Dave Neiwert Hits A High Point
by tristero
Imagine if you will, an Oxford don writing a serious, carefully-researched 60-plus page critique of the lyrics to the old Batman TV theme. For those of you too old to remember, they go:
Batman
Batman
Batman
Batman
Batman
Batman
Batman
(vocalise)
Batman!
A little pointless, yes? to take something so incredibly stupid and content-free in a serious fashion. Yet it is a similar task that Dave Neiwert recently took upon himself. No, Dave’s not doing TV shows. Instead, he’s decided to review, and then criticize in exquisite detail, and without irony, perhaps the most fraudulent book on fascism that ever shamed a mainstream American publisher. It was a cynical ploy to publish this junk. equalled only by OJ Simpson’s “If I Did It” for utterly shameless, vacuous buck-raking.
Ridiculous to waste so much time on such a cruddy book, you say. Just ignore it, and its author. I’ll second that emotion. But since fascism is a subject that Dave knows very, very well, Dave’s numerous, extensive posts debunking the book are a joy to read, even if the subject is so grim. I strongly recc’d you track them down and read as many as you can. Below are a few links to get you started: Dave’s posts will connect you to all the others.
To give you an idea of how superb Dave’s writing is on the subject of fascism, here is a discussion of the history of the Klan post -“Birth of the Nation.” It’s a wonderful summary of some complex history. Short version: they took violent racism as a starting point and then branched out into violent intimidation of anyone they didn’t like, which basically meant anyone who was not in the Klan. But the details are fascinating and make for a compelling read.
Another stellar post is more archival. It’s a round-up of a group of important definitions and descriptions of fascism. Your hair will stand up as you realize how many criteria are met in modern conservative-movement ideology.
And there’s much more for you to discover. In order to illustrate one point, Dave revisits the story of Bush’s sleazy grandfather, whose wealth in part came from numerous ties to Nazis (however, the evidence, Dave is careful to point out, that Prescott Bush was himself an ideological sympathizer with Nazism is very thin: Grandpa Bush was just a greedy unprincipled, scumbag.)
His posts are truly essential reading if you think you know what fascism is. That’s because chances are good that unless you’ve actually read Paxton or Griffin or Dave himself, you don’t. I truly hope Dave takes this material, excises the references to the bad book that triggered all this splendid writing, and writes a great work on fascism, and especially his thesis that the earliest proto-fascist movement was in fact the American Ku Klux Klan, not a European movement.
This is some of the best writing of Neiwert’s that I’ve read and I’ve read quite a bit. He’s one of the best bloggers around, so don’t miss these posts. Perhaps Dave could collect all the URLs in one post for ease of use?