When we think of Fascism, there is often a very clear idea of what visuals and rhetoric these regimes use. Without any real driving beliefs beyond the accumulation of capital for the national bourgeoisie, the fascist will use themes of previous reactionary movements, mixed with some revamped imagery to keep up the appearance of novelty. The endlessly repeated themes of fascism are constantly shown to their audience through rhetoric and visual aesthetics. The veneration of power, their chosen ethnicity, and death and dying run rampant through fascist art, speech, and even their attempts at humor. It’s important to examine these themes since they are what drives the appeal of fascism to the public. Without power, the fascist seems weak, without their exalted ethnicity, the fascist has no constructed nation to fall back on, and without death, the fascist has no ultimate goal, whether for their enemy or their own soldiers.
Ethnicity is everything to the fascist. Every single fascist state had an ethnic component to its ideology, From Franco’s suppression of non-Spanish languages to the Nazis’ outright extermination of minorities. One of the key foundations of fascism is ethnocentrism, or the viewing of other cultures through the lens of one’s own, often with no regard for the viewed culture’s own norms or social constructs. Ethnocentrism often leads into a state of Ethnonationalism, which can best be described as the placement of one’s own culture above others. This can be due to a wide variety of reasons, from a supposed origin myth that places the ethnic group above the rest of the world, or a simple cultural superiority complex.
The nationalist idea of a chosen, superior nation is the backbone of Fascism. As fascism is capitalism in crisis, we see the national bourgeoisie harness the resentments of fascist movements to aim them at people within the state but not of the chosen nation. For example, Franco used his power to suppress the Basque language and culture so much so that the Euskaldunak- or Basque- population is still dwindling to this day. While many of the Basque resistance groups were and still are nationalist in nature, they arose in direct response to the historic treatment of the Basque people both during and before Franco. While non-fascist states are certainly more than capable of oppressing minority populations, the deliberate stoking of resentment towards these groups is central to fascist messaging.
The way this usually presents itself is through the fascist’s rhetoric, whether through the veil of humor or in open attacks. The jokes fascists tell are usually racist, and their talking points generally center around misinformation meant to stir and exploit ethnic tensions. Lies spread by the fascist are often flowery when discussing their own ethnicity, but vile when discussing their targets. When the fascist talks about their race, they glorify their culture, but when they talk about anyone deemed lesser than them, they spread vicious lies to convince their audience that they are righteous in their hatred. And all of this is harnessed by the bourgeoisie to direct peoples’ resentment at the current state of society away from the fallout of their capitalist exploitation and greed towards people far less defended from fascists’ violence.
Fascism is fueled by the power fantasy of the bourgeoisie. Without the outward appearance of power, whether through a sense of legitimacy from manipulated elections, the evangelized moral qualities of the rich, or through a perverse self-righteousness from reactionary ideas, the central theme of power emanates throughout Fascism. Take, for example, the Fascist headquarters in Italy during the 1934 general election. The fascists had placed the now infamous “Si facade” on the Palazzo Braschi. This avant-garde propaganda piece was constructed to radiate a powerful image of Mussolini and encourage the Italian people to approve the Grand Council of Fascism’s administrative appointments. This was paired with voting cards, where the YES card was highly decorated, while the NO card was plain. Italy was not the only country to do this. The Nazi Party in Germany had comically sized yes and no boxes on their ballots as well. Think of Trump’s “big beautiful” label for everything he does, the constant schoolyard boasting that they are winners while everyone else is a loser. Fascism’s appeal to its non-bourgeois foot soldiers lies in feeding people’s sometimes very real feelings of diminishment, and coming down from on high proclaiming that by joining the fascist movement, they can become powerful too.In the same way that a feeling of empowerment can seem like an easy solution to your personal problems, the fascist usage of power can seem like an easy solution to the problems of the nation. From the Italian fascists who promised national violence as a revitalizing solution to Italy’s economic woes and second-tier status among the nations of Europe, to the modern Euro-American fascists who promise that violence against their darker-skinned neighbors can lower the price of eggs, the bourgeois, through their fascist mouthpieces, use the illusion of power to distract from the true causes of peoples’ problems while promising its unrestrained use against those scapegoats as a solution to their mislabeled problems.
The usage of powerful imagery can promote, in some cases, the state’s authority, or in other cases, nationalistic violence. We see fascists everywhere using militaristic visuals to make themselves seem strong. The glorification of the mythologized warrior as some sort of transcendental being is integral to fascism as a whole. Whether it be in the vein of the Italian Futurists, who saw nationalist violence as necessary for national rebirth, or the current day usage of heavily armored police units for the smallest of issues in America, it’s meant to elicit a fervour in the populace. The state wants violence at the forefront of the people’s minds that’s directed by the fascist towards a minority and used to rally the people against that group.
The supposed threat from these scapegoated groups needs to be a constant for the fascist messaging to fulfill the goals of its bourgeois masters . Without the need to prepare for violence “in defense of the people”, their policies begin to falter, as the people lose this predisposition towards violence and become more aware of the true reasons behind their misery and powerlessness. The fervour requires some level of direction, or else it stagnates and drops. When the people lose the will to fight for fascism, the regime begins to crumble.
Death in the fight against the enemy is perhaps one of the most respectable ways, perhaps the only respectable way, to die in the mind of the fascist. This corresponds heavily with the usage of the power fantasy, as the Veneration of Death in the fascist narrative follows a powerful life. Fascist leaders will often prepare their followers for a “glorious death” in the wars that occur either before or during the fascist total takeover, which leaves them in a state of frenzy when the war finally starts.
Violence, death, and militarism are all key themes to fascist rhetoric. The opponent needs to die a violent death, and the fascist is willing to deliver that killing blow personally. This fascination with death drives the fascist to see the world in extremes, where people must either live or die according to inherent identities they hold. While there are extreme circumstances where violence may be necessary, this line of thinking leads fascists to resort to violence as a first, and often preemptive choice.
Death to the fascist is the final state of being, and everything must prepare for it. Ultimately, the fascist knows that their ideology requires many to die, so they attempt to make that seem both normal and something worth protecting. It’s why skulls and skeletons are so commonly used by fascists. Take for example the totenkopf that was on certain Nazi uniforms. Its usage is meant to evoke fear in the enemy, a sense of impending death. It’s why the same symbol was used by proto-fascist forces, such as the Freikorps. The need to strike fear into the hearts of the enemy corresponds with the fascist’s power fantasy, where they can be the one giving the killing blow.
While there are many aspects of fascism that don’t fall under the term “aesthetics”, these three themes are often used by the fascist aesthetic to promote violence and hatred. Ethnicity, power, and death coalesce into a shrieking skull, meant to bring fellow fascists into a frenzy, while also bringing fear to the targets of the fascist. Without these tools, it would be harder for fascism to spread, as the largest proponents of fascism often are first drawn in by the machismo and nationalism of the movement. But many of the aesthetics of fascism can be traced back to these three things, Ethnocentrism, Power, and Death..