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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 15th, 2023

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  • To clarify, he was absolutely racist with really reactionary views. He wasn’t a Nazi.

    I’m not defending him, but I also think it’s worth being clear about who was and wasn’t a Nazi when discussing those alive during the Nazi Party.

    For anyone curious, this letter (sorry for linking that site on lemmy, best source i could find) has him discussing Hitler in 1933. It’s far more positive than I’d ever defend, but it’s also pretty clear he’s not a Nazi. He saw Nazism as the lesser of two evils compared to Bolshevism. I think that’s a fucking bad take, but I don’t think someone who says

    “Still—don’t get my wrong. I’m not saying that Schön[e] Adolf is anything more than a lesser evil… When the Germans can get another leader, & emerge from the present period of arbitrary fanaticism, his usefulness will be over.”

    is a Nazi. He was just a good ol’ New England reactionary racist.

    This video essay also has some really great insight into discussing the reactionary nature of Lovecraft from a leftist standpoint while still recognizing his literary contributions.


  • Fascism is notoriously difficult to define. There’s a huge amount of contention on it among historians, but one definition I like is Rodger Griffin’s. In his definition the core ideology of fascism is

    (i) the rebirth myth

    (ii) populist ultra-nationalism

    (iii) the myth of decadence

    I think the MAGA movement pretty transparently meets all 3. The rebirth myth is literally in its name, the movement is pretty openly populist and ultra-nationalist, and decadence is how they describe their enemies (e.g. their rhetoric around trans and queer folk).