I remember various conversations around the topic of the Nazi’s and WWII, when inevitably someone would say “That could never happen here”, and everyone would sagely nod their heads. I never thought that was true, and other’s confidence that “it couldn’t happen here” made me extremely nervous. My personal experience showed me that we very well could “go there.” I came from a “despicable group” (the very poor), and from a questionable group (foster kid removed from parents). I had experienced the unkind and inhuman juvenile justice system and child protective services. I had been isolated from other kids by parents who did not want to risk having their children exposed to undesirable influences (me). I had early and continuous experience with being the “other” and that told me that the gulf between us and them was ripe for all kinds of problems.

As I studied more, experienced more, and learned more, I found that there is a very strong authoritarian streak is this land that supposedly values and succors the individual and individuality. Whether we look at the patriarchy of the ‘traditional’ take on Christianity (God is the head of man and man is the head of woman) that is strongly reflected across society, or the privilege of whiteness that is enforced by racism both personal and structural, or the hypocrisy of equality in an economic system that heavily advantages those who can acquire great wealth (legally or illegally), a high enforcement of conformity and bending to authority is central to the value structure. The culture of the U.S. leans much more heavily towards authoritarian than egalitarian. This has been even further reinforced by making egalitarianism anathema through decades of indoctrination against socialism. Can it be any surprise that we are avalanching into fascism when the skids have already been culturally as well as politically and economically greased?