Immigrants, Socialists, and Communists, Oh My!
The language of fascists
From a concentration camp-like detention center for immigrants in the Florida Everglades, the president suggested that Zorhan Mamdani, the controversial Democratic nominee for New York mayor, should have his citizenship revoked. “We don’t need a communist in this country, but if we have one, I’m going to be watching over him very carefully on behalf of the nation,” said our Chief Executive.
The statement reminded me of something the Secretary of Homeland Security said as the administration federalized the California National Guard and garrisoned U.S. Marines in Los Angeles. She said, “We are not going away. We are staying here to liberate the city from the socialist and the burdensome leadership that this governor and this mayor have placed on this country.”
The administration is integrating the terms communist and socialist in their rhetoric regarding immigrants. These terms are pejorative in the context of American politics, especially among conservatives—recall the Red Scare—even though there seems to be a broad and fundamental misunderstanding about the actual definitions of communism and socialism.
Hitler often equated communism and socialism with the concept of foreignness. Historian Laurence Rees explains in The Nazi Mind, Twelve Warnings from History how Hitler worked to frame Jews as foreign in Germany, and referencing Mein Kampf, Rees writes “A particular focus of the work was the false link Hitler made once again between the Jews and Bolshevism, the political system he most despised.”
Today in the United States, by using the terms communist and socialist to demonize foreignness, the administration is drawing tactics right out of Mein Kampf.
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I've seen a lot of angry responses on the right that phrases like "Punch NAZIs" are inciting violence against MAGA. Seems like an admission of guilt to me. (Note: I didn't like that violent rhetoric even when the Brad Pitt movie came out, but responding to generic NAZI rhetoric defensively seems telling to me).