One of my FB friends, an ex-marine and rodeo rider, will habitually post inflammatory or factually incorrect rightwing memes. I am reminded of J, who sat next to me in 12th grade English, a shy and quiet white boy with dark eyes and a hesitant manner. We reconnected through FB, in a facile way. At first he posted, if ever, photos of his growing family and wrote of hikes through the scrub country of my hometown. Then he started posting memes about "tradition", patriotism, and Christian values, stuff I had spent my 20s critiquing. Finally he would post memes featuring fascist imagery and quotes from fascist thinkers and politicians denouncing democracy and capitalism, i.e. liberalism.* Eventually, J "defriended" me: as the American-born daughter of Cambodian refugees living as a migrant in another country, I was probably too messy to keep as a friend, reminding him of other viable ways of being and thinking.

Now J is the leader of a national political party devoted to fascism, which he founded. It has a FB page, with nearly 4,000 followers. They post memes, co-opt alt-right language, and snark on elections abroad. Commenters are usually young white men. The moderator insists they are neither left nor right. So what the fuck do they want? The end of the world as we know it, for in its ruins they will find their "regenerated nation", cleansed of immigrants, the irreligious, capitalists, above all the individual, under the aegis of the authoritarian state. Fun times, basically.

*which I also dislike, but unlike J, I want a true democracy, unshackled from capitalism; I'm inspired by The Dispossessed, Ursula K. Le Guin's novel on anarchism.




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