Fascism Litmus Test

As of writing, it has been 164 days since October 7th. In this time, we’ve seen an alarming rise in antisemitism, an open genocide…
And an upsetting amount of people displaying how easy it is to sympathize with fascism.

As long as I’ve been politically aware, Israel has been… a complicated topic. On the one hand, yes there’s a lot of antisemitism in the world even today, and it’s good to have a country where people can go that’s made so that they don’t have to worry about it. On the other hand, well… it’s not like that land was free for use.

In modern Israel, there’s still rampant prejudice against Palestinians today. In fact, a lot of people from Israel don’t see Palestinians as being as human as they are (and vice versa,) which is… a troubling reflection of the values instilled by their culture. It’s how so much violence is justified. Palestinian families are kicked out of their houses to make room for new settlers to move in, they get put in open-air concentration camps where a population of 2 million is forced to live in an area only 3 times bigger than Vancouver…

And oh yeah, the genocide.

Genocide is not a hard thing to hate, nor is it difficult to denounce. Here, watch: Genocide is bad. That took three words. Three words to get across a very basic thought that should be basically universally agreed upon, right? Well, apparently it’s not quite so simple. A lot of people think that if the victims of the genocide are part of a group they don’t like, then it’s fine! At least, apparently that’s what people think. The alternative is they still think genocide is bad, they just don’t think this is a genocide, which OH HEY IS THAT ONE OF THE KEY DEFENCES BEING USED FOR THIS GENOCIDE WOW WHAT A WILD COINCIDENCE.

Saying that this genocide in particular is bad will frequently result in a few things:

1. Getting called anti-semitic (even if you’re Jewish)
2. Being called a Nazi (because apparently denouncing the actions taken by a Jewish country is the same as believing they should be subjected to a genocide.)
3. Having a lot of people explain why this “isn’t actually a genocide.”

Now, how anyone can defend this is beyond me, the IDF has been proudly posting pictures of their actions, and the conditions in Gaza are very well documented.

What this shows is actually a bit of a quickie fascism litmus test. How susceptible are you to fascist ideals and talking points? How willing are you to turn a blind eye to atrocities? How much will you defend them?

Now, I’m not saying everyone who’s against Israel is passing the test. Far from it. In fact, a lot of people are against Israel because they were already far-right in their leanings. What I am saying is that anyone who can find any way to justify a genocide in their mind, whether it be by saying that “they deserve it”, claiming it isn’t a genocide, or whatever else, is quite obviously susceptible to fascist sympathies.

I don’t care if a genocide is against pedophiles, it’s still genocide, and so I’m still against it unconditionally. Having any way to justify it in your mind means that if a fascist regime took over, if they said the right things to you, you wouldn’t care.

You are not immune to propaganda. Don’t forget that.