In 2018, Jason Stanley, a philosophy professor at Yale, published How Fascism Works. Although it was a slim volume, it ranged broadly, citing experimental psychology, legal theory, and neo-Nazi blogs; although it was by an academic philosopher, it was a popular book that prioritized current events over syllogisms. Viktor Orbn is mentioned more times in the book than Hannah Arendt. Donald Trump shows up dozens of times, and he is portrayed not as a distractible bozo but as a concerted aspiring strongman. Fascist politics can dehumanize minority groups even when an explicitly fascist state does not arise, Stanley writes. Elsewhere, in a chapter called Sodom and Gomorrah, he argues that Trumps habit of extolling the heartland while decrying urban squalor makes sense in the context of a more general fascist politics, in which cities are seen as centers of disease and pestilence. Stanley couldnt have known that many American cities were, in fact, about to become centers of disease, but he could have predicted that Trump would use such a development to his rhetorical advantage. Some people would like to see New York quarantined because its a hot spot, Trump said, late last month. Heavily infected.
Stanley isnt, or isnt mainly, a scholar of public policy; he is a philosopher of language. When he insinuates that Trump is a fascistand you dont have to be a philosopher of language to catch the insinuationhe means that Trump talks like a fascist, not necessarily that he governs like one. Still, many passages in Stanleys book begin with a discussion of Germany in the nineteen-thirties, or Rwanda in the nineteen-nineties, before pivoting to a depiction of the contemporary United States. Ever since my book came out, Ive been fighting with critics who go, Youre overreacting, youre exaggerating, its irresponsible to call this fascism or that fascism, Stanley said. Ill point to a step Trump has takenhes using ICE to round up children, hes surrounding himself with loyalists and generals, hes using the apparatus of government to dig up dirt on a political rivaland the response is always Sure, thats bad, but its not a big enough step to justify the F-word. Im starting to feel like the its-not-a-big-enough-step people wont be happy until theyre in concentration camps.
Stanley, a descendant of Holocaust survivors, acknowledges that he is unusually prone to worst-case thinking. (As my colleague Masha Gessen once observed, It is no fun to be the only hysterical person in the room.) Stanley has written that, during his childhood, his fathers Holocaust induced anxiety was all encompassing; his mother taught him that the moment where one must accept that a situation is genuinely dangerous is usually well past the time when one can exit it. He also acknowledges, of course, that there are plenty of big steps that Trump hasnt taken, and may never take: imposing martial law, closing the borders, indefinitely postponing the 2020 Presidential election. Still, if Trump were ever going to be tempted to try something like this, wouldnt now be the time? A lot of us who were deeply worried about Trump from the beginning were specifically worried about what would happen when he got his Reichstag-fire moment, Stanley said. (The Reichstag, a government building in Berlin, was set ablaze in an arson attack, in 1933; Hitlers government blamed the arson, falsely, on Communist agitators, and used it as a pretext to suspend civil liberties.) Trump is lucky, in a way, because the coronavirus is a real crisis, Stanley continued. He didnt have to manufacture one. And now hes acting the way strongmen always act in a time of crisisgrandstanding, hogging the media spotlight, demanding obedience. So far, at least, his approval rating seems to have held fairly steady.
On March 6th, Yale closed for spring break and never reopened. Instead, like so many other institutions around the world, Yale has become a very expensive and prestigious series of Webinars. Stanley is still teaching his big spring lecture course, Propaganda, Ideology, & Democracy, now via live stream, from a red wingback chair in his living room. The fascist leader is a tough guy who acts from his gut, who just knows whats right by instinct and doesnt need to rely on pointy-headed intellectuals, Stanley said earlier this month, addressing a few dozen students on Zoom. All those people who reason and say, On the one hand, on the other handthats weakness and cowardice and decadence.
A few moments later, a preposterously cute child wandered into the frame. Sorry, its my sons fifth birthday, Stanley said.
Wheres all the people? his son said, looking at the screen.
The people are hiding behind their cameras, Stanley said.
A few of the students unmuted themselves and wished the child a happy birthday. Stanley thanked them, then kissed his son on the forehead and ushered him out of the room. We need to get back to The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, he said.
On March 27th, Congress passed a two-trillion-dollar coronavirus-relief package, the largest stimulus bill in U.S. history. It included what Democrats pejoratively called a corporate slush fundhalf a trillion dollars that could be doled out to various large companies, including hotels, at the discretion of the executive branch, which is run by a hotel magnate. But the bill also required oversight: a special inspector general, Glenn Fine, would monitor the spending, reporting to Congress anything that seemed amiss. President Trump signed the bill, then immediately issued a signing statement making clear that he would not obey the laws oversight provision. (Asked about this by reporters, Trump responded, Ill be the oversight.) A few days later, Trump fired Fine and announced that Brian Miller, a White House lawyer, would oversee the pandemic-relief spending. On Wednesday, the Treasury announced that, in an unprecedented move, stimulus checks would bear the Presidents name, and Trump threatened to force Congress into adjournment, which no President has ever done. When somebodys the President of the United States, the authority is total, Trump said at a recent press conference. Its total.
Stanley has not rewritten his syllabus in light of COVID-19. Even so, his students cant help drawing connections between what they see on the news and what they read in classThe Origins of Totalitarianism, by Hannah Arendt; Conspiracy Theories, a recent book by the philosopher Quassim Cassam; and, naturally, Stanleys own How Fascism Works. On a recent Thursday afternoon, Stanley and a few of his students gathered (virtually, of course) to discuss overtly what theyd all been weighing privately: How does what were discussing in class bear on our present, and on our near future?
Lulu Chang, a graduate student at Yales School of Management, said that one of the courses main themes was the authoritarian leaders desire to control the truth: Something that Professor Stanley says all the time is If you take away truth, and you cant speak truth to power, all thats left is power. In the early days of the coronavirus crisis, she continued, there was initially a sense that this was not going to be that big of a deal. And then, as it became clearer and clearer that that was not going to be the case, that narrative continued to shift, as though everyone knew all along. (Trump, on February 27th: One dayits like a miracleit will disappear. Trump, on March 17th: Ive always viewed it as very serious.)
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Studying Fascist Propaganda by Day, Watching Trumps Coronavirus Updates by Night - The New Yorker