In Binghamton, just across the river from our campus, is St. Michael’s Church, built in 1904 by Slavic immigrants who fled ethnic persecution in Eastern Europe to find a safer, more prosperous life. Their descendants went on to live in Binghamton, work in its factories and volunteer to fight for the United States during World War II. Their sacrifices are honored today with a monument in front of St. Michael’s — the English reads, “In memory of veterans of World War II. Stalwart defenders of lasting peace for freedom and our American way of life.”
Every Sunday, on my way to church, I walk past that monument and worry about how their heritage is now being spat and stamped on by spineless ideologues.
Today, something as vile as open sympathy for fascism is being normalized in the media and can even rely on the media for its normalization. There has been a growth in smaller groups opting to self-organize outside of larger organizations and relying on their self-declared place in our communities and online. Their effectiveness has in part come from social media, which is used to recruit people for their cause, expand their message and intimidate ordinary citizens through violent means. They represent a danger beyond what happened in Charlottesville almost eight years ago, beyond the rally at Madison Square Garden 86 years ago and beyond any other instance of public sympathy for autocracy.
The movement is fueled by people who have been agitated to turn against democracy, and should such a movement preserve its momentum, it can altogether erode the constitutional order of this nation.
This is no longer the petulance of a small, irrelevant group but instead an action toward creating a new reactionary — if not an outright fascist — movement in the United States. Fringe movements have learned to effectively manipulate the disillusionment of the average voter and online user with their strategy of disinformation working against the unity of this country.
The first and most obvious issue at hand is the normalization of fascist sympathy. In the past few weeks alone, cities across the United States have been the scene of thugs marching with covered faces and carrying swastika flags. Placards have frequently appeared in public places calling for the murder of Jews, deportation of migrants and violence toward all democratic opposition against fascists. Meanwhile, the infamous case of Elon Musk doing a Nazi salute at President Donald Trump’s inauguration, his lack of accountability for this action and the reluctance of organizations like the Anti-Defamation League to hold Musk accountable make it easy to openly display indifference to history without facing any consequences. Worse still, conservative forums online are complicit in this behavior, indulging in the mockery of those who protest these incidents with “leftist cope.”
The growing incidence of Nazi marches and attacks is another dimension of this problem. These groups need people in their ranks to bolster their size and intimidate people. They need to find people somewhere, and they do so among the most disgruntled and vulnerable people in society. Fascist recruitment strategies, according to the Center on Extremism, include the distribution of racist, antisemitic and anti-LGBTQ fliers, banners, graffiti and posters, marking their presence, as well as flash demonstrations, rallies and marches. This then becomes a cycle — these groups post videos of their rallies to boost engagement, secure their place online, recruit more people and hold more rallies while those disillusioned by the state of affairs are presented with an impressive, captivating alternative — and the cycle repeats.
Nazism in America is a growing fire, and it must be extinguished. The brash display of fascist imagery and rallies is the fuel and the complacency of the government, as well as the inaction of the media and civil society, is the air this fire needs to keep burning. The government has the undebatable moral responsibility to tackle all instances of far-right activism by cracking down on these groups, making it a crime to display Nazi and all other forms of fascist imagery.
So far, it has failed to do so despite both domestic campaigns and numerous U.N. resolutions on which the United States voted “no,” like the Russian Federation-introduced resolution to condemn Nazism and prohibit Nazi speech, citing geopolitical concerns. Should far-right activism continue to rise and become even more of a public safety issue, it will be the error of the government, before anyone else, to disregard this issue.
On the other hand, the air this fire needs comes from the ordinary, albeit disgruntled, working-class citizens, whose disillusionment is hijacked by these groups for their benefit. The media and organizations like the ADL are responsible for not openly calling out those sympathizing with Nazi imagery, and our education system is responsible for not enshrining within the minds of the public the discipline to know the horrors of fascism and stand against it.
So long as this trend of apathy and tolerance persists, more ordinary citizens will be lured to such movements or will simply be complicit in the erosion of their liberties. As for the government, the media and us, the people, the ultimate task is to not let Nazism on U.S. soil be normalized. It is the responsibility of any free-thinking citizen to honor the sacrifices of those who fought against the Nazis and to never let their dogma come back to life.
Deniz Gulay is a sophomore double-majoring in history and Russian.
Views expressed in the opinions pages represent the opinions of the columnists. The only piece that represents the view of the Pipe Dream Editorial Board is the staff editorial.