Ur-fascism

https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/umberto-eco-ur-fascism

A wonderful essay by Umberto Eco that I re-read today. Highly relevant to life in the United States in 2024.

• Ur-Fascism derives from individual or social frustration. That is why one of the most typical features of the historical fascism was the appeal to a frustrated middle class, a class suffering from an economic crisis or feelings of political humiliation, and frightened by the pressure of lower social groups. In our time, when the old “proletarians” are becoming petty bourgeois (and the lumpen are largely excluded from the political scene), the fascism of tomorrow will find its audience in this new majority.

And much more than that.