At first, inviting them on to chatshows and the pages of tabloids seemed like mischievous fun. But now they are glorying in the limelight – and hard to destroy
Fascism is interesting in its “creep” stage, where you have a hint of what you’re looking at, but you’re not quite sure, and you keep turning it over for historical marks, like the Antiques Roadshow of the Coming Apocalypse. But not in its “march” stage, when antisemitism and Islamophobia are in the open, misogyny is basking under the studio lights, and white nationalism takes its democratically mandated place in ancient parliaments. Intellectually speaking, that’s very boring; the arguments are tedious, even if emotionally it’s as epic and engrossing as watching your house burn down.
Don’t beat yourself up, this is timeless: Marie Curie would not win a debate with Steve Bannon about whether she should carry on doing science or go back to the kitchen; Sigmund Freud would not win an argument against Nigel Farage over whether the psychoanalyst was exerting undue influence because HE WAS A JEW. Authoritarians delight in the weakness of their case; if they can be that wrong, and still prevail, they get to prove how strong they are and besmirch the principles of truth and respect at the same time, so it’s win-win.
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