Redux

Jason Stanley is the Jacob Urowsky Professor of Philosophy at Yale University.

Fascism is a cult of the leader, who promises national restoration in the face of supposed humiliation by immigrants, leftists, liberals, minorities, homosexuals, women, in the face of what the fascist leader says is a takeover of the country's media, cultural institutions, schools by these forces.

Fascist movements typically, though not invariably, rest on an urban/rural divide. The cities are where there's decadence, where the elites congregate, where there's immigrants, and where there's criminality.

Each of these individuals alone is not in and of itself fascist, but you have to worry when they're all grouped together, seeing the other as less than. Those moments are the times when societies need to worry about fascism.