Tag Archives: Fascism

Sebald’s “Austerlitz” and Fascism’s Rise

By Robin Bates | Published: December 25, 2023

Sebald’s novel “Austerlitz” provides insights to fascism than anticipate Trump.

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Swift Understood Trumpian Fascism

By Robin Bates | Published: November 14, 2023

Trump’s use of “vermin” to characterize his enemies is fascist talk. “Gulliver’s Travels” shows where such talk can lead.

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Brecht, Hitler’s Coup Attempt, and Jan. 6

By Robin Bates | Published: November 8, 2023

Reacting to Hitler, Brecht expressed frustration as the ineffectiveness of crying out. Today, the 100th anniversary of Hitler’s coup attempts, resembles January 6, 2021.

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Rising Anti-Semitism, So Call the Golem

By Robin Bates | Published: October 5, 2023

The Golem of Prague may be the forerunner of many comic book characters. With rising-Antisemitism, we still need him.

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Melville Would Have Understood Trump

By Robin Bates | Published: July 31, 2023

Melville foresaw Trump in “Confidence Man.”

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Hughes’s Message More Urgent Than Ever

By Robin Bates | Published: July 3, 2023

Langston Hughes’s call for us to return to the vision expressed in the “Declaration of Independence” is more timely than ever.

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Authoritarians Long to Act with Impunity

By Robin Bates | Published: June 13, 2023

Authoritarians long to act with impunity. H.G. Wells captures this fantasy in “The Invisible Man.”

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Baldwin, Cop Sadism, and MAGA

By Robin Bates | Published: May 18, 2023

In “If Beale Street Could Talk,” Baldwin captures cop sadism of the sort we also seen in Trump supporters.

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Odysseus’s Authoritarian Power Play

By Robin Bates | Published: February 7, 2023

Homer shows the dynamics of authoritarianism at work in an “Iliad” incident where Odysseus disciplines a critic of the Greek mission.

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