How Fascism Works - a book by Jason Stanley (Random)

How Fascism Works

The Politics of Us and Them

Jason Stanley

(Random House, 2018)

(sumário e referência ao Brasil ao final)

 “A vital read for a nation under Trump.”­—The Guardian
 
“No single book is as relevant to the present moment.”—Claudia Rankine, author of Citizen

“One of the defining books of the decade.”—Elizabeth Hinton, author of From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime

NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS’ CHOICE • Fascist politics are running rampant in America today—and spreading around the world. A Yale philosopher identifies the ten pillars of fascist politics, and charts their horrifying rise and deep history.

As the child of refugees of World War II Europe and a renowned philosopher and scholar of propaganda, Jason Stanley has a deep understanding of how democratic societies can be vulnerable to fascism: Nations don’t have to be fascist to suffer from fascist politics. In fact, fascism’s roots have been present in the United States for more than a century. Alarmed by the pervasive rise of fascist tactics both at home and around the globe, Stanley focuses here on the structures that unite them, laying out and analyzing the ten pillars of fascist politics—the language and beliefs that separate people into an “us” and a “them.” He knits together reflections on history, philosophy, sociology, and critical race theory with stories from contemporary Hungary, Poland, India, Myanmar, and the United States, among other nations. He makes clear the immense danger of underestimating the cumulative power of these tactics, which include exploiting a mythic version of a nation’s past; propaganda that twists the language of democratic ideals against themselves; anti-intellectualism directed against universities and experts; law and order politics predicated on the assumption that members of minority groups are criminals; and fierce attacks on labor groups and welfare. These mechanisms all build on one another, creating and reinforcing divisions and shaping a society vulnerable to the appeals of authoritarian leadership.

By uncovering disturbing patterns that are as prevalent today as ever, Stanley reveals that the stuff of politics—charged by rhetoric and myth—can quickly become policy and reality. Only by recognizing fascists politics, he argues, may we resist its most harmful effects and return to democratic ideals.

“With unsettling insight and disturbing clarity, How Fascism Works is an essential guidebook to our current national dilemma of democracy vs. authoritarianism.”—William Jelani Cobb, author of The Substance of Hope

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• Random House Publishing Group; September 2018
• ISBN: 9780525511847
• Title: How Fascism Works
• Author: Jason Stanley
• Imprint: Random House
• Language: English

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In The Press

“A vital read for a nation under Trump . . . [an] arresting new book . . . The book provides a fascinating breakdown of the fascist ideology, nimbly interweaving examples from Germany, Italy and Hungary, from Rwanda and Myanmar to Serbia and, yes, the US. As he proceeds through his framework of the broadest features of his subject, Stanley includes smaller observations that may for some readers land bracingly close to home.”—The Guardian

“By placing Trump in transnational and transhistorical perspective, Stanley sees patterns that others miss. . . . Stanley’s comparative perspective is particularly effective in illustrating how fascists use fears of sexual violence. . . . By calling Trump a ‘fascist’—a word that strikes many Americans as alien and extreme—Stanley is trying to spark public alarm. He doesn’t want Americans to respond to Trump’s racist, authoritarian offensives by moving their moral goal posts. The greater danger, he suggests, isn’t hyperbole, it’s normalization. And twenty months into Trump’s presidency, the evidence is mounting that he’s right.”—The New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice)

“Jason Stanley’s staggering analysis has only grown in importance since the release of How Fascism Works in 2018. It is one of the defining books of the decade.”—Elizabeth Hinton, author of From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime

“Jason Stanley reveals how the liberties of the people wither when voters embrace politicians who promote the divisive politics of us versus them while denigrating cooperation, compromise, and respect for others. How Fascism Works builds on philosopher Stanley’s insightful How Propaganda Works to explain in concise and easily understood terms how people get tricked into reversing the expanding rights that made America great.”—David Cay Johnston, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of It’s Even Worse Than You Think and The Making of Donald Trump

“An endless question about history—does it repeat itself? The Allies triumphed over fascism nearly seventy-five years ago. But is it on the rise again? The national populism of Trump and Bannon; Brexit; Orban and the rise of the Hungarian right; the Italian five-star movement; Erdoğan—Jason Stanley has in this extraordinary book tried to answer these questions. For those in denial or in doubt, Stanley’s book provides overwhelming evidence that fascism is alive, well, and on the rise. It’s a clarion call to wake up, pay attention, and do something. No one has any doubt that fascism works; the question remains: How do we stop it? Stanley tells us that fascism is not a plan on how to govern but a plan on how to seize control. This is an important and essential book.”—Errol Morris, filmmaker and author of The Ashtray

“There are moments in which the fate of humanity itself hangs in the balance, and such times always bring with them the resurrection of ugly myths. And yet, as Jason Stanley, one of this nation’s most important philosophers, makes clear, when such myths are deconstructed and their history is laid bare, we remember the extraordinary ties that in fact bind us together. And in the fire of that powerful recollection, modern-day fascism—the current myth-dependent moment of intolerance, xenophobia, and fearmongering in which we find ourselves—can be rendered to ash.”—Heather Ann Thompson, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Blood in the Water

“Jason Stanley’s book comes at a most propitious time, when we must come to grips with the political consequences that may follow the rise of xenophobic populism. History teaches what those consequences are, and in his book Stanley, with great analytical and conceptual clarity, not only tells the story but more crucially provides a critical framework through which to see the insidious mechanisms at play that are threatening today’s democracies around the globe. How Fascism Works is a must-read for all of us who take seriously our responsibility as citizens.”—Jan T. Gross, author of Neighbors

“A sharply argued and timely guide . . . Stanley’s highlighting of the politics of sexual anxiety is particularly welcome and relevant.”—Ruth Ben-Ghiat, author of Italian Fascism’s Empire Cinema

“With unsettling insight and disturbing clarity, How Fascism Works is an essential guidebook to our current national dilemma of democracy vs. authoritarianism. The fingerprints of the fascist past are visible in the present, and this volume bravely shines a light upon them.”—William Jelani Cobb, author of The Substance of Hope

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About The Author

Jason Stanley is the Jacob Urowsky Professor of Philosophy at Yale University. He is the author of five books, including How Propaganda Works, winner of the Prose Award in Philosophy from the Association of American Publishers, and How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them, about which Citizen author Claudia Rankine states: “No single book is as relevant to our present moment.”  Stanley serves on the board of the Prison Policy Initiative and writes frequently about propaganda, free speech, mass incarceration, democracy, and authoritarianism for The New York Times, The Washington Post, Boston Review, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and The Guardian.

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Leituras do Fim de Semana - New York Times

August 2, 2020

By Remy Tumin and Elijah Walker

Welcome to the Weekend Briefing. We’re covering the spread of the coronavirus in the Midwest, Tropical Storm Isaias and high-summer gardening.

Kevin Winter/Getty Images

1. New coronavirus cases are picking up at a dangerous pace in much of the Midwest and in areas that had seen apparent progress.

The seven-day average for new infections is hovering around 65,000 for two weeks in what amounts to a second wave of cases. The U.S. recorded more than 1.9 million new infections in July, nearly 42 percent of the more than 4.5 million cases reported nationwide since the pandemic began and more than double the number documented in any other month, according to a Times database.

States like California, which became the first in the U.S. to report more than 500,000 coronavirus cases, and Mississippi and Florida thought they had already seen the worst of it, only to find themselves on a frustrating seesaw. Above, a testing center in Los Angeles.

And yet rapid testing, which many health officials say is critical to containing the virus, remains an obstacle. Dr. Anthony Fauci told lawmakers on Friday that the U.S. would most likely have a safe and effective coronavirus vaccine by the end of 2020 or early in 2021.

Have you been keeping up with the headlines? Test your knowledge with our news quiz. And here’s the front page of our Sunday paper, the Sunday Review from Opinion and our crossword puzzles.

AJ Mast for The New York Times

2. The first school districts in the U.S. reopened their doors this week. Greenfield Central Junior High School in Indiana, above, had to quarantine students within hours.

In most of the country, schools that reopen classrooms will quickly face the question of what to do when students test positive. To deal with that likelihood, many schools and some states have enacted contact tracing and quarantine protocols, with differing thresholds at which they would close classrooms or buildings.

A new report about a coronavirus outbreak at a sleep-away camp in Georgia provides fresh reasons for concern. Of the 600 campers and staff members, nearly half became infected within a week of orientation. The camp took precautions but did not require campers to wear masks. Singing and cheering may have helped spread the virus.

Saul Martinez for The New York Times

3. Florida, already reeling from the virus,faces a new threat from Isaias.

The tropical storm is expected to be upgraded to a hurricane again after a downgrade late Saturday and may hit Florida’s coastline. The storm raked parts of Puerto Rico — killing one woman — and the Dominican Republic before battering the Bahamas early Saturday. Above, Lake Worth, Fla.

And we’re only in the very beginning of hurricane season. Emergency management officials have drawn up new and special plans to deal with people who are fleeing or have been displaced by storms.

Up the coast, officials in Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina were closely monitoring the storm and warned that hospitals could be strained beyond capacity with a flood of new patients.

Dado Ruvic/Reuters

4. ByteDance, the Chinese internet giant that owns TikTok, has offered to sell all of the popular video app’s American operations.

The potential divestment is a bid to save the business from being banned by the Trump administration, a person with knowledge of the matter said. U.S. officials have questioned whether TikTok is susceptible to influence from the Chinese government and poses a national security threat.

It was not clear whether the White House would accept the divestment as sufficient response to its concerns. Microsoft and other companies have been in talks to buy TikTok, but a deal has not yet been reached. TikTok has said it has 100 million users in the U.S.

How did the wildly popular app become embroiled in politics? Here’s a primer.

J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press

5. The next election battleground: the post office.

President Trump’s long campaign against the Postal Service is intersecting with his assault on mail-in voting amid concerns that he has politicized oversight of the agency, leading to cost-cutting steps that appear to have led to slower and less reliable delivery. Above, a postal facility in McLean, Va.

Mr. Trump’s baseless claims about the potential for mail-in voter fraud led him to dangle the idea of delaying the election, a suggestion that lacks legal authority and could undermine confidence in an election that polls show him on course to lose. His Republican colleagues roundly dismissed the possibility of a delay.

Meanwhile, Joe Biden is getting closer to selecting his running mate, with Representative Karen Bass of California and Susan Rice, the former national security adviser, among the leading contenders. One possible advantage for Ms. Bass: She has assured Democratic officials that she has no interest in seeking the presidency herself, according to lawmakers.

Gordon Welters for The New York Times

6. The threat of neo-Nazi infiltration of Germany’s state institutions is more extensive than officials realized. Now they’re struggling to uproot such infiltration.

Last month, the government disbanded an entire company of the nation’s special forces that had been infiltrated by extremists. But a group called Nordkreuz, or Northern Cross, shows that the problem of far-right infiltration has penetrated multiple layers of Germany society over the years as the authorities underestimated the threat or were reluctant to confront it.

“Between us, we were a whole village,” recalled Marko Gross, a police officer and one of about 30 Nordkreuz members, including a man who owned a military accessory shop, above. They were plotting to round up and kill political enemies and those defending migrants and refugees before they were uncovered by the authorities three years ago.

Johannes Eisele/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

7. Riding the New York City subway may be safer than you think.

In countries where the coronavirus pandemic has ebbed, ridership has rebounded — and there have been no notable superspreader events linked to mass transit, according to a survey of transportation agencies conducted by The Times. (One caveat: Ridership in major cities is still well below pre-pandemic levels).

If the risks of mass transit can be addressed, that could have sweeping implications for many large American cities, particularly New York, where one of the biggest challenges in a recovery will be coaxing riders back onto public transportation.

Leigh Wells

8. Oh, how far Karens have fallen.

In 1965, it was the third-most-popular baby name in the U.S. In 2018, it was the 635th — and today it’s even less popular. In 2020, Karen is no longer “an easy name” and instead has morphed into a symbol of racism and white privilege.

Why the name Karen? Robin Queen, a linguistics expert, points to, of all people, Dane Cook, a comedian who, on a 2005 album, used the name to describe “one person in a group of friends that nobody likes.” Ms. Queen said the label was unlikely to hold on forever. “I would be surprised to find it around a decade from now,” she said.

Jessica Norman, Untermyer Gardens Conservancy

9. “If you can’t enjoy weeding, you won’t be a happy gardener.”

That’s the wisdom of Timothy Tilghman, the head gardener at Untermyer Park and Gardens in Yonkers, N.Y., above, a 43-acre former estate on the Hudson River. It was an eerily quiet spring and early summer without visitors, a result of the pandemic, but there is still work to be done.

Our garden expert, Margaret Roach, spoke with Mr. Tilghman about his high-summer to-do list. It includes watering and weeding consistently (and observing and noting what needs fixing), removing deadheads and grooming, keeping edges tidy, mulching, and preparing future beds.