How to Actually Fight Fascism

I’m seeing a narrative right now, it’s a narrative about how to fight fascism, how to beat the alt-right.

Here’s the problem — it’s mostly a recommendation to do more of the same. I will lay out exactly why I believe this approach is doomed to failure, and what might have more success.

As identity politics rose in the public eye so did the alt-right. The two are two sides of a coin, and they feed each other. The alt-right uses the kind of division created by the particular brand of leftism that uses identity politics as a recruiting tool (disclaimer: I spent a few years identifying as an MRA before I smartened up, there is no question that some of these methods were used on me, effectively).

Let’s start with division. At it’s most basic fascism requires you to not view the people you are attempting to oppress as people. You have to other them. The current system of identity politics is doing that for the alt-right, without them ever having to raise a finger. A recent anti-fascist article I read talked about how the alt-right recruits people from their mother's basements. So, if you are say a white male who has trouble with social interaction, plays video games, and is involved in technology, how do you probably feel after reading this? All of a sudden you know that you aren’t welcome in that version of the left, no chance. Well, they don’t want me, what is the other group saying?

Even widely accepted terms like POC (people of colour) are divisive, inherently. It’s othering white people — yeah, white people are the dominant group in society, at least in certain parts of the world, but that doesn’t mean creating a division is helpful. See, just being in this position of power doesn’t erase an individuals feelings, wants, desires, etc. and, to be clear, one thing the alt-right is beating the hell out of us in is treating white males like individuals. They may be treating anyone not white as a monolith, but they are without question winning hearts and minds of white people by treating them as people. So, we have a movement on the one hand that looks at this particular skin colour and judges the owner base on it, and another movement that looks at that particular skin colour and judges the owner based on it. For someone who is fragile, who is hurting, the movement that isn’t rejecting me is clearly to…