In 1945, the US War Department realized that its soldiers stationed in Europe fighting the Nazis probably needed a good pamphlet explaining what fascism was, and how it occurs ...

... so they wrote one

and in it, they noted that America was not at all immune to this

So they explained how fascism would come to the US

Heather Cox Richardson writes about it in the latest edition of her newsletter: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/october-26-2024

October 26, 2024

Beginning in 1943, the War Department published a series of pamphlets for U.S.

Letters from an American

Here's a direct link to the pamphlet that Heather is describing:

https://archive.org/details/ArmyTalkOrientationFactSheet64-Fascism

Army Talk Orientation Fact Sheet #64 - Fascism! : Army Orientation Branch: Information and Education Division : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

March 24, 1945. Army Talk Orientation Fact Sheet #64 Fascism! A sheet printed and distributed by the United States War Department as an educational tool for...

Internet Archive
@clive Reading page four literally made me sick to my stomach.
@clive oh look - the full text is available in a link.
@clive is there anywhere we could see a photo of one these I wonder.
@fredb @clive Yes please, it would add to the sense of authenticity
@geolaw @clive There is a link in the reply to my question.
@clive So much knowledge and history at our fingertips...yet most of us fell for some of the oldest tricks in the book. 😞
@clive This was meant as a warning, not an instruction manual.
@Klaxun @clive As were the books 1984 or Fahrenheit 451.. but here we are.
@clive Talking about nazi problem and publishing it on Substack who is not baning Nazis or extremist speech is interesting.

@peterp @clive Not only do Substack not ban Nazis, they actively help them monetize fascist propaganda.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/11/substack-extremism-nazi-white-supremacy-newsletters/676156/

I won't read or link to anything on Substack.

Substack Has a Nazi Problem

The newsletter platform’s lax content moderation creates an opening for white nationalists eager to get their message out.

The Atlantic
@clive
Wow interesting

@jcmacomber

It's pretty fascinating to see how *direct* the language is, and how direct the parallels

@clive
I like articles that have the provenance of the data included.

Good job.

Here is a link to the upstream source. https://ia601608.us.archive.org/21/items/ArmyTalkOrientationFactSheet64-Fascism/Fascism64.pdf

We should understand that these sources, the internet archive and physical libraries, are under attack. The #bigCorps are the fascist of our time and they are using #lawfare against us.

We are always prepared for the last last war. This war, our war against fascist-2025 is being fought in the courts, classrooms and bigCorp #media outlets.

@clive wasn’t the second one true already in the WWII era?

@kp

Yeah, in the US parts of this were already in and out of place for centuries -- as with all the groups that in different ways and to different degrees (slaves, native americans, interred Japanese families, among others) were the bad others that needed to be crushed and contained

@clive I was thinking of American exceptionalism. Sadly crushing and containing minorities is not unique to America πŸ˜…

@kp @clive I'm impressed that the pamphlet had the courage to include the Silver Shirts among the examples of proto-fascism in America, because they were active from 1933 to 1941 (they disbanded after Pearl Harbor), and their tens of thousands of members were still around.

Never pull your punches around fascists!

@msbellows @kp

yeah, that pamphlet really *went there* man

solid work

@clive And history repeat itself again
I keep banging the same drum, but ... The US started happily supporting literal fascist regimes just two years after the WWII ended. They invited literal Nazi war criminals to migrate to the US. They paid and trained fascist coups all over the globe.

The myth of the US punching fascism is just... Well, a myth.

@clive I try to keep the definition simple:

Classic #fascism: define a nebulous group or institution, dehumanize and stoke with #fearmongering. No falsehood is perceived as ridiculous by a #truebeliever. Fears become hate. They have a β€œthem” to hate, and bind β€œus” tightly together.

@blackburied

Good summary!

that last one is really key

@clive

I'm kind of glad, in a sad way, that most WWII veterans died before seeing us become a pedocracy.

@clive they really should have made an updated civilian version of the pamphlet to be given out to all Civilians of the time and a school version to be consistently reviewed in school history classes

CΓ³mo detectar fascistas segΓΊn un artΓ­culo del departamento de guerra de EEUU de 1945

"Captura de pantalla que dice:

...
El Departamento de Guerra considerΓ³ que era importante que los estadounidenses comprendieran las tΓ‘cticas que utilizarΓ­an los fascistas para tomar el poder en Estados Unidos. IntentarΓ­an obtener poder β€œbajo el disfraz del β€˜superpatriotismo’ y el β€˜superamericanismo’”. Y utilizarΓ­an tres tΓ©cnicas:

Primero, enfrentarΓ­an a los grupos religiosos, raciales y econΓ³micos entre sΓ­ para romper la unidad nacional. Parte de ese esfuerzo de dividir y conquistar serΓ­a una β€œcampaΓ±a de odio bien planificada contra las razas minoritarias, las religiones y otros grupos”.

En segundo lugar, negarΓ­an cualquier necesidad de cooperaciΓ³n internacional, porque eso irΓ­a en contra de su insistencia en que sus partidarios eran mejores que todos los demΓ‘s. β€œEn lugar de la cooperaciΓ³n internacional, los fascistas buscan sustituir una especie de ultranacionalismo pervertido que le dice a su pueblo que ellos son los ΓΊnicos pueblos del mundo que cuentan. Con esto va el odio y la sospecha hacia los pueblos de todas las demΓ‘s naciones”.

En tercer lugar, los fascistas insistirΓ­an en que β€œel mundo sΓ³lo tiene dos opciones: el fascismo o el comunismo, y etiquetan de β€˜comunistas’ a todos los que se niegan a apoyarlos”. Es β€œde vital importancia” aprender a reconocer a los fascistas nativos, dijo el gobierno, β€œaunque adopten nombres y lemas con atractivo popular, se cubran con la bandera estadounidense e intenten llevar a cabo su programa en nombre de la democracia que estΓ‘n tratando de destruir”.

..."

@clive And they clearly didn't pay attention.......
Neither did too many in Europe...
@clive Philip Roth's The Plot Against America is essential reading too. It's a what-if-Lindbergh-got-his-way dystopian novel. Now it's the truth that's dystopian.

@davidpnice

Yeah, my wife loves that book and I've always meant to read it -- gonna pick it up

For anybody who would rather not visit Substack, but are still interested in the contents of this pamphlet, it can be found on the Internet Archive.

https://archive.org/details/ArmyTalkOrientationFactSheet64-Fascism

@clive @Nerdfest

Army Talk Orientation Fact Sheet #64 - Fascism! : Army Orientation Branch: Information and Education Division : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

March 24, 1945. Army Talk Orientation Fact Sheet #64 Fascism! A sheet printed and distributed by the United States War Department as an educational tool for...

Internet Archive
@clive Why does this plan remind me of the Republican party?
@clive it was meant to be a warning but got used as an instruction booklet

@clive https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGAqYNFQdZ4&t=13

"Don't Be A Sucker" - Anti- Fascism Videos produced by the US War Department in 1940s

The US government should have been updating these videos to counteract the fascist propaganda people across the midlands have been consuming for years.

Don't Be a Sucker

YouTube
@clive Thank you for sharing this! This needs to be spread for knowledge to as many as possible.
@clive "If we permit discrimination, prejudice, or hate to rob anyone of his democratic rights, our own freedom and all democracy is threatened.” BBC News - 'Refused service yet again with my guide dog - I'm done speaking out'
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c87x2p535wqo
'Refused service again with my guide dog, I'm done speaking out'

Sean Dilley is inundated with abuse on social media whenever he posts about discrimination issues.

@clive https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGAqYNFQdZ4 See also this 1943/1947 movie warning against fascist demagoguery
Don't Be a Sucker

National Archives Identifier: 24376Local Identifier: 111-EF-6https://catalog.archives.gov/id/24376Creator(s): Department of Defense. Department of the Army. ...

YouTube
@clive OK can anyone convince me that Israel isn't a fascist government that holds to an ultra-nationalist view where you are either for zionists or are with the terrorists (replacing communists) and any one other than the dominant group are the target for hatred and suspicion as well as being less human than the in-group.

@clive 1945? Cool, so only 4 years after joining the war, after D-day had been and gone, even Market Garden had been started.

There'd already been German-Americans fighting for Nazi Germany for half a decade, and marches through American cities a decade before.

Then there's all the attacks on black servicemen in the UK by white American MPs (look up the Battle of Bamber Bridge), oh, and the mutinies against racism from officers, long before 1945.

It was all a bit "too little, too late"

@clive Re the first one, isn’t that identity politics 101?