History does repeat itself. If especially economic times are tough, a non-irrelevant portion of people does not react rationally, and choose the right person, the right movement, the right party – one, which would best address their needs, one which would help their situation, one they would actually profit from.
No – people get locked in by their economic fears: their heart, their emotions get the better of them. They call out for a strongman, who is imagined to solve their problems in one fell swoop. People start to forget, that these strongmen never have their best interests at heart – in history, there have always been the narcissistic actors, who will say and promise anything, without any regard for truth or follow-through, just to get people’s attention, win their heart, and in consequence, their vote.
Our economic system – especially the financial – is preying on the weak, the desperate, the poor. Now single man alone can fix this issue – especially not overnight. Capitalism, competition for money, which in turn comes down to competition for survival – has so perpetrated our society and our minds, at every level, so that a substantial portion of people become so desperate to make ends meet, to pay the bills, they do not have the time nor the energy to rise up and organize into one voice that says: “Enough!” Instead, economic competition brings out the worst in us: it lets us forget the best traits of humanity, like empathy, compassion, cooperation, and atomizes us into drones, who are consumed with fear of not receiving enough, not getting their share – often enough a share so small, it is literally impossible to survive on. This is how capitalism owns people: it plays into our worst fear, the fear of death, by making everyone have to fight for their piece of the cake. The system is so rigged, it manipulates the poor, even blames them for their situation – when the corporate ladder does not extend to their neighborhood, when they don’t even get the chance to participate in a system that is diametrically opposed to their needs anyway.
Millions of people perished through the pandemic – millions lost their jobs, their livelihoods, their basis for their very survival. During all of this, the top one percent dramatically increased its wealth – sometimes even doubling or tripling their income rate. If one ever needs an example or proof for a deeply flawed economic system, then this should be enough.
This – the point of crisis, the calamity, the deepest despair – is the soil on which the strongmen begin to flourish. Lying their way into people’s minds and hearts, the promise miraculous turnaround – by blaming people’s desperate situations on issues which have virtually nothing to do with their problems. If only the illegal aliens are stopped at the border, everything will get better! If only the deep state is eradicated, your problems will disappear! If only I was elected, the world will be a better place for you, overnight!
The deeper the crisis, the more fear is going around, the better for strongman. People are forced to think and act conservatively regarding their financials, their living situation, and superficially, conservative talking points seem to match. Any fascism, especially the one in Nazi-Germany, had an extremely conservative heart and soul: Volksgemeinschaft, the union of people in one country, is usually its first instance. America first is just the latest example – conservative ideals often boil down to valuing personal material possessions over humanity, compassion and cooperation – a soul- and heartless attitude. It can best grow and prevail when people are thrown into crisis, are fearful of their own survival, and hence become fearful of each other: the next person might not be the one who helps me, but the one taking away my possessions, limit my income, take away my job. And no great conspiracy is necessary to get this cycle spinning, starting with fear and even hatred of the other, whatever that may be, from LGBTQ people to illegal aliens – and ending with their expulsion or even termination. Strongman can only thrive if there is enough desperation going around: which in turn only becomes possible if an economic system is in place that promotes personal greed, by inciting fear of losing material basis for living or material possession of any kind.
Thus, strongman grow organically out of economic crisis and despair. Hitler would have never gotten to power, if the 1920’s world economic crisis had not happened: Hitler had repeatedly warned and spoken out against dependence on the financial system, supposedly run by malignent Jews: nobody listened to him until the world economic crisis came along. Suddenly, in the blink of an eye, historically speaking, Hitler gained huge popularity after people thought they had realized he was right. Hitler then kept on tricking the German population into believing his other nonsense – that one specific group of people was responsible for their economic suffering.
Today, it is unspeakably sad to see the same pattern repeat. Trumps closest ally, Steven Bannon, has the audacity not to even try to conceal his ill will towards the people: he wants to break America, and then rebuild it in his image. That god-like hybris, that malicious addiction to self-importance, even surpasses the dangers that Trump poses to the US and the world: he is just a babbling, narcissistic idiot, who had the silverest of spoons growing up, who learned to despise people not better of, deluding himself (and the world) into believing he deserved his money and his power, when all he ever did was absolutely nothing: being born was not his achievement, and after having run into the ground virtually any economic endeavor he ever lead or was part of, he still manages to delude himself and people that he is a winner.
To any half-decent, or half-intelligent person, Trump is just a narcissistic crybaby, which ought to be ignored. The likes of Steve Bannon we need to be much more worried about: the people who operate in Trumps shadow, who have both some intelligence (in contrast to Trump), and truly malicious intentions.
In most cases, fascist movements run themselves into the ground, because they consist of narcissists who lack the ability to work together, to put their own ego behind and compromise for the sake of a common cause. Fascists usually lack the ability to cooperate – so in most instances, their movements tear themselves apart. Yet, it is a dangerous combination, when someone addicted to attention and spotlight (i.e. Trump), who does not mind to ruin the country as long as he is the one governing the ruins, who casts a shadow big enough so that other people – smarter and more capable – have the leeway, by having Trump get all the attention, keeping the spotlight off them – get the chance to do real damage; to democracy, to the social fabric that keeps society together, all in an strategic effort to one day reach ultimate, and unrestricted power, both in time and scope: divide et impera. Tear society down, divide it enough, weaken the pillars of the current (semi-)democratic system, until the situation is volatile enough, the democratic basis drained away enough, so you can rise and rule – to rebuild a completely different society from the ashes of the previous, and a new political system, that guarantees you unrestricted and never-ending rule.
Let us hope, that people see through the charade, see what danger lies ahead. Democracy can survive idiots on its top: democracy has survived one Trump term, after all. But democracy may not survive the currently ongoing concerted effort – materializing in awful instances like Project 2025 – that successively and systematically try to eat away the foundations of democracy in the US, led by people far more dangerous than Trump, because they actually have a few working brain cells, and are not as divorced from reality, in short: are not mere buffoons. They accept, and are happy with Trump focusing all attention on him – they are happy with working in the shadows, because the shadows make their work much easier – and hence much more dangerous, because of most of it, we will not hear or see in the evening news, until it is too late.