The Liberalism to Fascism Pipeline

As someone born and raised in Canada in the early 1990s, my entire life has been lived in a capitalist world dominated by (small “l”) liberal values and ideas. The liberal world is one where individual rights have been elevated to such an extent that they are prioritized over almost everything else — including any sense of collective wellbeing.

One of the many ideas that we have been repeatedly force-fed is the importance of value pluralism, or in other words, the idea that all perspectives should be treated equally. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and free speech needs to be protected at all costs.

While I agree that some degree of free expression is important to a functional democratic society, I also feel that there needs to be limits on what sort of free speech is socially acceptable when certain opinions are explicitly harmful towards others, especially marginalized and/or over-exploited groups like the neurodivergent, disabled, queer, immigrants, and/or BIPOC communities (to name just a few). Some may see this as authoritarian or totalitarian, but I see it as protecting those most at risk from harm.

One of the negative consequences of value pluralism is that centrist or moderate views have come to be seen as morally superior (or more socially acceptable) than the more extreme or radical views associated with the far left or far right of the political spectrum. We are consistently told that we need to hear from “both sides,” and that we should strive to remain objective or unbiased in our opinions — as if that’s even possible?

However, I think that this tolerance for “both sides” is having very serious consequences for our current political moment, where we are witnessing the rise of far-right or even outright fascist leaders elected to governments around the world (e.g., Italy, Hungary, Argentina, possibly France soon etc.).

Prioritizing centrism and treating the far left as having views that are of equal to those of the far right means that we are forced to pretend that demanding free healthcare, better public transit, increased pay for workers, and meaningful action on climate change are essentially the same as calls from the far right to eradicate the LGBTQ2S+ community or treating vaccines as some globalist conspiracy.

One side is just asking for a world where our basic needs are provided for, while the other group wants to restrict women’s bodily autonomy (among other things). These two sides are NOT the same, and I would argue that the demands from the left aren’t even that extreme. Yet we are constantly told by mainstream voices that they are equally dangerous, and that centrism — or even not having an opinion — is somehow superior.

This is how moderate or centrist governments have allowed for the rise of far-right and/or fascist groups across the globe. Even if the far-right are considered to have extreme opinions, we are supposed to treat them as equally valid to those on the left, which has meant that many of the demands from the left which could be beneficial for society have been marginalized or delegitimized out of manufactured fear.

The problem is exacerbated further when you have centrist ruling parties, like we do here in Canada, who are still wholeheartedly committed to the capitalist way of life. Centrist leadership is almost always going to side with the far right over the far left, because the far left wants to move away from a world that’s driven by the profit motive and free-market coercion, while the right wants to maintain (or intensify) the existing forms of capitalist domination.

The status quo is treated as favourable, so rather than enacting policies that move us towards a more equitable world, our centrist governments allow us to slip backwards towards barbarism. It’s kind of like going the wrong way on an escalator. If you don’t keep moving forwards (i.e., fighting for improvements), then you only end up going backwards.

While I don’t necessarily have faith in parliamentary democracy as an effective political system for alleviating the suffering of the masses, I do think that it’s better than the fascist alternative we are steamrolling towards. If we don’t stop catering to the far-right and platforming them as equals, we risk far more than just losing democracy as we know it; the people we love are going to be harmed. We cannot “both sides” our way out of fascism.