How the Left Uses the Political 'Spectrum' to Bludgeon Its Opponents

Chapter 5.1: The ultimate whacking stick: ‘The Right’ = Fascism

Why this book | Title Page | Table of Contents
Preface | Introduction
PART 1
Chapter 1 (1.1) (1.2) | Chapter 2 (2.1) (2.2) (2.3) | Chapter 3 (3.1) (3.2) (3.3) (3.4) (3.5) (3.6)
PART 2
Chapter 4 (4.1) (4.2) (4.3) (4.4) (4.5) | Chapter 5 (5.1) | Chapter 6
PART 3
Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12 | Chapter 13 | Chapter 14
PART 4
Chapter 15 | Chapter 16 | Chapter 17 |
PART 5
Chapter 18 | Chapter 19 | Chapter 20 | Conclusion
Appendix | Works Cited

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Chapter 5:
Prejudicial Spectrums

The 'whacking sticks' of political analysis

5.1
The ultimate whacking stick: ‘The Right’ = Fascism

• The Marxist Continuum Cudgel

  • The Dogma

  • The inevitability of oppression (and government)

  • Muffle, Mantle, and Misinform

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Back in 1993, the animated sitcom The Simpsons aired an episode titled “Whacking Day.”¹ The storyline centers on the celebration of a yearly tradition in which people gather together in a club-wielding mob, drive snakes to the center of town, and beat them to death. Homer Simpson is particularly proud of his “whacking stick”—honing his skills like a ninja in anticipation of the big event.

Two moral messages stand out. The first, obviously, is a message decrying the maltreatment of snakes—long maligned and feared in many cultures. The second is a message about the dangers of getting swept up in mob mentality. 

Looking closer, we can see that these two messages are closely linked. One could imagine a need to club a particular snake—say, a king cobra that is about to strike a child. But this mob is going after all snakes. Without reason or distinction, their target is snakes as a class. And their cudgels give them the power to actualize their prejudice against their chosen enemy.

The ultimate whacking stick:
‘The Right’ = Fascism

Certain kinds of political “spectrums” serve much the same purpose. Either they have no unit of measure at all, or the unit chosen serves no purpose other than to cast an opponent in a bad light. Such spectrums become clubs in the hands of political partisans—whacking sticks with which they can ascribe all sorts of terrible characteristics to their opponents as a class. Whack those opponents long and hard enough and the bruises become politically visible and permanent. Eventually, the assault may even silence them altogether.

The Marxist Continuum Cudgel

You’re a fascist. See—even the political spectrum says so.

This is the purpose and effect of the Marxist continuum: to establish in political discourse that all people on the right are, by definition, just a few hot meals away from becoming full-blown Nazis.

We have devoted substantial space to describing how this spectrum came about, and why it is unsupportable as a tool of political analysis. We’ve already touched briefly on the weaponization of this spectrum; in this chapter, we will further deconstruct its underlying claims.

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