How Anti-Fascism Became the West’s Civil Religion ｜ 12⧸18⧸25
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
148.60681
Summary
Antifascism became the West s civil religion in the wake of World War II, and served as a bulwark against the rise of Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime. But in the process, it distorted politics, hollowed out our institutions, and undermined the concept of the nation itself.
Transcript
00:00:00.000
At the end of World War II, much of the West stood in ruins.
00:00:03.440
Europe's greatest powers were shattered, millions were dead,
00:00:06.400
and political leaders were searching for a framework that would prevent another civilizational collapse.
00:00:12.520
What emerged was what author R.R. Riener later described as the post-war consensus,
00:00:17.420
an elite agreement to reorganize Western society around a single overriding moral imperative,
00:00:22.980
never again allow a figure like Adolf Hitler to rise.
00:00:30.200
This was understandable in the immediate aftermath of the war.
00:00:33.100
Nazi Germany's atrocities demanded more than mere condemnation.
00:00:37.380
But over time, antifascism ceased to function as a historical judgment
00:00:41.340
and instead hardened into a permanent moral framework.
00:00:44.920
In the process, it began to distort politics, hollow out our institutions,
00:00:49.440
and undermine the concept of the nation itself.
00:00:53.460
Antifascism served a second, less acknowledged function.
00:00:56.680
The United States and its allies had partnered with the Soviet Union to defeat Hitler.
00:01:01.200
The alliance was strategically necessary, but morally grotesque.
00:01:05.440
Communist regimes starved millions, persecuted Christians, liquidated entire classes,
00:01:11.080
and carried out ethnic cleansing on a scale easily outstripping the Nazis.
00:01:14.760
To sustain the moral legitimacy of the post-war order,
00:01:19.180
Nazism had to remain the singular, unrivaled evil of modern history.
00:01:23.960
Any serious moral accounting risked an intolerable conclusion.
00:01:27.860
The West had joined forces with a regime at least as monstrous as the one it defeated.
00:01:33.620
Because communism retained elite defenders in academia, media, and politics,
00:01:40.260
fascism became the only ideology that could be universally condemned.
00:01:45.080
Conservatives opposed both, but liberals embraced or excused communism.
00:01:50.440
Antifascism thus became the sole moral language the entire ruling class could speak.
00:01:58.140
Public figures openly describe themselves as socialists or communists without consequence.
00:02:03.780
In fact, in some elite circles, that will actually elevate your standing and credibility.
00:02:08.900
Communist symbols appear on clothing and merchandise, sometimes celebrated as ironic rebellion.
00:02:19.540
This asymmetry transformed the definition of fascism into a weapon.
00:02:24.040
Anything directly associated with Nazism became forbidden,
00:02:30.940
Online platforms remove or demonetize historical content for displaying Nazi imagery,
00:02:38.400
History itself must be censored to comply with the taboo.
00:02:42.800
Meanwhile, symbols of communist regimes that murder tens of millions of people
00:02:50.480
A guy wearing a Che Guevara shirt or a hammer and sickle,
00:02:55.600
but if you wear a swastika, that's going to end your career.
00:03:05.800
and you control the moral boundary of all acceptable thought.
00:03:09.660
The left quickly grasped this dynamic and began expanding the category.
00:03:14.300
Traditional social institutions were recast as latent fascism.
00:03:18.780
Academic works such as Theodore Adorno's The Authoritarian Personality
00:03:22.940
asserted that family structure, masculinity, Christianity, national identity, capitalism,
00:03:28.780
and law and order were markers of authoritarian pathologies.
00:03:33.720
Over time, the list expanded from Nazi symbols to Confederate flags,
00:03:38.420
then Christian imagery, art styles, gestures, numbers, and ordinary behaviors.
00:03:43.720
Organizations like the ADL and the Southern Poverty Law Center
00:03:46.740
actually labeled things like physical fitness and drinking milk
00:03:50.520
or even the OK hand sign as potential indicators of extremism.
00:03:55.660
Conservatives love to mock the more absurd examples,
00:04:02.280
but for a long time, closing the border was a controversial opinion among conservative elites.
00:04:07.380
Preferring one immigrant group over another was considered racist even by conservatives.
00:04:12.180
Explicit national identity was a huge red flag.
00:04:15.580
Christianity as a political foundation was considered authoritarian.
00:04:19.760
Anti-fascism succeeded not because it was coherent, but because it was unchallengeable.
00:04:24.960
The result is a civilization that has locked away the tools required for its own survival.
00:04:30.780
A functional society requires cohesion, shared language, culture, norms, and tradition.
00:04:36.560
Everyone isn't going to conform on every one of these requirements,
00:04:39.960
but they have to conform on enough of them to actually assimilate.
00:04:48.260
When every mechanism of cohesion is labeled fascist, cohesion becomes impossible.
00:04:53.800
Crime, educational collapse, family breakdown, failing birth rates, and social fragmentation,
00:05:04.120
but they've been rendered politically illegitimate
00:05:06.580
because they're all somehow hallmarks of fascism.
00:05:12.900
or worse, oppose them in the name of anti-fascism itself.
00:05:16.740
This doesn't prevent authoritarianism, it guarantees it.
00:05:20.300
If something doesn't change radically on our current trajectory,
00:05:25.580
One is an increasingly authoritarian managerial state
00:05:28.660
that governs a disintegrating society through surveillance, regulation, and bureaucratic coercion.
00:05:34.200
The other is a decisive leader who smashes the glass labeled fascism
00:05:42.060
The longer conservatives wait to make reasonable corrections,
00:05:45.560
the more radical, and likely more authoritarian,
00:05:51.300
Look, Nazism was evil, and opposing it was obviously right.
00:05:55.140
But elevating anti-fascism into the West's single, unquestionable religious principle
00:06:03.300
It's stripped societies of the ability to govern themselves prudently
00:06:07.380
and ensured that when the correction finally comes,
00:06:10.340
it will be far harsher than anything even the most ardent anti-fascists claim to fear.
00:06:25.140
If you'd like to get these broadcasts as podcasts,
00:06:27.800
make sure to subscribe to The Oren McIntyre Show on your favorite podcast platform.
00:06:32.200
And when you do, if you leave a rating or review,
00:06:36.840
If you'd like to follow me on Twitter or Gab or Substack or Instagram,
00:06:41.440
if you'd like to get these videos on Rumble or Odyssey,
00:06:44.380
the links to do that are down below in the description.
00:06:51.520
Just got a show or two left before we go on Christmas break.
00:06:56.720
if you want to get me a Christmas gift of this year,
00:07:06.040
We've been hitting all kinds of great new numbers.
00:07:13.700
I really appreciate everything you guys have done.
00:07:15.940
And I hope you have a very Merry Christmas and a very happy new year.
00:07:20.120
If you're looking for a last minute Christmas gift,
00:07:25.260
it's going to go into its second printing and that's going to be a paperback.
00:07:28.240
So if you want to get one of the hardbacks that's still left,
00:07:35.340
you want to make sure that you're going to have a hardback copy,
00:07:42.820
or at many different bookstores like Barnes & Noble.
00:07:48.800
and just treat yourself by subscribing to The Blaze