Latest news with #fascism
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
This Viral Debate Clip Highlights A Scary Reality About Today's Conservatives
A viral clip from a debate between political commentator and journalist Mehdi Hasan and a self-proclaimed fascist is bringing to light some troubling realities about the conservative movement and the general level of public discourse today. Hasan appeared in the latest episode of Jubilee's 'Surrounded' series titled '1 Progressive vs 20 Far-Right Conservatives,' during which the former MSNBC host at one point debated a participant by the name of Connor. When asked to describe his ideal vision of the U.S., Connor referenced deporting people and then expressed a desire for a 'benevolent' autocrat who puts an end to American democracy. He also insisted that he would not be harmed by such a dictator and started to quote Nazi theorist Carl Schmitt, leading Hasan to ask if he was a fan of the Nazis. 'We may have to rename this show because you're a little bit more than a far-right Republican.'@mehdirhasan called out a self-proclaimed 'fascist' on the show 'Surrounded' where he debated 20 far-right Republicans. — Zeteo (@zeteo_news) July 20, 2025 'I frankly don't care about being called a Nazi at all,' Connor responded, later adding, 'Well, they persecuted the church a little bit. I'm not a fan of that.' Asked about Nazi persecution of Jews, he said, 'I certainly don't support anyone's human dignity being assaulted.' And when Hasan suggested that his views make him a fascist, he proudly replied, 'Yeah, I am.' This particular exchange highlights a number of disturbing aspects of the modern far-right movement, particularly the extremist vision of government and dangerous delusions about how such a system would impact people. 'I don't think that it is terribly rational to believe that one couldn't be harmed by a benevolent dictator, should one rise to take power,' Jacob Neiheisel, associate professor of political science at the University at Buffalo College of Arts and Sciences, told HuffPost. 'Even 'benevolent' dictators have rarely remained so throughout their tenure in office and have a track record of hurting even those who are closest to them.' When Connor shared his vision of government under a 'benevolent' autocrat, he stated, 'I'm not going to be a part of the group that he kills.' But this viewpoint is particularly misguided and dangerous, in addition to callous. 'Excessive executive power is always dangerous because of the potential for capriciousness,' said Todd Belt, professor and political management program director at The Graduate School of Political Management at The George Washington University. 'The autocrat who is friendly to you one day may not be the next. Also, power corrupts.' With this in mind, Neiheisel emphasized the value of a critical and engaged citizenry. 'I would also say that a healthy distrust of power is, on balance, a positive orientation to have in a democratic public,' he said. To maintain this kind of critical thinking and healthy distrust, however, the public must be educated and informed about historic events and politics. 'I think it is terrifying that fascism seems to be making a comeback among some young people who are terribly misinformed about what awful, immoral, murderous regimes they were,' said John Jost, a professor of psychology and politics at New York University. 'This guy seems to think that Francisco Franco was a good Catholic guy, but he is either completely clueless or in massive ideological denial. Even the slightest bit of research reveals that Franco killed much more than 100,000 innocent people, and it took many decades for the Spanish people to get over it, if indeed they have.' Jost published a paper in September titled 'Both-Sideology Endangers Democracy and Social Science' ― in which he points to evidence that 'false, misleading, and poor-quality information is more likely to populate conservative-rightist than liberal-leftist media ecosystems.' Thus, misleading and incorrect information about dictators like Franco can more easily spread and give rise to troubling views on government. 'The kind of rhetoric on display from the person Hasan was questioning appears to have become more prevalent on the right in recent years,' Neiheisel said. 'Although he doesn't say as much, I wouldn't be surprised to find out that the individual in the clip is motivated by a desire to see some flavor of Christian dominion or theonomy come into practice in the United States.' He added that many others have come to support autocratic rule without a religious motivation ― as seen with influential far-right blogger Curtis Yarvin's argument for an American monarchy. 'I think that pro-fascist guy's comment about having a benevolent dictator speaks to a bit of a larger phenomenon that's happening in the United States where some portion of the electorate hungers for a strongman,' said Matt Dallek, a political historian and professor at The Graduate School of Political Management at The George Washington University. He pointed to a far-right vision of an all-powerful figure who expels immigrants, fosters a more white and native-born population, and unleashes law enforcement to go after alleged bad actors like 'the corrupt evil Deep State' with Democrats and 'Never Trumpers' and whoever the enemy of the moment is. 'That sentiment has become increasingly mainstream over the past few years ― that if you are a citizen, you're native born, you're white, you're a man and you have resources, then the authoritarian forces that this benevolent dictator will unleash will only target the bad guys, not you,' Dallek said. This delusional viewpoint in service of a racist, extremist and even murderous vision for the future suggests public discourse might be reaching new lows ― which begs the question of whether these kinds of 'debates' involving extremists are in any way helpful or productive for the participants, viewers or society at large. 'I'm not sure how helpful these types of debates are,' Neiheisel said. 'The only possible way in which the exchange between Hasan and Connor could be seen as a normative good from my perspective is that it might showcase that there actually are people who believe what Connor professes to believe about what government ought to look like. Acknowledging that there are those who would turn the country into more of an autocratic state is the first step en route to understanding why this impulse exists.' Belt noted that rather than a censoring or 'cancelling' approach, the 'Surrounded' debate setup takes the position of 'counterspeech' ― responding directly to harmful or offensive speech and countering it with more speech. 'While this approach aligns with constitutional values theoretically, I think that in practice it does not achieve the thoughtfulness of dialogue implicit in the counterspeech doctrine,' he said. 'The incessant interruptions make the video look more like a game of who can score the most points by making the other look as radical as fast as they can, and that's not really thoughtful dialogue. I think this video appeals to audiences who are looking for someone to take the other side 'down a peg' ― there's a real schadenfreude appeal to this type of video.' He added that progressives disillusioned with the Democratic Party's 'milquetoast' response to Trump's second term might find particular satisfaction in these kinds of viral clips and seeing someone take their arguments more forcefully to the other side. 'On one hand, the old Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis shared the idea that 'sunlight is the best disinfectant,' and typically those who believe in free speech believe you counter bad speech with good speech,' Dallek said. 'So I understand the impulse of taking on someone with really hateful, horrific views, and trying to expose that person for holding those extremist positions.' On the other hand, he believes it is 'a little bit nuts' to platform someone who is a self-proclaimed fascist and seemingly refuses to condemn Hitler and the Holocaust. Sure, this choice might draw attention and traffic to your clip and to your platform, but at what cost to humanity? (For his part, Hasan has said the producers did not communicate the extreme nature of the conservative participants' views to him ahead of his appearance.) 'I don't think much, if anything, can be gained by providing a platform and legitimizing such extreme, repugnant views via a debate with someone who is so far out because you're helping put these horrific ideas ― which have mostly been confined to the fringe since World War II ― into the mainstream,' Dallek said. 'And in the age of the internet and social media, some people will listen to others who express hateful or conspiratorial rhetoric, and they will act on these ideas in violent ways. So it's really kind of perilous and a way of further debasing a public discourse that has already been debased quite dramatically.' He emphasized that he has a lot of respect for nonprofits, civic organizations and individuals who attempt to bridge divides in the United States by having conversations with right-wing Trump supporters in which they seek to listen and understand why people believe systems are rigged or corrupt. 'I think that kind of dialogue can be productive and is important, but it's very different from what seems to me to be an almost Jerry Springer-esque pie-throwing contest with a self-described fascist,' Dallek noted. 'That's a bad idea if you want to have a serious conversation about the divisions in the U.S. The country is awash in hateful, dehumanizing rhetoric, and these ideas have become more mainstream. Platforming a self-described fascist only serves to further that process.' Related... Former MSNBC Host's Reaction To Right-Winger Calling Self A 'Fascist' Goes Viral Trump Called MAGA Supporters 'Stupid' — But Do They Even Care? Experts Weigh In. Trump Leveled A Baffling Threat At Rosie O'Donnell — Experts Explain Why It's Truly Terrifying
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
From Canada to Finland, a US neo-Nazi fight club is rapidly spreading across the globe
More than a dozen men wearing black masks and sunglasses – obstructing any open source investigators from easily identifying them – appeared in a Telegram video in front of city hall in London, Canada, in June. 'Mass deportations now,' the men yelled in unison, holding up banners with the same slogan. 'No blood for Israel.' While this type of scene with masked men chanting is a relatively common occurrence in the US, this incident in Canada illustrated the underbelly of a surging global movement: neo-Nazi active clubs, American-born neofascist fight clubs, are rapidly spreading across borders. London, a larger Canadian city in what is a rust belt in the province of Ontario, has had a long history with the Ku Klux Klan dating back to the 1920s and a racist murder of a Pakistani-Canadian family in 2021. But the arrival of an active club, which has also shown itself in other nearby towns and cities like Toronto (the country's largest metropolitan area), is a relatively new development. 'Welcome to Hamilton, our city,' one Telegram post from the same Canadian active club wrote with its symbol posted on a sticker beside a sign for one of Ontario's largest cities. 'Folk-Family-Future!' Around the world, Canada isn't the only country being introduced to these clubs, which are fitness and mixed martial arts groups operating out of local gyms and parks that espouse neo-Nazi and fascist ideologies. Already proliferating across the US in a number of states, active clubs openly take their historical cues from the Third Reich's obsession with machismo and their modern inspiration from European soccer hooliganism. Recent research published by the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) has shown that since 2023, these clubs are newly sprouting in Sweden, Canada, Australia, Switzerland, the UK, Finland and for the first time, in Latin America with two chapters in Chile and Colombia appearing. According to the GPAHE research, there are now chapters in 27 countries, with new youth wings – akin to Hitler Youth-styled clubs – are surging stateside and abroad, 'metastasizing' across western countries and recruiting young men into toxic, far-right ideologies encouraging race war. 'The Active Club model was designed by Rob Rundo,' said Heidi Beirich, founder of GPAHE, referring to an infamous neo-Nazi and New Yorker who pleaded guilty in 2024 to conspiracy to riot at 2017 political rallies in California. Around that time, Rundo was also the leader of the Rise Above Movement, a neo-Nazi gang that had four of its members charged for their role in the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, but later pivoted to spreading the idea of active clubs among followers as the new nerve centers for fascistic indoctrination and recruitment. 'As far as we can tell, Rundo isn't directly involved with chapters of the movement in a systematic way, but the chapters are inspired by him and the ideology he stands for,' said Beirich. Beirich explained that although Rundo isn't likely to have a hand in these groups, it meshes with his original vision of active clubs being 'autonomous and local'. But many of these chapters of active clubs in countries with large populations of white people – some of whom openly have gravitated towards racist, nativism in recent years – promote each other as a global struggle and are linked in a network of accounts on the Telegram app. One set of accounts, in particular, that have become the sort-of tastemakers among neo-Nazis online, have promoted several local active club chapters across the world and applauded those they think are creating the effective models to emulate. The same accounts admire the work of Thomas Sewell, a well-known and violent Australian neo-Nazi, who has been promoting active club-styled groups in his country: 'Their organization should be what every dissident group across European civilization seeks to emulate,' said one admiring post about Sewell and his crew. Beirich said Sewell, who previously admitted to have personally tried to recruit the Christchurch mass shooter to one of his past groups, is aligned with Rundo's politics. 'Sewell, just like Rundo, is a violent neo-Nazi recruiting new members to prepare for violence against both political enemies and the communities he targets, such as immigrants, Jews and the LGBTQ+ community,' she said, adding that he was 'hosting MMA-style training and tournaments' to attract new followers. The Ultimate Fighting Championship and the combat sports that fall under its purview, have become a locus for the far right. Likewise, Sewell and Rundo have promoted learning these sports as a means of becoming street soldiers, akin to modern-day brownshirts, for their movement. Other organizations, which are more obviously political and engaging in public displays of activism, have seen this model of trained violence as a means of recruiting and solidifying their ranks. Patriot Front, an American proto-fascist hate group known for public marches and propagandizing natural disasters, has outwardly linked itself to the active club movement. Its leader, Thomas Rousseau recently posted a group image with himself and others doing 'grappling and striking' training at a martial arts gym in north Texas. Beirich described how members of Patriot Front 'often work closely with Active Club chapters' including participating in their mixed-martials training. On Telegram, active club chapters regularly share Patriot Front propaganda. 'Join Patriot Front if you are in America,' one active club adjacent account posted on Telegram, with nearly three thousand views.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Former MSNBC Host's Reaction To Right-Winger Calling Self A 'Fascist' Goes Viral
Political commentator and journalist Mehdi Hasan's baffled reaction to a far-right influencer proudly admitting he is a fascist has left the internet in shock, and the YouTube channel that hosted the debate between the two is facing pushback for platforming fascism. In a Sunday episode of Jubilee's 'Surrounded' titled '1 Progressive vs 20 Far-Right Conservatives,' the former MSNBC host was shocked to find out his opponents included those he described as 'actual outright open fascists.' Journalist Mehdi Hasan said he was disappointed after a debate with far-right conservatives he called "openly fascist" aired on Jubilee. Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg via Getty Images 'I am disappointed that I had to sit across from people who believe in white genocide, who believe I'm not a citizen,' Hasan said, reflecting on the debate at the end of the episode. 'Multiple people here said I should be deported. One of them was even the child of immigrants, which I found bizarre.' One person in particular left Hasan's jaw on the floor. The topic that Hasan had put up for debate was whether 'Donald Trump is defying the Constitution.' That conversation begins at 21:40. 'I don't really care, to be quite frankly,' said one guest, who went by the name of Connor. 'Quite frankly, there are a lot of legal processes that are enabling criminals and bad people to fully enact their will in this country in the name of the Constitution,' Connor continued. 'So quite frankly, if Trump is anti-Constitution, good, and I think he should go further.' 'This is wonderfully revealing of the modern conservative mindset,' Hasan said. Connor went on to quote Nazi theorist Carl Schmitt, and when Hasan asked how Connor felt about the Nazis, he replied, 'Well, they persecuted the church a little bit. I'm not a fan of that.' When asked specifically about Jews, Connor said, 'I certainly don't support anyone's human dignity being assaulted.' At that point, Hasan interjected that Connor was 'a little bit more than a far-right Republican.' 'Hey, what can I say?' Connor said. 'I think you can say, 'I'm a fascist,'' Hasan replied. 'Yeah, I am,' Connor said, laughing. Hasan looked concerned and baffled as the group cheered and clapped for Connor. Hasan eventually ended the exchange, stating, 'I don't debate fascists.' The self-identified fascist later claimed he lost his job because of his comments on the show, and ranted about cancel culture while in an appearance on RiftTV. He also set up a fundraiser for himself, which was reviewed by HuffPost and had reached over $25,000 at the time of writing. 'Unfortunately, voicing fully legal traditional right wing political views results in real consequences,' Connor wrote on a page for the fundraiser, which did not say what his job had been. 'This is cancel culture and political discrimination on full display.' Many online have condemned Jubilee for platforming him and other far-right conservatives in the first place. Another person on the episode told Hasan to 'get the hell out' and 'I don't want you here' after the journalist said he was an immigrant, in an intense interaction that starts at 53:46. In his reflection at the episode's end, Hasan called it 'kind of disturbing to see that they think what I thought they think and they were happy to say it out loud.' He told followers on X, formerly Twitter, that this was 'not how the debate was sold' to him by producers. Related...
Fox News
3 days ago
- Politics
- Fox News
Dems Blame Colbert Cancellation On 'Fascism'
As seen on Gutfeld, Greg mocks the liberal elites who are claiming Colbert got canceled due to fascism. Greg calls out Democrats for claiming everything is fascist, while ignoring real fascism around the world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit
Wall Street Journal
18-07-2025
- Politics
- Wall Street Journal
Can It Happen Here? Ask Tucker Carlson
Sinclair Lewis published 'It Can't Happen Here' 90 years ago, when fascism ruled Italy and was overtaking Germany. He believed it could happen here and told the story of a demagogic senator, Berzelius 'Buzz' Windrip, whose platform—inspired by Louisiana's Gov. Huey Long—promises prosperity to 'traditional' Americans if they unite against what one character calls 'the Jew Communists and Jew financiers plotting together to control the country.' On July 11, after a day when many of those who identify as 'America first' or MAGA were angry over the Trump administration's failure to release the Jeffrey Epstein files, Tucker Carlson offered an explanation to an enthusiastic gathering at the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit. 'It's extremely obvious,' he said, 'to anyone who watches that this guy'—Epstein—'had direct connections to a foreign government, and no one's allowed to say that that foreign government is Israel, because we have been somehow cowed into thinking that that's naughty. There is nothing wrong with saying that.' Well, ignoring that everyone who claims 'no one's allowed to say that' seems to say nothing but that—or, as columnist Karol Markowicz posted on X, that 'the Mossad is blackmailing everyone but the podcasters'—there is something wrong with saying that: There's no evidence for it.
