Bret Devereaux

This is a common pitfall of the human mind, a 'weak point' in our collective psyche, like excessive desire for food or other pleasures. If I had to guess, I'd say we are wired to look for dominance, and machismo, in its grotesqueness looks like super-dominance. 11/23

But the cornerstone of this sort of fascism is rooted in the performance of power and strength as understood through (distorted) masculine gender roles of the same. Put another way, if Ur-Fascism+Racism=Nazism, then Ur-Fascism+Masculinity=Fascism, narrowly understood. 13/23

And I think that is important to understanding nascent modern fascisms that seem to otherwise lack meaningful ideology, but are deeply, fiercely concerned with the 'strength' and 'manliness' of the charismatic ruler figure. See: basically all Putin propaganda. 14/23

Since the machismo is the core of this narrow-fascism, the performance of strength by the leader, often an absurd farce to outsiders, is actually central to its appeal&function. Those laughable staged photos of the dictator being 'manly' are actually the point. 16/23

Because those laughable displays are precisely what triggers both the emotional gratification of the huckster-leader (whose whole life has conditioned the behavior) and the emotional loyalty-response of the receptive followers, seeking a 'strong' leader. 17/24

And if all of this description so far - the overwrought displays of pseudo-masculinity (in the absence of any real mastery), even in defiance of obvious facts (Eco's #14 of Ur-Fascism) sounds quite a lot a recently hospitalized (and still contagious) leader near you...18/24