No, Don't Platform Fascist Poets
Over at
's Lit Mag News, a curious conversation is going on about whether it's permissible for a publisher to refuse to publish an author (or in this case, roll back a previous offer of publication) on the grounds that the author has had work published extensively in "fascist-adjacent" publications and appeared on far-right podcasts. I realized that most people have no idea what "fascist-adjacent" means, or why this question is actually an urgent one for all of us to consider right now, in 2023.While many people are aware that fascism has had an enormous resurgence around the world in the past decade, including the US, most are not familiar with the way that fascists and white nationalists try to blend in with other, blander political actors as a way of gaining credibility for their beliefs. In other words, they try to normalize themselves by surrounding themselves with less toxic players: "apolitical" artists, mainstream conservatives, or even liberals or leftists. They also regularly soft-pedal their own beliefs when speaking to the media: for example, Richard Spencer sometimes claims not to be anti-Semitic (even as there are reams of evidence of him saying Jews are evil and harmful to the world), and other white supremacists sometimes claim they don't believe white people are better, just different, and that "the races are happier separated."
Quillette is one magazine that deliberately launders the reputations of open fascists and racists. It publishes numerous articles with false and destructive "race science" putting forth the slander that African-Americans are unintelligent and prone to criminality. But it tries to give such pieces cover by publishing them along with articles by centrists like Cass Sunstein and moderate feminists like Meghan Daum.
Compact magazine, which was referenced in Lit Mag News, has a similar mission. It runs articles by the open fascist Nick Land, founder of the so-called Dark Enlightenment, who believes that democracy is incompatible with freedom, that all governments should be authoritarian, and that "racial degeneration" has harmed our society. In fact, Compact seems extraordinarily influenced by Land — one of its four editors, Nina Power, is devoted to the Dark Enlightenment. The magazine's founder, Sohrab Ahmari, and contributing editor Adrian Vermeule, are both devoted to a different fascist philosophy, that says the United States should be ruled by a Catholic theocratic hierarchy, rather than democratic values. But Compact attempts to woo and confuse potential readers by also occasionally publishing Marxists like Slavoj Zizek and Edwin Aponte. The fact that writers like these two are published does not make Compact any less a fascist project — they are there as window dressing, or more accurately, as leftists who enjoy entertaining fascist ideas and incorporating them into their own belief systems. (Aponte finally left the magazine last year.)
All this is why it's perfectly legitimate to decline to publish a writer who has made the decision to write three articles for Compact and appear on the magazine's podcast along with far-right figures, and on a separate podcast with Power. Trump's election and his time in power made fascist beliefs and practices palatable to the Republican Party, and to many, many Americans. We will have the fight of our lives ensuring that fascists do not irrevocably change the system of governance in the United States. It is just fine — in fact, a good idea — not to further the influence of those who normalize fascists by appearing repeatedly in their publications and podcasts. It's time to stop normalizing fascism. Appearing in fascist publications is an excellent reason not to publish an author.
For decades I've cautioned friends on the left not to describe everyone on the right as fascist - like the boy who cried wolf. But now, for the first time in my lifetime we have a genuine, growing fascist threat. This is no joke and this is not a drill. I always wondered how the Germans could have just let it happen, and watching the early stages in our own country is like a nightmare -- the kind where you keep wanting to wake up but know you can't. Listening to people I know, who used to be decent (even if politically wrong in my view) justify banning books or killing unarmed protesters or ripping immigrant children from their families or supporting bombastic liars who defile even their own previous held values -- it's chilling, even terrifying. People who flirt with fascist ideas or publications should be denounced, not 'tolerated.'
Such such a good article.
“We will have the fight of our lives ensuring that fascists do not irrevocably change the system of governance in the United States.”
This is exactly what will happen if Trump wins again. I’m afraid that these indictments have occurred too late to keep him out of office. And it has galvanized his supporters. Let the fight of our lives begin!