Skip to content Skip to footer

Three Fundamentalisms Are Driving the Resurgence of Fascist Politics in the US

Free-market fundamentalism, religious fundamentalism and manufactured ignorance turned the GOP toward neofascism.

Part of the Series

A right-wing extremist ideology has taken hold of the Republican Party, and the United States has become a locus for the revitalization of white supremacy, the normalization of state violence, the reproduction of the carceral state and staggering forms of economic inequality.

The United States is also serving as a toxic model for making oppressive forms of education central to a politics that undercuts the capacity for producing critical and engaged citizens while normalizing the unthinkable. These alarming developments must all be understood as part of a larger shift politically and educationally in the United States toward a deeply rooted authoritarianism and updated form of fascist politics.

In the conversation with Sonali Kolhatkar shared here, which aired this week on Rising Up with Sonali, we discuss three fundamentalisms that have driven the transformation of the Republican Party into a neofascist party and the United States into a deeply authoritarian social order: free-market fundamentalism, religious fundamentalism, and the fundamentalism of manufactured ignorance.

Free-market fundamentalism separates economic, political and educational activity from any viable notion of social and ethical responsibility while destroying all notions of the common good.

Religious fundamentalism collapses the line separating the church and state while waging a war against economic equality, social justice and democracy itself. This is a fundamentalism rooted in the notion of the theocratic state designed for white Christians that justifies the regressive notion of a holy war against anyone who is not white and a Christian fundamentalist. Coupled with a market fundamentalism that places profits above human needs, religious fundamentalism provides some of the oxygen for justifying violence as a solution to all social problems.

The final fundamentalism — manufactured ignorance — is an educational fundamentalism that wages a war against reason, critical consciousness and any notion of agency that is both critical and willing to hold power accountable. Market and religious fundamentalism now merge with a massive assault on the public imagination in the form of another fundamentalism — the drive to produce a collective consciousness rooted in manufactured ignorance.

At work here is a political formation that is symbolic of the rot produced by neoliberalism — an economic, political and educational formation that trades in civic illiteracy, depoliticization, the normalization of racial hatred and the legitimation of a culture of mass violence, all designed to benefit and concentrate wealth and power in the hands of a financial elite and ruling class. The U.S.’s long history of fascist ideologies has come home to roost, and the problem is as much educational as it is political.

We’re not going to stand for it. Are you?

You don’t bury your head in the sand. You know as well as we do what we’re facing as a country, as a people, and as a global community. Here at Truthout, we’re gearing up to meet these threats head on, but we need your support to do it: We must raise $21,000 before midnight to ensure we can keep publishing independent journalism that doesn’t shy away from difficult — and often dangerous — topics.

We can do this vital work because unlike most media, our journalism is free from government or corporate influence and censorship. But this is only sustainable if we have your support. If you like what you’re reading or just value what we do, will you take a few seconds to contribute to our work?