this post was submitted on 19 Jun 2023
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The Agora

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Here is the thread of theirs

I have been looking through a long thread on another instance where a few users have been trying to convince that instance to defederate from Exploding Heads - because they do not want to see the content posted on Exploding Heads.

I have thought long and hard about how to please these people. They do have the option to individually block Exploding Heads communities or users, but they either do not know how to or simply do not want to.

In the end I realized if I ban those specific users requesting defederation from Exploding Heads - they will not see any content from Exploding Heads and therefore will not be offended by it. (Truth be told I am not sure if some of these users have really visited our site or interacted with our users).

So today I have banned those users with the explanation that they have said they do not want to see Exploding Heads content. If any of those users wish to be unbanned in the future, all they have to do is say so and I will happily unban them.

These users are not being banned in order to censor them, but to help them achieve what they have been requesting - to not see Exploding Heads content.

I hope you all find this a fair and reasonable action - if not let me know.

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[–] god -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

i understand that thedonald and donald trump is often associated with fascism, i don't really understand why this is the case, since as far as i know, fascism is a militaristic state. I do get that it has a lot in common since it's a paternalistic one-man figure which appeals to reactionaries that would advocate to leave aside the law to put the guy in charge of reforming the country and removing something.

i'm not very sure if that's really fascism or not, i'd say it's eh, dumb authoritarianism. covid conspirationalism, i've seen that shit in venezuela from ppl who were just randos who didn't know anything, ppl who said it was the 5g or china or whatever, i didn't see any political alignment to being dumb and gullible

the one that strikes me the most from your list is anarcho-capitalism, which is often associated with a "nation" without a government, much less a president or a dictator, which i thought was an absolute requirement for fascism and authoritarianism. i'm not very sure how this one could even approach being nazism.

[–] Trekman10 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Alright I make it a point to try and engage people in good-faith, so I'm gonna actually try to explain why. I think that in practical terms, fascism is an ideology who's mythic core relies on ultra-nationalist rhetoric involving "rebirth" of the nation. (this is from Roger Griffin in his book "Fascism", which I learned from this medium essay) In this way, Trump, and many in the GOP in his footsteps, resemble this with their talk of "making america great again" and "taking their country back", rejection of multilateralism in favor of "America First", and the demonisation of outgroups (be it immigrants, queer people, muslims, etc), for example. hence the association.

The linked article does say that Trump is not fascist, but was written in 2019, before Trump did actively try to circumvent the peaceful transfer of power. It ends with the following:

Succinctly describing the current administration might not be a possibility until we have the benefit of hindsight. In the meantime, it’s the duty of all Americans to remain vigilant, and to continue to fight for democracy.

With anarcho-capitalism, you are right in the sense that the ideology as stated would be a capitalism society without a State (or government, as you put it) - but many ancaps do hold views against interracial and same-sex marrage, which often leads to them adopting other common fascist views like racial segregation, religious fundamentalism, etc.

[–] god 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

thank you, i understand now the trump fascist perspective

i'm still feeling a bit left out on the anarcho-capitalist fascist perspective tho. Anarchists have a long history of wanting to use violence to get out of an authoritarian system. I'd say that's a similarity with fascism where they would circumvent the law to put themselves and their views first. But I'm not sure that's enough for that, as you did say that "as stated", it is an ideology that seeks to have a society without a 'state' or 'government'.

Is being racist, homophobic and monogamist and otherwise moralistic with some skewed morals enough to be called a fascist? Or to point toward being a fascist? Again afaik fascism is like Hitler or Mussolini where ppl decide "this figure is great and we need to break the law to get them absolute power, they will be equivalent to a king and will favor our people".

[–] Trekman10 4 points 1 year ago

Is being racist, homophobic and monogamist and otherwise moralistic with some skewed morals enough to be called a fascist

Not necessarily (although it does make one a bigot), but taking part in an organised political movement to enshrine that racism, homophobia, and ~~monogamism~~ traditional marriage (that's what I hear the Right refer to it as) into law and to advocate the use of violence to enforce their view of sex, race, and religion onto other people is fascistic. Think of it like a square and rectangle. All squares (fascists) are rectangles, but not all rectangles (right wing) are fascists. At the end of the day, fascists do need to appeal to a broad enough segment of the population beyond their most devoted base in order to gain power, so they'll do that by appealing to common prejudices and fears held by people, which can in turn radicalise them further.

That said, people on the right wing or conservative end of the political spectrum who identify as anti-authoritarian still, somewhat hypocritically, tend to believe in hierarchical structures elsewhere, be it familial, economic, racial, or sexual. In fact, many libertarians and "anarcho-capitalists" simultaneously argue for increased police funding while complaining about government tyranny.

I do want to be fair to those who identify as being right wing but do honestly leave other people alone (like New Hampshire-style libertarianism), but I believe that a confrontation between their wish for small government and the broader goals of their other right wing allies is inevitable, and that they will either be forced to abandon their stated limited government values.

Anarchists have a long history of wanting to use violence to get out of an authoritarian system

Yes, and the rest of the anarchist movement has largely disowned anarcho-capitalism. Many political philosophies have long held that violence is justified when it's an oppressed people trying to end their oppression.

From the wikipedia article on ancapism

In a theoretical anarcho-capitalist society, the system of private property would still exist and be enforced by private defense agencies and/or insurance companies selected by customers, which would operate competitively in a market and fulfill the roles of courts and the police.

A core part of political anarchism is the belief that capitalism is another unjust form of hierarchy that must be dismantled. Anarcho-capitalists, by definition, support an unrestrained form of capitalism wherein instead of using the State as a tool of violence through civil institutions like the police and military, corporations are able to do it themsleves by having their own private police forces and armies.