This author wrote How Facism Works and How Propaganda Works. He’s great at explaining things. This month’s book of the month is Erasing History by Jason Stanley
The Goodreads website is a great place to learn about books. You can read the reviews and comments to learn what other people are saying about the books. Here’s their page on Erasing History. Here’s a sample review from Goodreads user Faith;
“Whether we call them fascist or not, there is widespread agreement that the social and political movements we are witnessing today employ many of the same political tactics and rhetorical techniques that past fascist movements have — conjuring of violent vigilante mobs to threaten those who oppose them, stacking courts with loyalists to a leader or a party, directing hatred against immigrants and LGBTQ citizens, dismantling, reproductive rights, and using education to indoctrinate the young in a narrative of national greatness, rooted in a glorious past.”
“… fascist education works by strategically erasing accounts of history and current events that include a diversity of perspectives, narrowing the scope of what can be taught until students are presented with a single viewpoint, which is formulated specifically to justify and perpetuate a hierarchy value between groups. This narrowing is inconsistent with multi-racial democracy, antithetical to egalitarianism, and carries a possibility of conjuring mass violence.”
“Besides lying, those in power can ban concepts necessary for understanding the world we inhabit, such as structural racism, and institutions, such as the Gulag. They can ban concepts such as human rights or the equality of humankind. They can ban inquiry into the human caused climate change. Those lacking such essential concepts, or knowledge of essential facts, will respond differently to events. Unaware of the range of explanations and options, they can easily be manipulated.”
You would have to be intentionally blinkered to avoid recognizing the fascist-leaning elements in the current United States. Such elements are also alive and well in other parts of the world. This book helps identify the methods employed by fascists. Fascism thrives on ignorance and misinformation. Knowledge is power. This is a useful book. Although short, it is well researched and covers a lot of history. I listened to the audiobook narrated by Dion Graham. He did an excellent job as always.
Another cool thing about Goodreads is that you can click to the author’s profile and find a lot of quotes; things they said that people chose to highlight while reading. Here are some of Jason’s:
“Fascist politics invokes a pure mythic past tragically destroyed. Depending on how the nation is defined, the mythic past may be religiously pure, racially pure, culturally pure, or all of the above.”
― Jason Stanley, How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them
“Pratap Mehta wrote: The targeting of enemies—minorities, liberals, secularists, leftists, urban naxals, intellectuals, assorted protestors—is not driven by a calculus of ordinary politics….When you legitimize yourself entirely by inventing enemies, the truth ceases to matter, normal restraints of civilization and decency cease to matter, the checks and balances of normal politics cease to matter.*2”
― Jason Stanley, How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them
Fascist education revolves around five key themes:
- National greatness: The nation is portrayed as uniquely powerful, exceptional, and superior to all others.
- National purity: A myth of racial, ethnic, or cultural homogeneity is promoted, erasing the contributions of minority groups.
- National innocence: Historical wrongdoings, including war crimes or oppression, are denied or reframed as necessary sacrifices.
- Strict gender roles: Women are confined to traditional roles, while LGBTQ+ identities are demonized or erased.
- Vilification of the left: Political opponents, especially labor movements and progressive activists, are cast as enemies of the state.
There are two main strategies authoritarian movements use to control education:
- Fascist Education: Training for Mobilization Fascist education is not passive. It actively prepares citizens for conflict. Like propaganda, it instills a sense of grievance, resentment, and righteous anger. The goal is to convince people that they must defend their leader, ethnic group, or religion against fabricated threats. It primes them to accept and even commit violence in the name of protecting their nation.
- Anti-Education: Training for Apathy While fascist education fuels action, anti-education does the opposite. It fosters passivity and division. This approach doesn’t just erase history; it ensures that citizens are so disconnected from each other that they cannot unite to challenge authority. By stripping education of meaningful content and fracturing people into isolated groups, anti-education leaves the public disengaged. Without a shared understanding of history or civic responsibility, the population becomes apathetic, leaving power in the hands of autocrats, plutocrats, or theocrats.