January 30, 2025
Plane Crash Kills 67; Felon Blames DEI
Last night, in what appears to be the deadliest U.S. air crash since 2001, a jet coming from Wichita, Kansas, and an Army helicopter collided in the skies over Washington, D.C., killing 60 passengers and four crew members on the jet, and three more on the Army Black Hawk helicopter. Preliminary reports are indicating there may have been below-standard staffing levels at the air traffic control station at the time of the incident.
Despite that — and the fact that the incident is still being actively investigated — the felon who was elected president last November took to the podium in the White House briefing room to blame Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs for the tragedy. He did not share any evidence that unqualified people were being put in critical positions like air traffic control. When asked why he was blaming diversity initiatives, the twice-impeached felon stated, “because I have common sense, and unfortunately a lot of people don’t.”
It should be noted that the former head of the Federal Aviation Administration, Michael Whitaker, resigned from his position early last week, after repeated demands from Elon Musk that he quit. Whitaker, who still had four years left on his five-year term, had been confirmed by a bipartisan 98-0 Senate vote in October 2023.
Umberto Eco’s Thoughts on Fascism
I know that heading seems quite a drastic topic shift after the previous story, but I swear there’s a connection.
Umberto Eco was an Italian author and philosopher who grew up under fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. Most well-known for his medieval “detective” story, The Name of the Rose, Eco wrote many other pieces, including an essay in 1995 entitled “Ur-Fascism“. In it, he writes, “There was only one Nazism,” and that modern attempts to use “Nazi” as an epithet to complain about a cop who pulls you over for speeding have diminished the phrase. He goes on to say, though, that “the fascist game can be played in many forms, and the name of the game does not change.”
He then goes on to describe 14 “typical” features of fascism — or “Ur-Fascism, or Eternal Fascism” as he refers to the broader mindset. Not all of these work together, and in fact, he says, “These features cannot be organized into a system; many of them contradict each other, and are also typical of other kinds of despotism or fanaticism.” Here is his list:
- The cult of tradition: An obsession with “traditionalist” thinking, which emphasizes the old ways were the best.
- The rejection of modernism: By extension, then, anything associated with intellectualism, the Enlightenment, is seen as the beginning of modern depravity.
- The cult of action for action’s sake: “Action being beautiful in itself, it must be taken before, or without, any previous reflection. Thinking is a form of emasculation.” This, coupled with the previous two, often manifests in attacks on modern culture and science.
- Disagreement is treason: Intellectual discourse and critical reasoning are barriers to action, plus there’s a fear that analysis will expose contradictions.
- Fear of difference: “The first appeal of a fascist or prematurely fascist movement is an appeal against the intruders. Thus Ur-Fascism is racist by definition.” This often manifests as an appeal against foreigners and immigrants.
- Appeal to a frustrated middle class: “One of the most typical features of the historical fascism was the appeal to a frustrated middle class, a class suffering from an economic crisis or feelings of political humiliation, and frightened by the pressure of lower social groups.”
- The obsession with a plot: “Thus at the root of the Ur-Fascist psychology there is the obsession with a plot, possibly an international one. The followers must feel besieged.” The enemy threat is hyped up to encourage xenophobia and distrust any international efforts (see also “The New World Order” or “Pizza-gate”).
- The enemy is both strong and weak: “By a continuous shifting of rhetorical focus, the enemies are at the same time too strong and too weak.” Enemies are both played up as puppet masters and elite, while also depicted as feeble and easily overwhelmed by popular will.
- Pacifism is trafficking with the enemy: “For Ur-Fascism there is no struggle for life but, rather, life is lived for struggle.” There must always be an enemy to fight.
- Contempt for the weak: “Elitism is a typical aspect of any reactionary ideology.” Members of the “in-crowd” are depicted as superior to outsiders, merely by virtue of belonging to the group, although this also leads to an inherent tension within fascist hierarchies, as leaders are encourages to despise their underlings.
- Everybody is educated to become a hero: “In Ur-Fascist ideology, heroism is the norm. This cult of heroism is strictly linked with the cult of death.”
- Machismo and weaponry: “Machismo implies both disdain for women and intolerance and condemnation of nonstandard sexual habits, from chastity to homosexuality.” Eco doesn’t specifically mention transsexuality, but a line of connection can reasonably be drawn here.
- Selective populism: “There is in our future a TV or Internet populism, in which the emotional response of a selected group of citizens can be presented and accepted as the Voice of the People.” The leader becomes the “interpreter” of the common will, which is then used to delegitimize democratic institutions they accuse of “no longer represent[ing] the voice of the people”.
- Ur-Fascism speaks Newspeak: “All the Nazi or Fascist schoolbooks made use of an impoverished vocabulary, and an elementary syntax, in order to limit the instruments for complex and critical reasoning.”
I leave these thoughts with the reader.

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