How Fascism Stabilises — and How It Can Be Undone: 2 Fear, Simplicity, and the Collapse of Revisability

Fascism does not begin as a manifesto or a policy. It begins in fear, in the way uncertainty and perceived threat reorganise the field of intelligibility. Fear is the vector that compresses complexity into binary, unyielding cuts.

Once this compression occurs, revisability — the system’s ability to adapt and learn — collapses.

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1. Fear as Structural Pressure

Fear is not merely an emotion; it is a coordination mechanism. It signals that certain distinctions must be recognised as urgent, non-negotiable, and existentially significant.

In this state:

• minor misalignments are perceived as betrayal

• ambiguity becomes intolerable

• previously negotiable distinctions harden into rules without recourse

Fear does not “cause” fascism in isolation, but it shapes the system so that fascist patterns become the path of least resistance.

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2. Simplicity as Relief

When the system is threatened, participants naturally seek simplification. Simplicity offers relief: fewer distinctions, fewer decisions, fewer possibilities for error.

But fascist systems exploit this relief:

• complex causes are compressed into singular enemies

• nuance is interpreted as weakness or treachery

• survival becomes a matter of binary alignment

The resulting simplicity is experienced as clarity — but it is clarity that closes possibility rather than opening it.

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3. The Death of Revisability

Revisability is the ability of a system to:

• adapt cuts in response to new information

• tolerate variation without losing coordination

• absorb error without collapse

Under fear and enforced simplicity, revisability collapses:

• deviations are no longer intelligible, only punishable

• the system’s “oughts” harden into absolutes

• feedback loops are ignored or misread

Fascist coordination thrives precisely when the capacity to revise cuts is suspended.

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4. Why Binaries Feel Necessary

Inside the system, participants do not consciously choose rigidity. Binary distinctions feel objectively necessary because:

• uncertainty is experienced as existential threat

• any hesitation risks disqualification from coordination

• the structure enforces alignment automatically

This is why people can believe they are right while doing structural harm: they are acting in accordance with the system’s frozen intelligibility.

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5. Implications for Subversion

If fear drives simplification and collapses revisability, then the relational task is clear:

• Do not attempt to argue with entrenched binaries directly

• Do not attack the system with morality or ideology

• Instead, reintroduce revisability by widening the intelligible field, gradually, and where participants can take up new distinctions

Subversion is not a confrontation. It is a careful recalibration of possibility under constraint.

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Conclusion

Fear and simplicity produce fascist coordination by removing the capacity for revisability. This is what makes fascism resilient: the system is no longer intelligible in any way that permits negotiation or adaptation.

The next post will examine how normativity is generated and hardened under these conditions, and why dissent is interpreted as betrayal: Post 3 — Normativity Under Siege.