As a writer I was struck by how well-written it was — by a staffer or two no doubt. When running for office, candidates can employ good writers able to state large truths clearly and elegantly. But once in office, imperial war mongers must employ hacks to spin elaborate confabulations to conceal even small amounts of truth.
Nukes were first used on Japan allegedly to defeat fascism there (but really to warn the communist USSR that we had two different kinds ready and waiting to use on them). Then Nazi rocket scientists and Japanese biological warfare experts were whisked away to the U.S. to found NASA and work for the Pentagon.
The Nuremberg show trials helped goad the United Nations into declaring the final European settler colonial project as Zionists were given Palestine.
Italian partisans fighting fascism in 1945
I’m reminded of something my friend told me her father said about fighting in Europe with the partisans. Just as they had apparently defeated fascism, he said, the Zionists betrayed the socialist revolution and instead went for the land grab that is Israel.
Weaponizing antisemitism confused a lot of people, because the Nazis were emblematic of antisemitism taken to its murderous Final Solution. Generations of Jewish people around the globe were confused by slogans like “a land without a people for a people without a land.”
But as the steadfast resistance of the Arab Palestinian generations denied Zionists their victory, technology ushered in real-time reporting from citizens watching their loved ones blown apart by the Israeli military and beset by pogroms conducted by violent settler militias.
Videos of gangs beating up on lone Palestinians is extremely reminiscent of depictions of Nazi violence against Jews in Europe, at least for this old history major. Sometimes the victims are Orthodox Jews in traditional clothing and ear locks, because they, too, oppose Zionism.
Young Jews aren’t buying it. That’s why police departments in the U.S. and Europe are beating the crap out of university students protesting the ongoing genocide in Palestine. Often at the invitation of university officials. That’s also why universities came back strong this fall with attacks on student freedom of speech and assembly. It’s the fascist playbook, is it not?
Other educators are busy “partnering” with war profiteers who now infest colleges and even high schools and middle schools. These are often presented as exciting STEM initiatives that invite youngsters to admire robotic “dog” weapon systems, or thermal imaging gadgets used to locate warm human bodies to murder.
Fascist leader of Italy Mussolini thought this sort of thing ought to be called “corporatism” i.e. the marriage of state and business interests. Neoliberals in the U.S. like to call it “public-private partnership.” But fascism is much more to the point and it fits so much better in headlines.
Controlling information is a key element for fascism to continue succeeding. Silicon Valley’s social media products exist for this precise reason, with accounts going dark all over Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Even TikTok has now banned RT and Sputnik accounts after the U.S. engineered a takeover if they wanted to be able to operate in the U.S. The EU is on board and apparently so is the UN.
So I conclude that, though they may have pretended to lose, fascists actually won WWII. And more significantly, they’re now poised on the brink of a life ending WWIII with nukes all round.
In the words of the great WWII film Underground (Podzemlje), f the motherf’ing fascists.
Lisa Savage obtained an undergraduate degree from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, in May 1977. She received a graduate degree from the University of Southern Maine, Portland/Gorham, in May 1997. Her professional experience includes working as a teacher in Maine public schools for 25 years. She earned a National Board Professional Teacher Certification and was a member of the Maine Education Association. Savage worked as a small business owner/operator from 1988 to 1995 when she enrolled in graduate school to become a teacher. In 2020 she ran for election to the U.S. Senate to represent Maine.