Fascisterne: The Faces of Fascism, Then and Now

One does not have to look far in order to notice the signs.
A leader that uses absolutes to speak. A mass of people shouting with words which are not policies. A nation, taught to fear foreigners, to wail some lost ideal. and amid it all some faint voice of by-gone days is louder there–and at that one is apt to think a good deal of Fascisterne.

The word can be of a different origin and date–“Fascisterne,” of Danish, means literally, the fascists; but the meaning of the word is universal, and eternal. The fact is that fascism, which was believed to be buried in the ashes of war and trial by tribunal is not merely a history book in Europe. It is a language, an strategy, and an enticement. And to-day, as never before, it is whis-pering.

Myth of the Dead Ideology

After the fall of Mussolini and Hitler, the world swore never again. Fascism had brought unspeakable horror: concentration camps, total war, the mechanization of hate. The Nuremberg Trials codified these crimes, and democratic nations vowed vigilance. But the assumption that fascism was over—that it had been defeated forever—was a dangerous mistake.

What history shows, again and again, is that fascism doesn’t need to call itself by that name. It doesn’t always wear uniforms or march in torch-lit parades. It adapts. It rebrands. Sometimes, it even smiles.

Fascism as Emotion, Not Just Policy

We need to go beyond the textbook Fascisterne definitions and ask the question; what is fascism like?

It is like knowing for sure, when everything is hearsay.
It is a sense of belonging, and when the world is disjointed.
It seems like vengeance in a mask of justice.

Historian Robert Paxton has said that fascism could not be defined in terms of a bunch of policies but as a sense of mostune. Not everything revolves around institutions it is about energy. A promise is proclaimed by a leader of rebirth, and the nation responds to the message and the boundary between loyalty and obedience is gone soon.

The Lure of Simplicity

Fascism runs in disorder. It was not all good and so the Fascisterne of the 20 th century was not born. They came into effect when people were afraid- afraid of inflation, of unemployment, of self-identity disintegration. Complex problems are intolerable in situations such as these. And that is when a voice is telling of something easy.

Not truth. Not nuance.
They are the problem, Just. The answer is me.”

This voice does not have to present long policies. It should provide meaning. It cries pain and makes it a name. It puts on the trappings of a flag and labels it as love.

Memory and Amnesia, and the Threat of Forgetting

The truth is, the majority of the people nowadays cannot describe what fascism means. Show it to ten people and you might have ten different answers. To other people it is an overall insult. To some people, it is historical. However, to people who study power, it is not lost or forgotten.

In Europe, far-right organizations take place in sectors that were unbelievable before. Democratic boundaries are stretched and pushed to the test every day by fringe movements in the U.S. Strong men in Latin America tap nationalism using the colors of anti-corruption or law and order. Young men meet online, in digital locations where fashist attitudes are put in memes, irony and disillusionment.

Fascisterne aren t a mere ghost. They serve like a mirror.

A New Uniform, Stay Policy

The current fascism does not require a swastika. It does not require a dictator in a moustache. Today its fascisterne wears a suit, uses Instagram, speaks the language of freedom and wants to destroy it.

They can discuss such spheres as the traditional values, the national sovereignty, or the cultural protection. It is possible to interpret these words in a number of ways- but context is important. They are the fruits when they are employed to eliminate humans, deprive them of rights and to cons condense authority.

It is not by a chance that most of these leaders assault the media, undermine courts and re-write history. They are not adverse effects. They are tactics.

Why People Still Fall for It

The question may come to your mind: how can people follow Fascisterne knowing how dangerous they can be?

The solution is in emotion. Fascism provides an identity at a time when modernity seems estranging. It offers sense in the era of algorithmic incomprehension. It provides people with an identity to have, warriors of a lost grandeur, protectors of a lost land.

It is highly performative too. The politics becomes theater through rallies, slogans, chants, etc. It is in times when politics amounts to entertainment that truth can be negotiated.

It Begins Subliminal

Fascism starts with no death camps. It starts with uncertainty.
Questioning in the institutions. Doubt at the media. Mistrust your neighbor.

It teaches people to have faith in only what their leader says. To look criticism as treason. To consider complexity as *weakness*. By the time the curtain drops it is all too late.

The scary thing is how far democracies can turn a blind eye before they cannot—the democracies that see the overlapping forces of economic democracies that reduce investment by civilian conscription that leads to the diminished utility of a democratic system—love there.

What The History Demands of Us in These Days