Why are fascists such losers?

Vance, Miller, ICE and all the rest

I’ll never cower in front of a man who whiningly recycles Joseph Goebbels. I’ll never be scared of a loser who tweets “erm, how dare you” in his efforts to paint himself as a victim while promoting dictatorship. These are, of course, descriptions of Stephen Miller and JD Vance, respectively.

These are the sociopathic losers emblematic of the fascist regime. Miller appears to be spearheading the worst elements of the Trump administration, from the increased aggression of ICE to the illegal killings of people on ships off the coast of Venezuela, ships that could be carrying anyone. Vance wields less power, but as Trump golfs and ages and appears less coherent and present, JD is often the spokesman, doing public events and tweeting his ass off. And, beyond being united by their hate and greed, both of these men also happen to be giant fucking losers.

You might, very reasonably, ask why this matters. These repugnant men wield tremendous power, and they’re trying to expand their reach while crushing all checks and balances. It’s their influence and reach that matter, not winning petty squabbles or embarrassing these guys in public. And, ultimately, I agree. We must crush fascism, we must take power from the right and ensure that they can never win it back. But, in that process, in the struggle of crushing these bigots, letting the world know that these guys are a bunch of little losers makes a difference.

Men like Miller and Vance and Trump don’t just want to be seen as big men on campus, they don’t just puff their chests up for the sake of their egos, their popularity and power rest in no small part on being perceived as strong and masculine. So one of the many ways we can pull the rug out from under them is to puncture that illusion — and it’s pretty easy to puncture.

All that’s needed to see through the thin facade these men put up is a quick, honest look at them. When you have the misfortune of hearing them speak, or even reading their words, their whiny petulance shines through. Vance is so hungry for your approval, wanting to be cool and liked so badly that he emanates a desperation that is immediately off-putting. Miller is a different breed, even more sociopathic to the point that it appears he never learned human emotion. But what he yearns for, so badly, is a totalitarian society where he can torture and deport people at will. And, as judges and politicians and masses of people block those efforts, he becomes a whinier and whiner Nazi propagandist.

There is also, of course, Donald Trump. More than enough ink has already been spilled on him, as we know, so I’ll just briefly say that as his poll numbers decline and his agenda becomes less and less popular he appears to be lashing out ever more furtively:

Weird truth socials from him are nothing new. He’s never been particularly concerned about sounding crazy — his diehard fans literally do not care what comes out of his mouth. Reality gets warped to fit his words, in their minds. But for everyone else, for anyone who is even somewhat independent minded, reality trumps the president’s words, and reality is starting to catch up to him. He’s starting to sound more desperate, weaker, he increasingly looks like he’s reaching, flailing.

But more than any of these recent developments there’s the overarching truth that he’s always been a petty, vindictive, small man. Some people may never see that, but puncturing the bubble that has elevated Trump to his current station for as many people as possible is one of the many ways we can take the air out of the sails of fascism. And right now, as people worry about the cost of housing, of groceries, about the slow job market, the flailing man who rants about immigrants and trans folks and windmills might finally come into focus. Millions can finally see behind the bluster and the bravado and the gesticulation and catch a glimpse of the small man behind the curtain.

Photo by Nik on Unsplash

There’s some real trickle down that happens with this administration. It’s not economic, of course, it’s loser-ness trickling down from the top. It’s no surprise that a regime led by this trio of losers looks like masked up racist pigs invading our communities and trying to kidnap and terrorize our neighbors. It’s no surprise that weak men want to work for weak men. It’s no surprise that sociopaths want to work for sociopaths. Nothing makes this as clear as ICE, who is now hiring anyone and everyone, arming them, and sending them into our communities.

Chicago is feeling the brunt of ICE’s onslaught right now. The city has been invaded by the American Gestapo, many of whom appear to delight in terrorizing random people. The consequences of this invasion are unequivocally dire. A CBP agent recently shot a woman named Marimar Martinez. The feds claimed that she drove toward officers and they fired in self defense. But when the body cam footage finally came out it revealed a very different story. Here is how a story on the shooting from the Chicago Sun Times begins:

“Body-camera video of a Border Patrol agent involved in the shooting of a woman who was allegedly chasing agents in Brighton Park over the weekend shows an officer saying, ‘Do something, b----,’ before pulling over and shooting the woman five times, the woman’s attorney said in federal court Monday.”

He just wanted to kill her. Residents are following the Gestapo around in an attempt to protect their community. And for this agent, and plenty of others, any attempt at self-defense is a pretext for them to gleefully escalate, in this case shooting a woman because the agent wanted to. As one advocacy coalition notes, DHS is “crashing into civilian vehicles, detaining US citizens, refusing to present warrants, racially profiling community members, and wantonly causing chaos.” This is all in addition to shooting a community member. These men, weak and brittle, are living out their dreams of power at our expense. We, everyone else in this country, are paying the price of these fascist fantasies.

But people are also resisting. Day after day people are working to push ICE out of their communities. Neighbors are forming rapid response groups. From Portland to Chicago to LA folks are taunting the feds, mocking them, and organizing masses of people to physically push back. Neighbors are helping one another escape ICE, de-arresting one another, and harassing the Gestapo to no end.

I really want to say that ICE are just paper tigers. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. Their terror is real, the kidnappings are real, the immense amount of money they’ve been given is real. But who are these men? They’re weak, spineless, untrained. They’re sick and stand for nothing and are full of fear. When people push back they often flee, fold, scramble. Like their leaders they’re losers, cowards who often give up when they meet resistance.

The lesson here, for all of us, is clear. From the streets to the halls of power, we need to fight. We’re not up against bravery or great minds or men on a mission. We’re up against greedy slugs. We’re up against little hate filled men who have been emboldened to climb out of basements, emboldened to step out from behind their computers and cell phones. These men salivate at the opportunity to live out their long-denied wishes of power and dominance, but at the same time they know themselves to be cowards and frauds.

All of this doesn’t mean our work is easy. The fascists have seized the levers of power. They have the backing of billionaires and in their ranks are people who have schemed for decades to make this day come. But from the bottom up to the leadership the far-right legions are filled with losers and cowards. This is, in no small part, what fascism is. It’s a vehicle for weak men who want to project dominance but secretly love being dominated by their leaders. We must pull their facade down around them. Every time we resist ICE in the streets we weaken them. Every time we taunt and heckle their leaders and push their agents out of our neighborhoods we show the world how spineless these cretins are.

Every day more people see the grubby, spineless fascist movement for what it is — a haven for men who wish they had been bullies in high school but never had it in them. Their movement’s supposed intellectuals are whiny dweebs like Ben Shapiro and Jordan Peterson. Their great men are pissy losers like JD Vance and Stephen Miller. At the root these men are desperate for approval, desperate for an audience, desperate to have power because they have nothing else. Never legitimize them. Never be afraid of them. Organize, resist, throw their goons out of our neighborhoods and throw these losers out of power. - JP