I Smell Petrol, I See Fire: A History of Success for Pathetic Fascism

Lavender Morgan, BA World Philosophies, 03/02/2025

The political branding and self-perception of the far-right can sometimes seem at odds with its reality. For a political brand obsessed with notions of strength in its most basic sense - the aesthetics of military hierarchy and uniform, the messaging of ‘crushing the enemy,’ and its tenuous linkage to the past grandeur of the Roman Empire - it strikes as embarrassing that today the far-right is synonymous for many with drunken skinheads, ‘pub racists,’ and the screen-bound neckbeards of 4chan chatrooms. As such, it is often easy to mock the figures of the far-right and cast them aside as serious political actors. However, given what is for many the shocking growth of the Reform Party in the UK, the AfD in Germany, and the electoral victory of Donald Trump, this propensity to deride the far-right has ushered in their process of normalisation, legitimisation, and political success. 

This gap in perceptions is not without precedent. The paradigmatic strong man of the far-right who serves as the epitome of fascist villainy in the Western imaginary, Adolf Hitler, was for much of the 1920s simply an Austrian ‘nobody;’ a failed art student turned postcard painter on the fevered fringes of politics, whose political acts included the embarrassing failure of the Munich Putsch. Yet, just a decade later, a sufficient willingness to look past and thus normalise Hitler’s blatant antisemitism in favour of his anti-Weimar nationalist politics had given him moderate electoral success. Himself perceived as a mere corporal and the Nazis as street thugs by the military establishment, ‘respectable’ conservative power-brokers tolerated their vulgarity so as to take advantage of Hitler by appointing him as Chancellor with a now doomed caveat: ‘You are mistaken; we've hired him.’ Rather than using Hitler, they had legitimised him and propagated the two-fold speech of fascist propaganda – word and dog-whistle – dousing a nation in the petrol of fascist speech. It shows, no conservative can do as good of an impression of the far-right as the far-right; no conservative is as good at setting alight a fire as an arsonist. 

Looking to today’s politics, this kind of appeasement and platforming of far-right trojan horses is everywhere to be seen. Regardless of his string of failed attempts to become an MP– once losing to a man dressed as a dolphin – and despite UKIP’s one seat general election success, Nigel Farage has for the last two decades become a regular feature on newspaper headlines and on TV screens. While it is easy to poke fun at Farage, one must ask: if it wasn’t for the over-reporting of in-fighting in David Cameron’s Tory party and the purported ‘rise’ of Farage’s UKIP, would there have been a referendum on EU membership? Likewise, would legacy cases of Rotherham grooming gangs, with fingers pointed at the British-Pakistani community, be on the frontpages if it wasn’t for the amplification of Elon Musk’s tweets by media outlets? Would Trump have won the 2016 election if it wasn’t for the free air-time of constant reporting between 2015 and 2016? The strategy of the far-right is not measured purely in ballots, but often in their remarkable influence and sway over media institutions, ‘respectable’ politicians, and conventional parties. 

It can be easy to over-compare the blueprints of the fascism of yesterday in trying to find the fascism of tomorrow. In this way, it can be easy to forget the presence let alone threat of ‘explicit’ fascists like the BNP, but this is not a result of their lack of support. Instead, it is the successful rebranding of fringe politics by figures like Farage. As such, for many of us, images of Musk jumping for joy at Trump’s rallies are a spectacle of online cringe content, but for your father or ‘tech-bro’ sibling, he is still some kind of ‘tech genius.’ Before our eyes, fascism is being normalised and legitimised, and fascists are moving from figures of ridicule into the corridors of power. It is our responsibility to remain alert, for the smell of petrol is permeating our society. Remember, the fascism of yesterday will not look like the fascism of tomorrow.