Ridding Ourselves Of The Little Fascist Within

I read a book a couple years back written by two French philosophers who argued that we all have a thread of fascism running through us, and that humankind’s inability to identify and flush out those little seedlings of fascism doomed us to a fascist future. 

I don’t recall the name of the book and a frantic pre-writing search of my office bookshelf bore no answers. Nevertheless, the book unnerved me in a way that few ever had. Reading it – and reading two thirds of it, the heaviest, most inscrutable shit I’ve ever consumed – forced me to face some deeply uncomfortable characteristics of myself. Acknowledging the smattering of fascism that might live in me was difficult and troubling and, in the end, very much worth it. 

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The authors argued, quite convincingly, that without individual analysis of our most right-wing political beliefs, society will always trend toward right-wing leaders and governments, aided by the mostly-invisible accelerationism of capitalism, which we’re seeing in full force 24 years into this century. I think pinpointing droplets of fascism within oneself is a worthwhile exercise, even if suggesting it to someone makes you sound unhinged and/or insane. In these times of creeping societal decay – no more original art in the cultural mainstream, ignorance as the highest virtue, good and bad things being exactly the same – we should do what we can (while we can) to see ourselves in the light of day and ask why we might accidentally align with the values of an ascendant fascist movement we vehemently oppose. 

I exercise

There’s nothing inherently wrong or fashy about moving one’s body in a way that builds muscle and makes the heart beat faster and gets the good juices flowing in the brain. This is not a condemnation to folks who exercise their bodies on a semi-regular basis.

There is something very much problematic about working out purely for vanity’s sake though. That’s what I do, and what I’ve done since my early 30s when I so rudely discovered that the high-speed train that was my metabolism in my teens and 20s was no more. The meats and the booze wouldn't just burn away anymore. Again, rude. By my early 30s, I actually had to try not to gain weight, so I ran and did jumping jacks and lunges and crunches and pushups and all sorts of torturous exercises to maintain my weight. I still, at 40, exercise purely for vanity’s sake. 

You’ll notice that (almost) all fascists are obsessed with aesthetics. Fascism is largely all about aesthetics: How one looks, how one is perceived by their peers and the public. It’s why Donald Trump paints his face orange and has multiple comb-overs to cover up his hair loss from four decades ago. It’s why Trump sycophants make weird AI images of Trump as some kind of WWE wrestler with bulging biceps and rippling abs and broad, muscle bound shoulders to go along with a slim waist and rocks for legs. Trump is the Strong Man; therefore he must appear physically strong to those who see him as the savior of mankind. Fascism’s obsession with aesthetics is why Trump only associates with women who have … a certain look, and why he tears down women who do not abide by that certain look. It’s why he’s “married” to a supermodel. 

It takes precious little effort to see the close link between workout culture and far-right politics. Every right-wing online personality is shredded to an almost comical degree and talks incessantly about exercising and “eating right” and avoiding sugar and soy and booze and all that bullshit. The fascist aesthetic is why far-right podcaster Tim Pool can’t take off his stupid beanie, even at formal, boot-licking events. It would reveal his hair loss and hurt his standing in the fascist movement. Senator Josh Hawley’s muscle mass has increased with every passing year since Trump was first elected. The list goes on and on. These people care about nothing but outward appearance. 

Aesthetics mean slightly less on the left. See: Bernard Sanders. 

Does it make me feel good to fall into this aesthetics-obsessed trap? It does not. But I’ve come to think of myself in a certain way, namely as someone who is not overweight. This doesn’t mean I look down on folks who are in larger bodies. I don’t. I do, however, acknowledge that this need to be a certain size qualifies as a seedling of fascism. 

I like formality 

I found myself as recently as last week complaining to someone that young folks wear pajamas in public spaces. This, I said, is unacceptable. Afterward, I realized I sounded exactly like my late grandfather, a former Marine and police officer. So it goes. 

It’s not that I want teenagers and people in their 20s to walk around in their Sunday best. Jeans and a t-shirt would be fine! It almost feels wrong to see a stranger in their pajamas, like a violation of their privacy. I know this is the most extreme boomer take you’ve ever heard. I’m being as open as I can be about these fashy tendencies. 

Mostly this is about men. Beards bother me. Not all beards, of course. Not the beards that are well groomed and grow in nice and full. Beards can enhance a dude’s appearance; look no further than Commanders QB Sam Hartman, for whom my wife might leave me. I would venture to say, however, that 95 percent of beards are grown out of sheer laziness and consequently look like absolute shit. We live in the Golden Age of men who should not have beards, as my NBC Sports colleague Patrick Daugherty once said after gazing upon the horror show that was Andrew Luck's "beard."

That seedling within me wants to cry out: Shave your damn face once in a while! It takes five minutes!

Maybe you’ve noticed that I’ve never let my facial hair grow more than 1/16 of an inch. I stand by my weird anti-facial hair politics. And yes, this all makes me feel like Mr. Burns yelling at Don Mattingly to cut his dang sideburns. I know how stupid this is. 

I fully understand formality is a relic of the distant past. Folks aren’t attending sporting events dressed in a suit and tie. Realizing how closely linked these facial hair feelings are to the fascist aesthetic would do me some good. 

I defaulted into authoritarian parenting 

The authoritarian parenting model, something I’ve talked about incessantly on the Dad Szn Show, is and has been the fall-back parenting model for generations of Americans. The authoritarian approach – wherein the parent says to do what they say because they said so – is how most millennials were raised because – you guessed it – that’s how most baby boomers were raised. And so on and so forth.

The creation and careful perpetuation of a system in which one part has no agency is – you guessed it – very fascist. Some might call it the perfect distillation of small-scale fascism. Just think of the word “authoritarian” and what it means in a political sense. Take a peek at the definition of authoritarianism if you need further confirmation that it’s a bad way to raise children. 

Authoritarianism, in politics and government, the blind submission to authority and the repression of individual freedom of thought and action. Authoritarian regimes are systems of government that have no established mechanism for the transfer of executive power and do not afford their citizens civil liberties or political rights. Power is concentrated in the hands of a single leader or a small elite, whose decisions are taken without regard for the will of the people.

Forsaking the authoritarian model doesn’t have to mean a parent is a feckless pushover ready and willing to be run over roughshod by the lawless children. The alternative to authoritarian order (and really, order at any cost is what nations seek when authoritarians rise) is authoritative parenting, a model in which boundaries are established and enforced, but feedback and lines of communication are kept open between parent and kid. I have found authoritarian parenting soul corroding, beyond toxic, a relationship destroyer. I have major guilt issues about my use of authoritarian parenting over my first seven or eight years of being a dad, and I encourage all parents to scrutinize the tiny dictator inside of them before they make the same missteps. 

I think of myself as the main character

One of the (many) outgrowths of generations raised on TV and movies is the strongly-held, rarely acknowledged belief that we are, in fact, the Main Character. Not just in our family or in our neighborhood or community, but the main character of humanity. No one is more main than us. Ask anyone. 

My Bad Faith Times discord buddy catguy666 said it best: “Ultimately a lot of it comes down to how everyone looks out their own front window and has a unique worldview that’s entirely influenced by every step of their road through life to that point, and augmented further by very recent history” catguy said. “We’re a little bit fashy because even those among us that are the best at identifying with others’ struggles are still the lead actor in their personal movie.”

It’s a western thing, a capitalist thing, to think of yourself as the only thing that matters. If this is true – and the culture works overtime to convince us that it is – then we must feed our every craving, satisfy our every desire. We must feed at the trough of dopamine that encircles us at every turn. Gorging ourselves with shit that makes us feel good is reasonable because the main character in any movie or show deserves to be happy. Our parents and the television raised us to believe we are the most important person to ever exist, that we are special in ways that no one else can understand, and that we deserve anything and everything we want. What God wants, God gets. So do we. 

Social media has only enhanced our belief that we are all that matters; everything is now performative, from stupid dances in an airport or hospital to members of Congress intentionally making viral moments on the floor of the House of Representatives. The people need their content. Anyone can be famous online. Millions of people are making obscene amounts of money as the main characters in their own stories as broadcast on YouTube. The narcisism in these videos is overwhelming, enough to make one want to be a monk. I'm looking into this very strongly.

The problem with this Main Character syndrome is that nothing or no one else matters, for they are and always will be non-playable characters (NPCs) – a term the right wing has adopted to smear those who, in their view, don’t matter. You can see the cascading effects of such a self-centered mindset: Who exactly does not matter? Those who look different from us? Those who worship differently, who love differently? When human beings are separated into groups that matter and don’t matter, unspeakable horror awaits. 

I can’t tell you how to rid yourself of the main character syndrome since, like I said, I struggle with it every day. Maybe a persistent evaluation of one’s decision making based on their main character narrative would shine a light on this mindset and bring consciousness to it. All I know about this syndrome is that a nation of main characters is very much susceptible to the allure of fascism. You may be a character, but you are not the main one. 

Follow Denny Carter on BlueSky at @cdcarter13.bsky.social and on Threads and X at @CDCarter13.