Philosophy of Antifascism
Punching Nazis and Fighting White Supremacy- Authors:
- |
- Publisher:
- 2020
Summary
On January 20th, 2017, during an interview on the streets of Washington D.C., white nationalist Richard Spencer was punched by an anonymous antifascist. The moment was caught on video and quickly went viral, and soon “punching Nazis” was a topic of heated public debate. How might this kind of militant action be conceived of, or justified, philosophically? Can we find a deep commitment to antifascism in the history of philosophy?
Through the existentialism of Simone de Beauvoir, with some reference to Fanon and Sartre, this book identifies the philosophical reasons for the political action being enacted by contemporary antifascists. In addition, using the work of Jacques Rancière, it argues that the alt-right and the far right aren’t a kind of politics at all, but rather forms of parapolitical and paramilitary mobilization aimed at re-entrenching the power of the state and capital.
Devin Shaw argues that in order to resist fascist mobilization, contemporary movements find a diversity of tactics more useful than principled nonviolence. Antifascism must focus on the systemic causes of the re-emergence of fascism, and thus must fight capital accumulation and the underlying white supremacism. Providing new, incisive interpretations of Beauvoir, existentialism, and Rancière, he makes the case for organizing a broader militant movement against fascism.
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Bibliographic data
- Copyright year
- 2020
- ISBN-Print
- 978-1-78661-557-2
- ISBN-Online
- 978-1-78661-559-6
- Publisher
- Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham
- Language
- English
- Pages
- 201
- Product type
- Book Titles
Table of contents
- Contents No access
- Foreword No access
- Acknowledgments No access
- 1 A Philosophy of Antifascism No access Pages 1 - 22
- 2 The Ethics of Ambiguity and the Antinomies of Emancipatory Violence No access Pages 23 - 74
- 3 Politics That Does Not Command No access Pages 75 - 108
- 4 Punching Nazis No access Pages 109 - 154
- 5 Fighting White Supremacy No access Pages 155 - 182
- References No access Pages 183 - 192
- Index No access Pages 193 - 200
- About the Author No access Pages 201 - 201





