The Absurdity of the Right Wing Term, "Eco-Fascist"

It brings a bitter smirk to the face when one encounters the supreme irony of the right wing forming ridiculous new compound words like "Islamo-fascist" and "eco-fascist". Historically, the fascists in Spain, Italy, Japan and Germany formed themselves from the extreme right wing of those countries. Once again we find our own right wing playing their game of smoke and mirrors, the veritable pot calling the kettle black.

Maybe we need to recall what fascism really is. Well, first of all, it makes a big show of honoring values it deems "traditional", it enacts idolatrous ceremonies over political symbols, it creates an atmosphere of twinned fear by threatening people with insidious political power and by teaching them to fear their fellow citizens, and it demands utter unquestioning obedience. In return, it rewards those who expose political dissenters, and throws out cheap amenities to the masses if they do not make trouble for their rulers. Lastly, fascism must focus people on a scapegoat, so that their unsatisfied frustrations may be bestially trained upon some vulnerable segment of the population.

I will not go into a discussion of why it is ridiculous to put Islam and fascism in the same sentence, since they are mutually incompatible. It is like saying "Buddho-fascist". No, let us address ourselves to the fresher vocabulary the right wing has imposed upon us: "eco-fascist". Hmm, it is so ludicrous a word that I question the effort of bothering to expose its stupidity. However, since it is so heatedly used now by conservatives and libertarians, I had better not make the error of assuming that the word will merely implode of its own self-contradiction. Eco-fascists are what the right wing are now calling those who are making a last desperate effort to actively educate the public and our political leaders about the very real time-clock we now face in being able to save this planet from becoming a super-heated hell. Those who must frequently give utterance to this neologism are those who want to make their quick profit from hydraulic fracturing, and are incensed that anyone should question the effects of their actions upon the land we must live upon.

For these conservatives, it is "fascistic" to want to breathe clean air, drink clean water, and demand that regulatory laws which protect the public health to be applied, enforced and obeyed. They believe they can excuse their sins by claiming that what they do is born of "economic necessity", disregarding the fact that the economy will be destroyed by what they do. An economy requires a healthy ecology to sustain itself. If the land is made fit for neither man nor beast (nor even vegetable), it has been rendered desert. If the aquifers of a region are polluted by petrochemicals, the food shall wither, the livestock shall die upon the hoof, and the people shall face the harrowing death of leukemia.

So, does not wanting this to happen make a person a "fascist"? The necessity of an economy is that a country can grow food upon the land, and feed and water the animals and humans that live upon it. If this is vouchsafed for only for a few acres, a few aquifers, a few herds, a few people, the country shall implode as a workable entity, and all that quick wealth will sit vainly in its vaults, have nowhere to be spent, and its ill-gotten gain will have no one to use it. One thing I do know from history: the fascists destroyed their countries. They were nihilistic. They did not care whom they destroyed, even if it included themselves. What of those who believe in life? They were named years ago. They are called ecologists.