American Fascism

What Fox News Doesn't Want You to Know by Oliver Markus Malloy

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The author, Oliver Markus Malloy, sets for himself the task of answering Bill Mahr's question, “Why is the D for Democrat so toxic in red states?” Ironically, Malloy provides the answer, but not in the way that he intends.

Malloy's answer is that Trump is almost literally Hitler, utilizing the wicked power of propaganda to ensnare the minds of crypto-racists ( many of whom actually voted for an African-American for president four years before)? According to Malloy, these crypto-racists are exactly like Nazis in hating, hating, hating non-whites and non-Americans and Jews. In fact, anyone who is to the right of Lenin is a nationalist, and all nationalists are like the Nazis, just waiting to put people into concentration camps and persecute Christian children and commit other crimes against the laws of humanity.

This is not a subtle book. It has the virtue of cherry-picking from biased sources to support its tendentious claims.

Its lack of subtlety and ideological tunnel-vision lead the author to a total misunderstanding of his first argument. Malloy, apparently, thinks that Fox News is obsessed with the claim that the National Socialist German Workers Party was, well, socialist. Malloy stridently insists that despite the name of the party, Nazis could not have been socialists because they were nationalists and socialists are internationalists.

This is what philosophers call a category error. Socialism is about the relationship of the economy to the state. In socialism, the government controls the economy, presumably for nice things, like making butter, but it might also be for bad things, like making guns. Germany during World War I was a “war socialism.” Many states are.

Nationalism/Internationalism is something else entirely. It is true that the socialism that we are used to - socialism of the Marxist variety - is international in theory, but never in practice because Marx's insight was that the key to history was class, not nation. As in so many other things, Marx was wrong on this insight, which is why nationalism has always trumped class throughout history. Nonetheless, the Marxist theory of socialism has never been the only theory of socialism. Other forms were nationalistic and conservative. Bismarck was a socialist. Corporatists and syndicalists are socialists. It is a punk's game to disregard the key elements of socialism so that socialism can be defined as “butterflies and puppies.”

National Socialism was a form of socialism. Sorry, but it was. It just wasn't a Marxist form of socialism. Anyone who reads the Nazi party platform will notice that National Socialism was interested in typical socialist goals, such as eliminating interest, making corporations respond to the concerns of workers, providing basic living support for Germans, caring for Germans as family, etc. The NSDAP's Labor Leader, Robert Ley, gave a speech in 1937, where he explained how National Socialism was socialism. Ley said:

“My friends, it is all a matter of education, of education toward community. Socialism is not given to us. Socialism is not a matter of dead points in a program, but rather socialism is justice. One may demand it because it is right, and it is right because it is good for the nation. That is right. What is good for Germany is right, and everything that harms Germany is wrong. In the last analysis socialism is not a consolation or refuge for the individual, but rather socialism asks this question: “What is good for Germany? What benefits this nation?”

And:

“The Führer has given us a new task for the next four years, a big task that will demand enormous sacrifices. We know that the Four Year Plan before us now will not be the last such plan. Things will not get easier; no, there will always be new tasks, new sacrifices to make. I believe that the size of these new sacrifices and new tasks will increase as the strength of the nation increases. We may not hope that the struggle will cease. It will continue. All the new factories will increase our strength. Each new construction project advances our nation's development. That is true socialism. Build new wealth to improve your life. That is German socialism, that is our struggle”

Obviously, socialism subordinates the life of the individual, particularly the economic life, to the interests of the collective. The question that Bernie Warren and Elizabeth Sanders would ask is, “What benefits America?” and if taking away the wealth of millionaires to provide free health care to illegal aliens benefits America, as they see it, then the interests of the wealthy will not stand in the way of benefitting America under a socialist regime.

So, yes, the Nazis were socialists, just not Marxists.

Obviously, the comparison of socialists to Nazis stings the author, although he is delusional if he thinks that the link is made only because of Fox News. In fact, I don't recall this ever being an issue on Fox News. On the other hand, Friedrich Von Hayek's “The Road to Serfdom” is dedicated to “socialists of all parties” by which he meant Communists, Labor and Nazis. Hayek wrote that dedication long before Fox News.

I also can't let another bit of historical ignorance pass. The author assures us that “The infamous Kristallnacht, the night when Nazis violently terrorized Jews, was a celebration of Martin Luther's 450th birthday.” This is almost a picture-perfect example of “projection.” Notwithstanding the fact that he wrote a book accusing conservatives of believing ideological nonsense, the author falls for the trap he condemned. Of course, as anyone with some relevant historical knowledge knows, Kristallnacht was timed with the unplanned and unscheduled assassination of German diplomat Ernst vom Rath in Paris by Herschel Grynszpan, who was Jewish. Rath was shot on November 9, 1938 and died on November 9, 1938. Nazis - presumably Goebbels - used this incident as a pretext for mass violence against Jews (and against that other internationalist bete noir of the Nazis, the Catholic Church.)

Martin Luther's birthday was the next day, November 10. Also, Luther was born on November 10, 1483, so the 450th anniversary of his birth had already been celebrated in 1933.

We almost can forgive the author for these stunning mistakes. It is not fashionable to point out that there was a cause, or pretext, for Kristallnacht. We tend to think that random outbursts of violence were something that the Nazis were prone to. Also, the fact that there was a murder of German diplomat by a persecuted Jew just does not seem to fit the narrative we have come to expect.

But, really, is it so difficult to look up Wiki? Like I did? Particularly, if you are writing a book venting about how STUPID those Fox News viewers are?

As for the question, why is the Democrat “D” so toxic, let me suggest that the reason is the unhinged, divisive, nasty, dehumanizing, toxic, slander that average Americans see spewing forth from Democrats and the media and Hollywood on a daily basis, just like this book. We know that the accusations are lies. We know that people like the author are simply projecting their own attitudes on us because we know that if someone accuses you of doing something you aren't doing, then they must be the ones doing it.

At one point, the author shares this insight “If you're a MAGA minion, you literally believe the same propaganda lies the Nazis believed.” If the author really thinks that accusing half the country of being “literally” like the Nazis is the way to persuade them to not consider Democrats toxic, then he is delusional, perhaps even “literally” delusional.

We also note that Leftists have suddenly become the biggest censors and heretic hunters around now that they have power. This is a fascinating “tell” by the author:

“Trump uses Twitter, but Hitler was the first to brainwash people by using an early form of social media. Hitler sold millions of cheap radios (Volksempfänger) to his followers. It was the iPhone and the Twitter of its day. It received only one station: Hitler's voice. That's how he filled his followers' heads with hateful lies about foreigners. Fox News weaponized TV. Infowars weaponized YouTube. And Trump weaponized Twitter.”

So, these evil people “weaponized”....speech....? It used to be that Leftists were in favor of speech. We weren't allowed to suggest that Communists might be working against America in favor of Russia - which they were - because, you know, free speech. But, now, things are so very different and we can see them actually treat speech as if it was something that could be weaponized. Presumably, the next step will be regulation of speech and then, who knows?, re-education camps.

It's happened before.

This is a nasty little book, but it is an incredibly useful historical document to calibrate how far down the path of insanity the left has gone. For that last point, I have decided to give this book an additional star.