While Trump multiplies his warmongering declarations against Panama, Greenland, Canada or the Palestinians, chancelleries and the international media limit themselves to talking about the…tactical maneuvers of the new American president. And worse, part of the international left continues to celebrate Trump the peacemaker (!), the one who will put an end to the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Palestine. And at the same time, while Elon Musk is multiplying initiatives of all kinds in favor of the extreme hard right, neo-fascist or not, all over the world, the Western media and governments are content to talk about his…populism while wondering “who does Elon Musk think he is”…
Clearly, there’s nothing new under the sun of our liberal do-gooders and other free-market enthusiasts: all these reactions are strongly reminiscent of the reactions of most Western media and governments to Mussolini and Hitler in the ’20s and ’30s. The same blindness to the impending catastrophe, and worse, the same miraculous conversion to the ultra-radical solutions proposed by these charismatic “populists” and “sovereigntists”. As when, for example, the international business press, which mocked Argentina’s new president only a year ago, is now showering him with rave reviews, even presenting him as a model for Western leaders! And all this at a time when many of our neoliberal rulers are discovering themselves to be…libertarians overnight!
So far be it from us to think that Trump or Musk don’t mean exactly what they say. Or that they’ll “mellow out” once they’re in charge and faced with the “complexity” of the problems of our time. All this wishful thinking, currently offered as “analyses” of the situation by our experts and other “political scientists”, is the same, sometimes word for word (!), as that uttered by our leaders and our media in the ’30s. And they do nothing but sow confusion, leaving those from below helpless and powerless in the face of the catastrophe brewing against them…
Yes, Musk and Trump are fully aware of what they promise to do, because their projects and actions correspond to their desires and above all to very material realities. Musk’s – and to a certain extent Trump’s – predilection for the far right and neo-fascists can be explained by the fact that the precondition for the triumph of his libertarianism (which abhors even the European Union’s too timid limits on capitalist greed) is to crush any union movement and atomize workers. In fact, neither Trump nor Musk make any secret of their desire to crush workers. For example, last August, during their “debate” broadcast live on X, they had fun celebrating the cases of workers who had been fired by Musk as soon as they went on strike. And it was exactly against their stance in favor of criminalizing the right to strike, that the powerful auto workers’ union (UAW) filed a complaint against them accusing them of “attempting to intimidate and threaten” workers. As union leader Shawn Fain put it, “Both Trump and Musk want working-class people to sit down and shut up, and they laugh about it openly. It’s disgusting, illegal and totally predictable from these two clowns.”…
So, to break up the workers’ movement, nothing is more experienced, more determined and more organized than the far-right, which is also on the rise. Here, we can’t just talk about elective affinities. In fact, we’re already witnessing a convergence that could very well soon lead to the junction of the extreme hard right around the world with the new-look libertarians represented by Musk, Milei and perhaps Trump himself, if he completes his abandonment of neoliberalism. Such a development would be catastrophic for humanity, however, as it would give wings to a far-right that is even more aggressive and openly nostalgic for its fascist ancestors, just as it is becoming the leading political force almost everywhere in Europe and the world.
In fact, it has to be said that this junction of libertarians with the far right and other nostalgic fascists is greatly facilitated by the abandonment by the new-style libertarians Musk, Milei and their friends of both the visceral anti-statism and the defense of individual rights that characterized traditional libertarianism. And so we see Musk and his libertarian acolytes around the world not only embracing, but even championing, the traditional racist, reactionary and obscurantist theories and prejudices of the neo-fascist hard right! (1) The result is that an ever-growing part of the global far right is now abandoning its traditional statism to embrace Musk-style libertarianism, while the latter is abandoning its traditional defense of individual rights to adopt the violently anti-socialist, warmongering, conspiracy-mongering, racist, misogynist, anti-LGBT, anti-migrant, anti-youth, anti-ecological, and climate-negationist theories and behaviors of the hard and neo-fascist far right. It is on this solid foundation of converging, if not common, “values” and interests that the global far right could merge with the triumphant libertarianism of Musk and Milei,(2) now closely followed by Trump. A fusion that would then give birth to a monster whose destructive power could well surpass anything known in the last century…
Here, then, is the answer to a question that seems to be much on the minds of the media and fascism experts of late: Yes, Musk is indeed a fascist, albeit a new kind of fascism. Just as his illustrious ancestor Henry Ford was a pure-blooded fascist: he too was a carmaker, a great innovator of capitalism in his time, a billionaire and an emblematic figure of triumphant American capitalism. This Henry Ford who shares with Elon Musk the same admiration for two very sulphurous German politicians: the first for Adolphe Hitler and the second for the neo-fascist AFD President Alice Weidel. That Henry Ford whose portrait still hung above Hitler’s armchair in his office, because Ford had “discovered” and financed Hitler before anyone else, and his radical anti-Semitism (four volumes of writings in his own hand!) had inspired and guided him like no other. By the way, Musk is currently only following the example of Nazi Henry Ford when he breaks strikes and attacks workers’ unions. The only difference between the two is that Ford had his own army of 3,000 strike-breakers, whereas Musk has none (yet?) and relies on private militias…
Our conclusion can only be provisional, as we’re still at the very beginning of this nightmarish story. However, we can already say that we must not repeat the mistake made by our ancestors in the ’30s, and that we must take Trump’s and Musk’s words and threats very seriously, and urgently prepare to block them. Moreover, the national defense needs currently invoked by Trump, when he does not rule out the use of force to attack Panama, Greenland or Canada, is imperceptibly reminiscent of the need for “lebensraum” (living space) that Hitler invoked in his time, when he set Europe and the whole world on fire…
Notes
1. Trump and Musk’s predilection for the very, very hard right-wing and downright neo-fascist is also illustrated by the choice of guests at Trump’s January 20 inauguration ceremony in Washington. For example, there will be only one French guest, who obviously is not be President Macron, or even Marine Le Pen, obviously considered too moderate. The only guest is…Eric Zemmour! Quite a program…
2. See also The Fascist Threat Becomes Clearer With Milei’s Call for a Brown International: https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-fascist-threat-becomes-clearer-with-mileis-call-for-a-brown-international/
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