Difference and legitimacy

Adam Serwer, writing in the Atlantic, argues that Donald Trump and his followers at some level, whether explicit or implicit, believe that whiteness is a necessary condition for U.S. citizenship.[1] Michael Luo, editor of the New Yorker‘s web site, asks whether he and his twin brother, born in this country, but of Asian descent, will ever be accepted in this country.[2] Read more

  1. [1]Adam Serwer, “Trump Tells America What Kind of Nationalist He Is,” Atlantic, July 15, 2019, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/07/trumps-white-nationalist-attack-four-congresswomen/594019/
  2. [2]Michael Luo, “Trump’s Racist Tweets, and the Question of Who Belongs in America,” New Yorker, July 15, 2019, https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/trumps-racist-tweets-and-the-question-of-who-belongs-in-america

Xenophobia

It seems like xenophobia can never be defeated for long. Certainly not quickly or easily: When I reflect on the persistence of authoritarian populism—it has existed for a millenium[1]—I fear for the ‘other.’ And not just here in the U.S.[2] It’s a common impulse found throughout the world and not always with the same expression. Read more

  1. [1]David Benfell, “Barack Obama asks, ‘Why is it that the folks that won the last election are so mad all the time?’” Not Housebroken, November 4, 2018, https://disunitedstates.org/2018/11/04/barack-obama-asks-why-is-it-that-the-folks-that-won-the-last-election-are-so-mad-all-the-time/
  2. [2]Current events in the United States render this fear far from abstract: Priscilla Alvarez, “Lawmakers, including Ocasio-Cortez, lash out over conditions following border facility tours,” CNN, July 2, 2019, https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/01/politics/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-clint-texas-facility/index.html; Josh Dawsey and Colby Itkowitz, “‘This is tough stuff’: At Texas detention facility, Pence sees hundreds of migrants crammed with no beds,” Washington Post, July 12, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/pence-tours-detention-facilities-at-the-border-defends-administrations-treatment-of-migrants/2019/07/12/993f54e0-a4bc-11e9-b8c8-75dae2607e60_story.html; Caitlin Dickerson, “‘There Is a Stench’: No Soap and Overcrowding in Detention Centers for Migrant Children,” New York Times, June 21, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/21/us/migrant-children-border-soap.html; Adam Harris, “An Astonishing Government Report on Conditions at the Border,” Atlantic, July 3, 2019, https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2019/07/government-report-details-inhumane-conditions-migrant-facilities/593242/; Miriam Jordan, “Judge Orders Swift Action to Improve Conditions for Migrant Children in Texas,” New York Times, June 29, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/29/us/migrant-children-detention-texas.html; Alejandro Lazo and Jacob Gershman, “Lawsuit Alleges Government Mistreatment of Migrant Children,” Wall Street Journal, June 27, 2019, https://www.wsj.com/articles/lawsuit-alleges-government-mistreatment-of-migrant-children-11561608969; Sam Levin, “‘Happy hunting!’ Immigration agents swapped cheery messages about raids, records reveal,” Guardian, July 3, 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jul/03/ice-us-immigration-messages-raids; Katie Mettler, Mike DeBonis, and Reis Thebault, “Border agents confiscated lawmakers’ phones. Joaquin Castro captured photo and video anyway,” Washington Post, July 2, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/07/02/ocasio-cortez-says-dispute-with-border-patrol-agents-started-after-one-tried-take-stealth-selfie/; Geneva Sands and Nick Valencia, “2nd Customs and Border Protection-connected secret Facebook group shows mocking images,” CNN, July 5, 2019, https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/05/politics/cbp-second-facebook-group-images/index.html; Jacob Soboroff and Julia Ainsley, “Migrant kids in overcrowded Arizona border station allege sex assault, retaliation from U.S. agents,” NBC News, July 9, 2019, https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/migrant-kids-overcrowded-arizona-border-station-allege-sex-assault-retaliation-n1027886

A simple definition of fascism

See updates through June 9, 2021, at end of post. This definition has been substantively revised since its origination.


One of the topics I avoided in my dissertation work is fascism. There are two main reasons for this. First, the term is so ill-defined that at times, especially in the run-up to the election last year, I’ve even gone so far as to suggest the term should not be used. Sara Robinson notes that “[t]he word has been bandied about by so many people so wrongly for so long that, as [Robert] Paxton points out, ‘Everybody is somebody else’s fascist.'”[1] She relies on Paxton’s definition, writing that she

always like[s] to start these conversations by revisiting Paxton’s essential definition of the term:

“Fascism is a system of political authority and social order intended to reinforce the unity, energy, and purity of communities in which liberal democracy stands accused of producing division and decline.”

Read more

  1. [1]Sara Robinson, “Is the U.S. on the Brink of Fascism?” Alternet, August 6, 2009, http://www.alternet.org/story/141819/is_the_u.s._on_the_brink_of_fascism

Colin Kaepernick is right

Colin Kaepernick is right.[1]

It would be one thing if the U.S. had ever given up its slavery habit and if reparations had been made.[2] Then we might look upon the association between the Betsy Ross flag and slavery[3] as quaint. But it hasn’t. Read more

  1. [1]Eli Rosenberg and Michael Brice-Saddler, “A GOP governor wants to cancel a Nike contract after flag-shoe flap, but the city it’s headed for isn’t backing down,” Washington Post, July 3, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/07/03/gop-governor-wants-cancel-nike-contract-city-its-headed-isnt-backing-down/
  2. [2]Ta-Nehisi Coates, “The Case for Reparations,” Atlantic, June 2014, https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/; see also David Benfell, “The trouble with reparations isn’t what you think it is,” Not Housebroken, June 11, 2019, https://disunitedstates.org/2019/06/11/the-trouble-with-reparations-isnt-what-you-think-it-is/
  3. [3]Eli Rosenberg and Michael Brice-Saddler, “A GOP governor wants to cancel a Nike contract after flag-shoe flap, but the city it’s headed for isn’t backing down,” Washington Post, July 3, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/07/03/gop-governor-wants-cancel-nike-contract-city-its-headed-isnt-backing-down/

Violence is the illegitimate authority that begets all other illegitimate authority

So it’s amazing I have to explain this. It should be self-evident. I guess it isn’t, at least not on Twitter:

Violence is the illegitimate authority that begets all other illegitimate authority.

Rulers rely on violence of both the structural and physical kinds, both threatened and actualized, both implicit and explicit. But perhaps some folks hadn’t noticed the police. I guess some folks hadn’t noticed militaries. I guess some folks hadn’t noticed the uneven distribution of resources, a structural form of violence. I guess some folks hadn’t noticed the various forms of scapegoating to be found in nearly all—if not all—societies, another structural form of violence.
Read more