A review by latterature
How to be a Fascist by Michela Murgia

3.0

Interesting--and, at times, chilling--to read about the principles of fascists from the (imagined) perspective of one. While some elements provided in Murgia's fascist playbook ring true and universal, others seem dependent on social context; for example, does Murgia's assertion that fascists appeal not to women but as mothers apply to the National Front in France, a party that has taken to presenting itself as a protector of female independence against foreign misogynist religions? Similarly, does her argument that fascists will engage in performative economic-populism hold true for the United States Republican Party, whose politicians fight tooth-and-nail against any material improvements for the working class, or to their most recent Presidential candidate, who, rather than downplaying his ostentatious wealth, made it central to his public persona? In regards to these two aspects, Murgia's fascism is one rooted in the social conventions and economic attitudes of the early-twentieth century from whence it sprang. These are outliers, however, in an otherwise sound analysis.