If I take any bite-sized insight from Hannah Arendt’s “Eichmann in Jerusalem,” it’s that fascists •are• people: ordinary, boring, could-be-anyone human beings. “The banality of evil” means, among other things, “the human-ness of evil.”

The only things that keeps you or me or any human being from being fascist is vigilance against fascism.
2/

I suspect there’s a great comfort in the idea that fascists aren’t real humans. It means we’re off the hook, doesn’t it? “We’re truly human, so that could never be us! We’re different!”

It’s a comfortable idea.

Dangerously comfortable.
3/

But if I’ve avoided succumbing to fascism, it’s because I’ve had the privilege of wonderful parents, teachers, friends, peers, people all around me who’ve helped me spot patterns of oppression and cruelty in the world and •in myself•.

Privilege. Good fortune.

Not being a different species. Not — I am saying this slowly — genetic superiority.

4/

Cruelty, authoritarianism, genocide, all the parts of humanity I abhor most — I am •unwilling• to entertain the idea that the potential for these things does not exist somewhere in me.

I am unwilling because I never, ever want fascism to take root in me. I don’t know how it would happen, but I do believe it would start with complacency.

I believe that it •could• be me, or you, and therefore we must fight every day to make sure it never is.

Antifascism is a practice, not a genetic trait.
/end