Super-fascism
In her latest book, Lisa Marie Binder presents a description of the new normal.
Since 2020, many people have felt that the world around them has changed. The “new normal” is fundamentally different from what we knew until 2019. Many have vaguely labeled this new normality “fascism,” while others have analyzed its totalitarian tendencies and pointed out that this new normality corresponds to historical totalitarian models, albeit under different circumstances. In her new book, Lisa Marie Binder focuses on fascism as a concept to describe the social order that has emerged since 2020.
[This article posted on 11/14/2024 is translated from the German on the Internet, https://www.manova.news/artikel/der-super-faschismus.]
“The spirit of fascism has taken hold of us—again! With a loud clatter, it entered our reality in March 2020, which had initially seemed so pleasant. And lo and behold—it didn’t speak Italian, nor did it have a mustache.”
This is how Lisa Marie Binder begins the foreword to her new book Der Super-Faschismus (Super-Fascism), published by Massel Verlag. With this, the diagnosis of the new normal since 2020 has already been made. What many people have vaguely suspected and repeatedly articulated is confirmed by a precise analysis of what has come to pass in almost five years.
Based on the claim, which on closer inspection is completely unfounded, that there is a global threat from a virus, a social model has emerged that was previously only known from history books and was supposedly carefully examined. How could the cloak of civilization be torn apart so quickly, the facade of democracy torn down, and the horror behind it unleashed? Why did the state and its citizens march so willingly in the same direction of civilizational collapse, despite the protective mechanisms that this society had supposedly developed?
Lisa Marie Binder analyzes German democracy for this purpose and gives it a devastating assessment:
The separation of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches, which is the foundation of the rule of law and democracy, no longer exists, if it ever did.
Since 2020, ordinary legislation has been replaced by executive decrees and chancellor meetings, which bypassed parliaments to establish the rules that apply—and did so in a completely lawless space.
Chancellor’s rounds, in which the state premiers — i.e., the decision-makers of the executive branch — met informally with Chancellor Angela Merkel to determine measures and regulations against a supposed pandemic, undermined the legislature and sidelined parliament.
The executive branch was relieved of its obligation to uphold fundamental rights and ruled for years in a way that deeply infringed on the fundamental rights of individuals, rendering them ineffective. Lisa Marie Binder illustrates this with a series of selected fundamental rights, whose unlawful violation she describes in detail. Almost the entire Basic Law has been suspended since March 2020. Formally, it continued to exist, but it no longer played any role in government and official considerations. This draws an important parallel with historical examples of fascism.
The judiciary was also unwilling or unable to curb the lawless derailment. On the contrary, it supported them and protected them against opposition. For where the pronouncements of the Robert Koch Institute—and thus of an authority bound by the instructions of the Federal Ministry of Health—are regarded as the highest commandment, as the ultimate truth, no government-critical examination of the facts is to be expected. And so, in 2020, the judiciary was transformed into a weapon against criticism and opposition — another parallel to its historical models. Critical judges who really looked into the measures thoroughly and subsequently suspended them became victims of persecution themselves, making it impossible for the judiciary to question state-ordered measures at all.
Totalitarian tendencies
Before Lisa Marie Binder discusses the question of fascism, she attests to the system’s totalitarian tendencies. Within days, the German state had transformed itself into a dictatorship and ruled with all means of violence, even into the most private lives of its citizens. Opposition and criticism were violently suppressed, thereby neutralizing social forces as a whole. The new normality gave rise to unrestricted, excessive rule—the only option was to go with the flow or go under.
The author also speaks of a policing of the law. People are—and have been for some time—declared guilty solely on the basis of the possibility of endangerment or the realization of a permitted danger and are thus forced to take responsibility.
In this respect, the expansion of liability in the form of “strict liability” for the supposed purpose of combating terrorism in the 1970s was already a precursor to the Infection Protection Act, which was massively expanded in 2020, following on from the Prussian Epidemic Act. Whereas the former Epidemic Protection Act was limited to measures that could be imposed solely on sick people, this instrument was extended to healthy people. Even the Federal Epidemic Act of 1961 was still limited to restricted and local measures. From 2020 onwards, the entire country and the entire population were placed under obligation—and thus exposed to liability for non-compliance.
Due to the lack of a unified leader, the author diagnoses only totalitarian tendencies and not comprehensive totalitarianism. One could certainly argue otherwise here—for example, by pointing to the division of leadership among several so-called experts who preached the praises of totalitarianism—and could consider this differentiation to be based on a refinement of power techniques and the specialization of professions. Nevertheless, the trend is clear and the conclusion devastating. Although Lisa Marie Binder deals with totalitarianism very briefly and focuses on fascism—a focus that could also be reversed—one can only agree with the author’s conclusion.
Fascism
The author states that “evil” is inherent in every human being, as is “good.” It is a question of circumstances and conditions, as well as one’s own personality, whether one follows the call of evil or steadfastly resists it. Corona fascism has brought out the evil in most people and turned them into followers of a misanthropic system. It was not possible to participate “just a little,” because if you tested just a little, vaccinated just a little, you were already part of the destructive system.
Binder then examines the events since 2020 in light of the Duden dictionary’s definition of fascism. She bases her assessment on the view that fascism is a nationalist, anti-democratic, right-wing extremist movement or ideology organized according to the Führer principle. Although she attributes anti-democratic aspirations to the “movement of supporters of coronavirus measures” that emerged in 2020, i.e., an association of people who share the same worldview and similar interests, her examination ultimately fails due to the absence of a Führer principle and nationalism.
She notes that, on closer inspection, this movement fulfills the definition of right-wing extremism, as it rejected democratic principles, advocated strong social hierarchies, and divided people into different categories; ultimately, it was also opposed to freedom and equality. This is interesting because many classify coronavirus fanatics as left-wing extremists. Lisa Marie Binder notes that such behavior, as described above, falls more under the definition of right-wing extremism.
(However, Binder also writes:
“Nevertheless, when viewed as a whole, it seemed inappropriate to classify the movement and ideology as an ‘ideology of the extreme right’ and thus subsuming it under the term right-wing extremism.” (p. 118)
One of the decisive factors in this decision was that the criteria used by Wikipedia, which she had applied with appropriate restraint, did not meet the requirements of the examination due to their unsuitability. (p. 120 f.)
Taking into account the historical Italian fascism, she then concludes that fascism is also a totalitarian system, but goes beyond pure totalitarianism.
Fascism is characterized by an ideological, religious delusion that no longer recognizes any alternative, any idea of the world outside the ideology.
It is this delusion that leads people to act entirely in accordance with the fascist system, even when no one is controlling or monitoring them. It becomes an inner imperative for followers to act in harmony with the system. Questioning or resisting the system is thus completely impossible.
These aspects also characterize the new normal. It was driven by a delusion that could not tolerate dissent and led people to wear masks, get tested, and be vaccinated even when no one checked or directly demanded it. People were so caught up in this delusion that they could not act otherwise. The system suggested to people that they themselves agreed with all the measures that had been taken. To this end, the system tapped into people’s fundamental fear of being excluded from the community. This fear, which is linked to the fear of death, drove people to submit to the social delusion and become carriers of this system themselves.
Lisa Marie Binder then proposes a new, updated definition of fascism that lifts the phenomenon out of its purely historical context and thus generalises it. Fascism cannot be understood merely as a historical movement, as it exhibits generalizable characteristics that can be applied to phenomena of collective delusion, coupled with fanaticism and aggression, as well as a comprehensive principle of power. Binder therefore removes nationalism and the classification as “extreme right” from the definition. In this way, she highlights the general characteristics of social movements that would otherwise be completely impossible to describe.
In doing so, she reduces fascism back to its essence, to its true nature. For those who fail to recognize the essence of fascism cannot fulfill the actual mission to which the Federal Republic of Germany has committed itself, namely to prevent a repetition of the crimes of the past. And this is precisely what the events since 2020 have proven. Those who misunderstand the essence of fascism even increase the danger of its recurrence. A redefinition is therefore necessary to enable us to recognize the essence of fascism.
According to Binder, the new normality even goes beyond historical forms of fascism—not in how it manifests itself, but in its ideology. For the new normality is essentially aimed at destroying human bonds and thus at the core of humanity itself.
Binder’s achievement is to have described the new normality in its essence and placed it in the same category as other historical phenomena of mass hysteria, delusion, and fanaticism. Binder prefaced the book with words of hope. For, she asserts, where the pressure of the system becomes immeasurable, human creativity develops.
Since 2020, people have come together to seek and establish alternatives to the prevailing totalitarianism. This has led to human encounters, while the system has tried to drive people into isolation, and has laid the foundation for peace.
Since it is people who found every state and every social system, change can only come from people themselves.
And the totalitarianism of the coronavirus regime has dramatically highlighted the need for such change and forced people to take action.
Felix Feistel, born in 1992, studied law with a focus on international and European law. He worked as a journalist during his studies and has been working full-time as a freelance journalist and author since passing his state exam. He writes for manova.news, apolut.net, multipolar-magazin.de and on his own Telegram channel. Training as a trauma therapist based on identity–oriented psychotrauma theory and therapy (IoPT) broadened his understanding of the background to world events.