namely a loose network of Nazi insurgents that celebrates ‘lone wolf’ acts of sabotage and ‘leaderless resistance’ and is bent on wreaking havoc, collectively known as the ‘skullmasks’ (40-41, 44). While fascism’s normalization strategy, which is concerned with infiltrating mainstream parties and institutions, attempts to make fascism seem less menacing and more respectable, accelerationism by contrast openly embraces and promotes nihilism, violence, destruction, and death. At the same time, points out Braune, the two strategies are often adopted and employed by the same individuals. The author also convincingly responds to the claim that accelerationism is anti-ideological in nature, challenging throughout much of this chapter the assumption that because, among other things, accelerationism can bring fascists of various stripes together, valorizes any kind of violence, and is defined by irrationalism it is necessarily lacking an ideological component (46-52). Braune clarifies what is at stake in the debate around fascism and ideology:
Understanding fascism as an ideology helps us to challenge the reductivism of the thesis of coalitional accelerationism. If ideology no longer matters for accelerationism, those studying accelerationism can focus their attention on government-sponsored prevention programs and policing—political analysis and activism become irrelevant. But if fascism (including in its current ‘accelerationist’ formations) is an ideology and a social movement seeking power, as I argue here, it must be fought with countervailing social movements (51-52).
Brilliantly, and drawing from Fromm’s theoretical repertoire, Braune proceeds to make the case that fascism can be conceptualized through the lens of “catastrophic messianism”, an iteration of messianism that centers and normalizes human passivity, despair destructiveness, and the intervention of mysterious, transcendent forces in human history. Catastrophic messianism is to be contrasted with prophetic messianism, which emphasizes the centrality of human agency, progressive social movements, and hope to any meaningful attempt at radical social transformation (52-55). Chapter 2 also offers a nuanced and original discussion of the psychological distortions and defense mechanisms lurking behind fascisms’ embrace of hierarchy and injustice, as well as behind its impulse to dehumanize and eliminate its victims (57-58). Braune’s analysis of the psychology of fascism would likely have benefited from even a brief engagement with psychoanalytic theory and its insights regarding aggression and identification. At any rate, Braune concludes this chapter with a sophisticated and original discussion of the cosmological assumptions underlying fascistic ideology, in which a peculiar, cyclical understanding of history and the embrace of unbridled destructiveness figure prominently (61-67). Overall, Braune’s analysis offers a conceptually rich and multifaceted examination of the core constituents of the fascist universe and psyche.
Chapter 3 closely examines the ideological assumptions underlying Steve Bannon’s politics. Through a meticulous analysis of Bannon’s various associations, activities, statements, political commitments, and beliefs, Braune makes the case that one cannot avoid that conclusion that he sympathizes with fascism. In making this argument, she specifically zeros in on Bannon’s adherence to the esoteric and dangerous Traditionalist School, a ‘reactionary, anti-Enlightenment school of thought’ (63) that a number of prominent fascist thinkers subscribe to and draw on, and how it informs the alliances he forges and his political program. Although there are those who would deny or downplay Bannon’s fascism, his willingness to ‘signal affinities’ with fascism is unmistakable. In this connection, Braune asks the reader to consider, among other things, Bannon’s open praise for notable fascist figures such as Martin Heidegger and Mussolini (77-82). Highlighting Bannon’s involvement with the online gaming community, which, through its promotion of misogynistic ideas and the inculcation of a misguided sense of victimhood among young white men, frequently serves as gateway into the universe of the far right, and the fascination of his political organs with narrative and myth, Braune offers an original, incisive, and informative discussion of fascism’s entanglement with fantasy and ‘confidence that private dreamworlds can and should be asserted and violently enforced as real’ (83). Perhaps the author could have said a few words here about the ways fascism’s valorization of ‘private dreamworlds’ intertwines with and is normalized by capitalist consumerism and neoliberalism’s hyper-individualism.
Chapter 4 details the limitations of approaches to countering fascism that conceptualize it as ‘extremism’. One limitation of the countering extremism narrative is that ‘it can let the center off the hook, failing to show how the demands of fascists harmonize with long-established structures and political policies’ (95). The second, and perhaps more important limitation, has to do with the construction of a false equivalence between left and right, where ‘leftist ideologies (such as socialism, communism, and anarchism) can be painted as somehow equivalent to fascism and organized racism, with both the left and the right labeled as ‘extremism’ or ‘radicalism’’ (96). The third limitation has to do with Islamophobia, since under this model governments are tempted to group Muslims as extremists along with leftists and white supremacists. The countering extremism model, contends Braune, normalizes victim-blaming against Muslim communities. One example of this phenomenon is the blaming of fundamentalist Muslim clerics for the formation of Islamophobic hate groups (100-101). Braune then proceeds to outline the problems with the ‘deradicalization industry’. Chief among these is the exaggerated focus on perpetrators of hate and violence, as this approach stresses the importance of disengaging fascists from their networks of hate and re-integrating ‘formers’ into communities (107). This narrative deserves critical scrutiny for several reasons, not least of which are the following: fascism often provides its adherents social benefits, fascists genuinely believe what they say and are sincerely hateful, and fascists leave their movements because social pressure and isolation make life unbearable for them (107-108). The related compassion and dialogue narratives are potentially harmful because they similarly center the lives, experiences, and needs of perpetrators rather than those of victims (113-114). Braune is right to critique this narrative seeing as it seems to celebrate and accord greater weight to the welfare of perpetrators, neglecting the experiences of victims and in a way potentially even contributing to their marginalization. Having said that, perhaps the author could have used this discussion as a springboard for thinking about how the anger of both formers and victims could be channeled into progressive and transformative social movements. Indeed, an additional chapter devoted to a detailed exploration of the question of how leftist strategy and organizing can help combat fascism and offer ways to encounter and deal with the void would have made the book even stronger and more compelling.
Understanding and Countering Fascist Movements: From Void to Hope should be of interest to anyone who wants to understand how contemporary fascist ideologies and movements function and learn who some of the key players in fascist spaces are. The book’s emphasis on structural violence against the working class, racialized communities, women, and people with disabilities, as the core building block of fascism is also very important and compelling. Perhaps the most compelling aspect of the book, though, is Braune’s insistence on the need for a robust left, one that can combine activism with social critique and philosophical insight. Indeed, implicit in Braune’s arguments is the urgency not only of fighting fascism but also of addressing the social conditions that make fascism possible and therefore imagining and working toward an alternative to capitalism.
Reviewed by Maor Levitin