FASCISTS!
What Fascism is and isn’t, and who in Aotearoa New Zealand is flirting the most with Fascism
It’s currently fashionable in New Zealand for those on the putative political Left to label people they disagree with as “Fascists”. For instance, anyone who ventures to suggest that the Treaty of Waitangi does not create a “partnership” between a racially stereotyped mythical unity called “Maori” and the New Zealand Government (or perhaps non-Maori New Zealanders, no-one really knows) is exposed to being labelled by Lefties as a FASCIST! (As well, of course, as a RACIST!)
This is the Left-leaning inclination superbly parodied by the hypocritical, attention-seeking, pseudo-Leftie “Rik” – played by Rik Mayall - in the early 80s TV series The Young Ones.
Fascism can seem idiotic, but in reality is no joke at all. The first Fascist movements arose in Italy in World War I and spread in Europe. Fascism manifested itself in Germany with the rise of Adolf Hitler and his Nazis.
Fascism is difficult to define. It’s typically categorized, on the political spectrum, as a right-wing thing. But that is simplistic. The fact that Nazism is a brand of Fascism, and Hitler’s party was the Nationalist Socialist Party, is a clue to the fact that Fascism, while clearly extreme, is not necessarily on the political right. Venezuela’s former leader Hugo Chávez described himself as a Marxist (an extreme Leftie) but, by the end of his political reign, he had become an archetypal Fascist.
Features of Fascism
Authoritarianism
The principal feature of Fascism is Authoritarianism. An authoritarian political system is characterised by the centralization of government power and the dilution of democracy, democratic voting, human rights (particularly freedoms of expressions and association) and political plurality i.e., peaceful coexistence of different interests, views and lifestyles. Authoritarian leaders seek to subvert:
Rule of Law - being the impartial application of clear laws to the citizenry, regardless of an individual’s societal position or personal characteristics
Separation of Powers - being the division of the apparatus of State into three branches of government - the legislature (lawmakers), executive (running the country) and judiciary (Courts and tribunals which adjudicate on the law) – such division being designed to provide “checks and balances” that constrain abuses of power
Democratic Voting i.e., the principle that each person has one vote in elections and equal opportunity for representation in elected bodies, regardless of such things as sex, race or ethnic origin
Authoritarians are big on identifying their regime and its tactics as vital to combatting societal problems (underdevelopment, disease) and suppressing undesirables (often foreign), employing ill-defined executive powers.
Economic centralization
Fascists favour dirigiste economic policies, where the State actively directs what business activities can and cannot be performed, and what is incentivized through the public purse. Power elites control natural resources.
Violence
Fascists condone political violence that is consistent with the regime’s ideological inclinations. Violence, to the Fascist, can be positive and redemptive.
Transformation of social relations
Fascists aim to transform social relations and create a new self-determined national culture. Dissenters and those who are not otherwise part of the program are regarded as scum.
Race
Fascists fixate on race, with some races being better than others and people of certain ethnic origins being inherently undesirable and dangerous. Fascists draw on myths about race to reinforce racial stereotypes. Fascism often smells anti-Semitic.
Elitism
Fascism pretends to be populist, in an attempt to generate mass support, but is essentially elitist, based on the elite cliques’ ardent adherence to the Government’s chosen ideologies. The notion of a politically independent public service is an anathema to Fascism. Members of the conformist public service managerial class constantly guzzle the regime’s Kool-Aid.
Nationalism
Fascism is nationalistic and dedicated to radical transformation of the nation. Disciples may even look to change their country’s name, on the sly.
Cult leadership
Central to Fascism is a cult leader who promises to save the nation in the face of existential threats and sinister dark forces, with appropriate use of ubiquitous symbolism, repeated mantras (e.g., “Be Kind”), compelled obedience and State enforcement of “correct” narratives promulgated by Dear Leader.
Fantastically Fascistic!
Nothing in this Substack should be taken to suggest that anyone in recent New Zealand politics is a full-blow Fascist or advocate for Fascism. That would be as silly as Young One Rik, or as suggesting that the British left-wing Feminist and Women’s Advocate Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull (aka “Posie Parker”) cultivates and likes to associate with Neo-Nazis.
But all true liberal democrats should be wary of Fascist tendencies and temptations. So, with the above potted summary of Fascism in mind, let’s have some fun and see if we can Fascistically categorize some recent political behaviour and rhetoric.
PM Jacinda Ardern stating in Parliament “I want to send a clear message to the New Zealand public:…We will continue to be your single source of truth…Everything else you see—a grain of salt.”
Labour Minister Michael Wood describing protestors at Parliament as a “River of Filth”
New Zealand’s Police doing nothing to protect Posie Parker from being rag dolled and doused with tomato juice by Trans Activist Eli Rubashkyn at a pro-women rally at Auckland’s Albert Park in March 2023, or protect a 72-year-old woman from having her skull fractured by another Trans in a vicious unprovoked assault at the same rally
In response to a journalist’s question “So you’ve basically said…two different classes of people — if you’re vaccinated or unvaccinated. You have all these rights if you are vaccinated”, PM Ardern replying “That is what it is, yep”
The Labour Government giving $140m of public money to NZ Steel to build itself a new smelting furnace - NZ Steel being a private-sector company wholly owned by ASX-listed Australian steel producer BlueScope Steel
John Tamihere, former Labour Cabinet minister and vice-president of the Māori Party, announcing in an opinion piece in Stuff, “If we were playing Jeopardy, the answer is Māori, and the winning question is, who owns the water?” (That’s ALL fresh water in New Zealand)
Maori Party MP Rawiri Waititi publicly stating “I’m not a fan of democracy” - full marks for honesty!
The same Waititi tweeting “The cau casity of Caucasian’s and their ‘active assimilation agenda’. Pay them no attention, their archaic species in becoming more extinct as a new Aotearoa is on the rise…” – no marks for grammar!
When Australian-born journalist and Ardern critic Avi Yemini looked to travel to New Zealand in August 2022, New Zealand’s Police force desperately seeking INTERPOL’s help to keep Yemini out of New Zealand. The emails…
Labour’s now-abandoned plan to merge Television New Zealand and Radio New Zealand into a giant monolithic Government media propaganda machine. (Television New Zealand now calls itself “TVNZ”, just as Radio New Zealand now calls itself “RNZ”, because “New Zealand”, the country’s only official name, is (for “progressive” illiberals) racist and otherwise reactionary. “Aotearoa” is the sole “enlightened” name for New Zealand.
If you regard all this as misguided alarmism, just look what happened to the Italians, Germans and Venezuelans. As trite as it sounds, the price of our freedoms is indeed eternal vigilance.