In his new book, How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them, Yale professor Jason Stanley warns about the dangers of normalizing fascist politics, writing, “What normalization does is transform the morally extraordinary into the ordinary. It makes us able to tolerate what was once intolerable by making it seem as if this is the way things have always been.” We speak with Jason Stanley in New York.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now! I’m Amy Goodman, with Nermeen Shaikh.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: We end today’s show with a remarkable new book titled How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them, which focuses in particular on current trends under the Trump administration, arguing that the president is not as much of an anomaly in American history as we often think. The book’s author, Yale Professor Jason Stanley, whose parents were both Holocaust survivors who came to the U.S. as refugees, shows instead that “In its own history, the United States can find a legacy of the best of liberal democracy as well as the roots of fascist thought (indeed, Hitler was inspired by the Confederacy and Jim Crow laws,” Jason Stanley writes. He also warns of the dangers of normalizing fascist politics, saying “what normalization does is transform the morally extraordinary into the ordinary. It makes us able to tolerate what was once intolerable by making it seem as if this is the way things have always been.”
AMY GOODMAN: We’re joined right now by Jason Stanley, philosophy professor at Yale University. His new book is just out. It’s titled How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them. His previous book is How Propaganda Works. Welcome to Democracy Now! Professor, it is great to have you with us. Why now? Why are you releasing this book, How Fascism Works, now?
JASON STANLEY: Well, we have a global ultranationalist far-right movement crossing many countries—Bolsonaro in…