My attention was grabbed by this anti-environmentalist poster today. It expresses its opposition to environmental policies in rather stark terms, accusing environmentalists of being the tools of fascism.
Is it a fair description? I looked to an official definition of the word fascism and found the following at the Merriam-Webster dictionary:
“a political philosophy, movement, or regime (as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition”
Some leftist writers will contend that fascism necessarily involves corporate influence over government. For the sake of argument, I’ll not make that claim at present.
Simply looking at the Merriam-Webster definiton, it’s clear that environmentalism can’t reasonably be equated with fascism. The factor of racial pride isn’t strong within environmental circles, and neither is nationalism. Focus is generally on responsibility that transcends national boundaries and divisions between ethnicities.
Social regimentation isn’t a goal of environmentalists. The dictatorial leader is straight out too. Environmentalists don’t call for dictatorships in order to achieve their goals.
Finally, there’s the question of “forcible suppression of opposition”. I can’t think of a single environmental government policy that has involved the use of force to suppress opposition.
The right wing link of environmentalism to fascism seems to rest upon the idea of severe economic regimentation. I suppose that what counts as severe is a subjective judgment. I don’t find it credible to suppose that the creation of regulations that would lead to the eventual reduction of CO2 emissions counts as severe.
Environmentalist policies are fascist in the sense that traffic laws are fascist, or librarians who charge late fees are fascist. If you’re going to stretch the term fascism in that way, well then, I guess you can go putting up these posters, reading “Save The Planet Is The Rallying Cry Of Fascism”, all over town.
Of course, if paste these posters up in public places, authorities may decide to to take them down… the fascists.
Personally, I prefer a poster that’s a little less strident: I Don’t Just Hug Trees. I Kiss Them Too.
