Guns and Fascist Contradictions

In my last post I attempted to build a working definition for Fascism in America using Umberto Eco's famous essay on Ur-Fascism. One of the main tenets of eternal fascism is the toleration of it's own contradictions while being intolerant of everything else. For a practical demonstration we need look no further than the subject of guns. Firearms are a symbol for American Fascists, not only for the cult of everyday heroism that is a feature identified by Eco, but the specifically American cult of rugged individualism, frontier justice, anti-statism, and identity as insiders.

Owning as many firearms as possible and making sure they are as powerful as possible is part of the identity and uniform of the American Fascist. Bob Altemeyer's research has suggested that the Right-Wing Authoritarian Follower personality so often found in the American Fascist is profoundly aggressive, but qualifies that aggression as needing to be sanctioned by an authority figure. Unless the RWA feels overwhelmingly superior to his enemy, has overwhelming numerical superiority, or can aggress against an enemy while remaining safely out of reach he will act cowardly. While figures that (somehow) maintain a position of respected authority to RWAs like Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly never fail to send messages of hate and coded appeals to violence among their followers it is rare that an American fascist actually acts out aggression against the many scapegoats in the larger society. Instances of gun violence are getting more and more common however but blackshirt gang violence against the many perceived enemies is still very rare. This seems to be due to the individualism so many RWAs cherish, they may join together in two minutes' hate sessions on the internet and occasionally at tea party rallies but organized violence is still over the horizon.

So it may be said that an American blackshirt is armed to the teeth with guns but aside from some military surplus largely lacks a uniform dictated by some ultimate authority. Their modus operandi is the lone wolf terror attack with a gun. This is in stark contrast to the European fascist of the 1920s and 1930s, who usually wore a uniform with some symbol and attacked in groups in hand to hand combat. But as the fascist party in America has mainstream status, the most vicious attacks are made through legislation and public policy. This does not mean that American fascists embrace the political process without reservation however, and their rallying cry has been for some time "from my cold, dead hands." The gun dealer has become a pseudo-priest for the movement, his place of business is holy ground, and traveling gun shows are akin to the tent revival sessions of yesteryear.

The rhetoric surrounding guns from this movement has taken on strongly fascist overtones as well. Buying a gun is the price of admission to their club as long as you have the right attitude. I have a gun, therefore I have freedom. I am a hero. I can defend my family and my people from all the enemies out there. I can even defend my nation from the enemies abroad. On this point the fascist gets caught up in how unworthy most of his fellow Americans are of his heroism and the conversation usually turns to attacking someone who questioned the wisdom of allowing such violent men to own so many weapons. Point Seven in Eco's essay explains that the white, christian nation in American can only be defined by it's enemies. This dovetails nicely into the next section, namely the obsession with a plot by the enemies to implement gun control, a plot to strip them of that which both defines and empowers the American Fascist. In point eleven Eco links the cult of heroism guns provide with the cult of death, which helps explain why the American gun enthusiast is not swayed by arguments about the victims of gun violence. Each dead child is a hero to the movement.