Fascism With a Smile🙂

How the Woke/DEI movement has brought a new form of fascism to our institutions.

In April of 2021 when Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion facilitator Kike Ojo-Thompson of the KOJO Institute was ripping into Richard Bilkszto in front of his colleagues and calling him a racist and a white supremacist for simply challenging her assertion that Canada was “a bastion of white supremacy and colonialism,” she was positively ecstatic. In referring to the incident the following week, she said with a chuckle, “I’m so lucky that we got perfect evidence, a wonderful example of resistance that you all got to bear witness to… because, I mean, it doesn’t get better than this.” She undoubtedly used this story in later meetings to drive home her point about how “systemically racist” our school systems are.

A little over two years later, after Bilkszto's reputation and career were destroyed, and after his untimely suicide last month, I doubt Kike is still laughing.

This is hardly the only example of this kind of bullying, though it’s the most extreme one I’m aware of.

Diversity. Inclusion. Equity. Who could possibly be against such wonderful human endeavors? Aren't these the very principles our nation was founded on?

Immigrants came and continue to come to this country from many diverse nations, with different cultures and different ways of looking at the world. The main draw is the promise that everyone is treated equally, that we all have the same chance to succeed. Many have proven that to be the case. Canada is a welcoming nation and inclusion is what we do here.

In spite of this, the meteoric rise of the Diversity, Inclusion and Equity (DIE) industry and its consultants have succeeded in convincing people (for the low, low price of tens of thousands of dollars per session) that Canadian employers and their employees are wholly intolerant of any sort of diversity, completely against equality, and totally opposed to inclusivity.

It's almost as if they think we're all fascists. Actually, I think they do.

Regarding a previous thing I wrote called The Silent Majority Has Become the Cowardly Majority, someone (in true DIE spirit) made this comment (I fixed the spelling mistakes):

The first thing fascists do is try to change the definition of fascism. What a shitty article.

While I appreciate this person's raw honesty, I was a little amused at his choice of words. The reason for this is because changing the definition of words is precisely what the current Woke movement has been doing for decades. This makes it ridiculously difficult to have an intelligent conversation with them because none of the words mean what you think they mean.

So let's examine the word, “fascism” a little bit.

In researching fascism, I discovered that there are many definitions of the word, but not many consistent ones. Some of these definitions actually mention that there is no universal definition. Some say it's predominantly a right wing ideology, and with good reason. Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini come to mind, and there were others as well at the time. So it's possible that those on the right do have a predisposition towards this kind of thinking for whatever reason. The thing is, none of the generally accepted descriptions of fascism are specifically left or right politically - except of course when someone names it as a “far-right ideology”. That's a lazy description because it doesn't actually mean anything.

Fascism is technically a political ideology, even though it's most common usage (in the west, at least) is to insult individuals we don't like. So, we can identify fascistic characteristics in an individual by what they do.

When definitions of words are in question, I find the easiest plan of action is to open a dictionary.

Merriam-Webster defines fascism as:

a political philosophy, movement, or regime that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition.

For the purposes of this article, I'm going to lump general "Wokeness" into DIE because it's all the same ideology.

So here is how Mirriam-Webster’s definition of fascism applies to what's going on in today's DIE movement. I'll just take these one point at a time.

1. Exalts nation and often race above the individual - DIE is all about race. Race is more important than any other aspect of human existence to these people.

2. Forcible suppression of opposition - this is self explanatory when you consider the cancellings, firings and shout-downs that have taken place at our universities (and other institutions) in recent years.

3. A tendency toward or actual exercise of strong autocratic or dictatorial control - I sure wouldn't want to see these people in a position of actual power (in government) based on how they conduct themselves in meetings.

Britannica makes these points about fascism, and I'll address each one as it relates to the Woke/DIE fascination:

•Extreme militaristic nationalism - "nationalism" would be a stand-in for whatever group you care to name, in this case Wokesters. I suppose you could ask Riley Gaines, Frances Widdowson, or any number of other speakers who've been recently cancelled or shouted down at dozens of our universities about the "militaristic" part.

•Contempt for electoral democracy - I see this group exuding nothing but contempt for what the vast majority of rational, average people think. Their condescension is exceeded only their self-righteousness.

•A belief in natural social hierarchy - in this sense they evidently believe the "natural order" is that the average straight, white male is the predator and is out to rule over them, and that they are the prey, the natural victim. So might you call that an "inverted fascism"…?

Robert Paxton has also written extensively on this topic. Here are a few of his points from The Anatomy of Fascism:

•A sense of overwhelming crisis beyond the reach of any traditional solutions - white supremacy and systemic racism would definitely apply here, and there's definitely no shortage of other crises these days as well;

•Believing that one's group is a victim - this would justify any and all behaviors against the group's enemies. Very convenient for chaotic mobs of university students and militant administrators.

•The belief that individualism and liberalism enable dangerous decadence and have a negative effect on the group - Robin DiAngelo, one of the main inspirations of this movement said, “Anything that maintains white comfort is suspect.”

•The superiority of the leader’s instincts over abstract and universal reason - by now we know that reason has no place at all in this doctrine and any arguments from this group are so abstract as to be almost impossible to argue or even understand.

• The right of the chosen people to dominate others without restraint from any kind of human or divine law, right being decided by the sole criterion of the group’s prowess within a Darwinian struggle - well, that's a bit of a mouthful, but the most obvious example that comes to mind is the inclusion of trans-women in professional sports and the assertion that their “rights” trump the rights of every other real woman in women's sports.

•Individual self-esteem is tied to the perceived greatness of the group - Paxton referred to this last one as an "enhanced sense of identity and belonging." Well, we know how important”identity” has become, don't we?

According to Shane Burley, author of Fascism Today: What It Is and How to End It, fascism “promotes the concept of innate inequality and inescapable social hierarchies between groups. Underlying this hierarchy is the idea that a person's rank in society is determined by aspects of identity that are beyond their control, such as ethnicity or gender.”

So now after all this woke-bashing, why don't we let one of the “leaders” of this movement tell her side of the story.

Robin DiAngelo, one of the foremost prophets of Woke, and the author of White Fragility, Nice Racism, Seeing Whiteness, and other such books, also came up with the Basic Tenets of Anti-racist Education.

Here are a few for your consideration. Keep in mind the militant nature of fascism and the fascist principles of: a belief in natural social hierarchy; the belief that one's group is a victim; a person's rank is determined by characteristics which they have no control over; and the belief that individualism and liberalism enable dangerous decadence and have a negative effect on the group.

• Racism is an institutionalized, multilayered, multilevel system that distributes unequal power and resources between white people and people of color, as socially identified, and disproportionately benefits whites;

• Racism must be continually identified, analyzed and challenged. No-one is ever done;

• All members of society are socialized to participate in the system of racism, albeit in varied social locations;

• All white people benefit from racism regardless of intentions;

• No-one chose to be socialized into racism so no-one is bad, but no-one is neutral.

• To not act against racism is to support racism.

• The question is not Did racism take place? but rather How did racism manifest in that situation?

• The racial status quo is comfortable for most whites. Therefore, anything that maintains white comfort is suspect;

• The racially oppressed have a more intimate insight via experiential knowledge into the system of race than their racial oppressors. However, white professors will be seen as having more legitimacy, thus positionality must be intentionally engaged.

• Resistance is a predictable reaction to anti-racist education and must be explicitly and strategically addressed.

In What is Fascism, George Orwell put it very simply:

Almost any English person would accept 'bully' as a synonym for 'Fascist'. That is about as near to a definition as this much-abused word has come.

The Woke DIE movement has sold us a form of neo-fascism disguised as diversity, equity, and inclusion, and they've done it with a big, toothy grin. And we've bought into it, in many cases simply because we're too scared to object. In this case, I would co-opt one of Robin DiAngelo’s points above and say: To not act against fascism is to support fascism. This is what we've done with the Woke/DIE doctrine because we know that if do act against it, we will immediately be branded a racist and a bigot by the bullies in that industry.

These accepted definitions of fascism that I've outlined here describe DIE and it's Woke counterpart perfectly.

• They preach "Diversity" but demand Conformity.

• They demand "Inclusion" but demonstrate Intolerance.

• They scream "Equity" yet teach Unequal treatment.

These are perfect examples of fascism in action and as I said, actions are probably the most accurate way to discern fascism. This movement is all about power, as is every other form of fascism. Their goal is to make us all sit down and shut up. The moment we do that, they've won, but as many have demonstrated, standing up and saying something gets very ugly, very quickly. Still, it's important that we do it, and the more people who do it, the more people will follow. Most folks just need to know that they’re not the only ones thinking this way, and eventually I believe we’ll see this whole house of cards come crashing down.

That will be a beautiful sight.