Slogans that work equally well for both fascists and the radical left

Shallot Shortage 2021 (morrisp)
Posted: 15 August 2021 at 01:25:53

“Won’t Get Fooled Again” was voted #1 of "top 50 conservative rock songs of all time” by National Review (fwiw)

1. “I stopped trusting the government - and started trusting the people”

2. ↯ocialist ↯unday

Roger Daltrey will be pleased.

that other fake voltaire quote i guess

Some Protocols Of The Elders Of Zion shit, which I'm not going to think about for long enough to concoct a slogan.

SMASH THE SYSTEM

down with the elites

tempted to argue that conspiracism isn’t radical bc it mystifies actual relations of production & ends up serving (elements of) capital but that’s prob a lost cause esp considering the depressing prevalence of this shit in ostensibly radical left formations past & present

‘Elites’

PURGE THE CENTRISTS

“i do my own research”

i don't that that one's quite true but it's still funny

talk to some tankies online

yeah ok i’ll allow it

"I do my own research"

(swear to god I didn't see Brad's post there LOL)

(talk to some left/anarcho anti-vaxxers online for the full experience there)

heighten the contradictions

fascists don’t call for purging the centrists they just call them communists while collaborating with them to purge the actual left, before purging them if necessary

doing ones own research is good, repeating state/party lines is not but i don’t see how that’s exclusive to radical anything

surely you have heard/read the phrase "do your research" which is not the same as the act of doing research

not sure heighten the contradictions has been used unironically within my lifetime, in fact I first heard it from liberals apparently mistaking slightly lefter liberals for accelerationists or communists (is this happening here?)

I’ve heard that phrase from about every political faction I’ve ever come across including the most middle of the road establishment types

do your research that is

ok

do your research

*starts looking for grants*

*googles "ivermectin"*
*finishes research before karl malone*

Do my research

the kind of people who fetishize research are bad at research ime

It means "cherry pick data that confirms your prejudices, paying no attention to the credibility of the sources"

Invocations to/of “The People”.

Condemnations of “woke capitalism” and social media.

Because slogans are emptied of nuance, any slogan that effectively increases alienation and promises swift redress of their deepest discontents works great for both extremes. Sharply disaffected and alienated people are willing to accept any amount of danger, discord and dislocation if it promises big changes to the status quo. They understand they may not rise up, but they yearn to see the whole structure they hate fall down.

"Keep a little Marx in your heart"

in all seriousness what is the motivation for constantly comparing fascists with their most immediate political targets?

we see in europe today how well this works as apologism for fascism when it becomes habitual so why does this need to be happening

the notion that anti-capitalist slogans have anything to do with levels of alienation is a new one to me

the notion that everyone who doesn't like a shit status quo is basically the same in some fundamental way (regardless of motivation) is a very old one and it's not any better now than it was 100 years ago, probably worse if hindsight is actually a thing

i wouldn't be surprised if revolutionary fascism makes a comeback but the most pressing fascist threat right now in this part of the world is clearly not coming from smash-the-system types - who have been some of the only people actually trying to do more about this than wring hands about it. so what is this for

i was home visiting my parents and they've got a few prints and photos of various slogans they approve of, from their long careers doing social justice work and going on marches etc, and i was struck by how easily so many of them could be easily said, repeated, and believed by, say, a le pen supporter.

i disagree that the most pressing fascist threat in 'this part' (what part? the internet?) of the world isn't 'smash the system' types. people are dying in the thousands in the poorest states in the us because of self-described 'conservatives' who explicitly don't trust 'the system'. you've got armed militias there who cloak their race panic in the language of the little guy against the establishment. that doesn't mean they're 'the same' as radical leftists but a lot of the slogans look the same. which is interesting!

maybe i'm naive but when i talk with my antivax, le pen supporting father in law we find all sorts of things we agree about. that big corporations are out to screw the little guy. that polluters get away with murder. etc etc. but he's been fed brainworms by the internet, so his SOLUTIONS to these problems are basically, you know, let the big dogs eat and blame non-whites for everything.

Don't trust the MSM

or as Skwawkbox/Canary would have it the "so-called MSM"

that’s a good one.

let the big dogs eat

xps don't doubt any of that what i mean is how contemporary fascists have flourished in ostensible democracies (adopting the language of liberalism as much as or more than the language of labour) without having to overthrow the state which is already racist and genocidal. doubtless not enough for many of them but even the militia types are willing to collaborate with & embed themselves within it towards those ends as long as they don't have the kind of mass movement able to take over in any kind of revolutionary way

the rhetoric that can sound similar is the proto-fascist stuff about corrupt elites and so on which needs to be pushed back against but i don't think that's particularly radical regardless of who's saying it

the notion that everyone who doesn't like a shit status quo is basically the same in some fundamental way

I don't think anyone itt has suggested this is true. The question, as asked, was clearly limited to slogans only, not broad truths about how fascists and anti-capitalists are fundamentally the same, and then only to slogans that were non-specific enough to work for each.

the notion that anti-capitalist slogans have anything to do with levels of alienation is a new one to me

but perhaps the idea that most anti-capitalists find late stage capitalism incredibly alienating might seem believable to you.

capitalism is inherently alienating that's the whole point but if it's not about what i said then what is this actually for

then how about this slogan?

death to europe

― Left, Monday, August 16, 2021

Death to <insert name here>

Kill Em All, Let God Sort Em Out.

"Orwellian"

europe means white supremacy which fascists are pretty cool with afaict

cool

“The horseshoe theory is nonsense, we are nothing alike the other side”

I hear that airline tickets to fly from from North America to 'white supremacy' took a big jump in price this summer.

you said white supremacy twice

Mexico is disappointed in you.

<light blue touch paper and retire a safe distance>