sleepyleaf

joined 5 months ago
[–] sleepyleaf@lemmy.world 7 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago)

This is a bad idea for a ton of reasons, but the most important, I think, is that you are not immune to propaganda.

Look, if you join a fascist organization (of any sort - I'm not specifying any particular government or non-government organization here), by the time you finish your probationary period and have enough authority to take independent action, you're going to have spent months doing horrible things to innocent people. You're going to be surrounded by other fascists telling you those horrible things are right and just. You're going to be reading fascist propaganda everyday. You're going to have to repeat that propaganda and pretend you agree with it. And you'll probably be isolated from your friends and family who would tell you otherwise because, you know, you joined a fascist organization - except for the friends and family who support fascism and will be telling you what a great thing you're doing.

And so, instead of acting against the organization, you rationalize to yourself why it's not time to act yet. Or it's not bad enough to act. Or you have to keep your powder dry to do more damage later. Or you can't afford to act because your rent is due and you have a family to support. And meanwhile a steady diet of fascist propaganda moves you closer and closer to genuinely becoming a fascist.

Fighting from within is for people who are already stuck in an organization that changed around them - or people drafted into the organization who have no other choice. Pretending to be a fascist, as 4chan and gamergate showed us, is a very effective way to become one.