Stop Calling MAGA Nazis

Don't waste your time and energy making this comparison

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Stop calling MAGA Nazis. It achieves nothing, and it is also incorrect. MAGA is a fascist movement in its own right.

Yes, they remind us of Nazis. Mainly because these are the only fascists most of us are familiar with. The rise and fall of the Nazi regime take up such a prominent negative space in our collective memory that they are the first to surface when we see a fascist movement arising in our midst.

You might as well call them Falangists, Salazarists, Legionnaires or Golden Dawners. But you’ve probably never heard of any of these many other fascist movements and regimes, so Nazi is what you think of.

But here’s what you don’t realize: calling MAGA Nazis only helps them grow stronger.

MAGA are not Nazis. They’re a distinct movement that uses the strategies and policies out of every fascist’s playbook.

Fascists have common policies

Like any good fascist movement, MAGA is built on a personality cult with an omnipresent, beloved leader who portrays himself as the savior of the nation. Think Mussolini, Franco, Salazar, Pinochet and yes, Hitler.

They glorify their culture as superior to others. ✅ They’ve started to militarize society by creating police forces that are trained, equipped and act like armies. ✅ They reject global institutions favoring national sovereignty (leaving the WHO, the Paris Agreement etc. ✅

They try to implement strict gender roles, pushing women into traditional roles as mothers and homemakers. ✅ Like, yes, Nazi Germany’s “Kinder, Küche, Kirche” policy, but also Mussolini’s “Battle for Birth” or “Franco’s Séccion Femina” that was tasked to train women to become better mothers and housewives. Or Argentina’s Peron, who promoted the ideal of the devoted wife and mother. All these regimes encouraged high birth rates and banned abortion as well as birth control.

I could go on and talk about the destruction of unions, large-scale rallies with symbolism that is supposed to create unity, racist immigration policies, scapegoating and discriminating against minorities etc. Yes, MAGA does all this. And yes, this is all common in fascist regimes.

But that still doesn’t make them Nazis. It makes them fascist. In their case, Christo-fascist. A scary combination.

They will be found in history books not as (Neo)Nazis but as MAGA. The acronym will become a modern synonym for fascism. Just as “Nazi” was until now. And there will be no need to add that they’re Nazis to explain that they tried to implement an oppressive fascist regime.

Their crimes against humanity will be studied and found in history books. Your grandchildren will shudder when they learn about how they tried to create a Christo-fascist nation run by religious fundamentalists.

Let’s not forget that while the mob is chanting that they want to make America great again, the string pullers are working on eliminating the division of religion and state. If they succeed - and I’m convinced they won’t - they will build a nation that is very similar to what the Taliban have created in Afghanistan.

A nation that not only oppresses women and limits them to the home and childbearing but also forces everyone, men included, to live according to their very narrow interpretation of ancient Middle Eastern religious teachings.

Calling MAGA Nazis makes them stronger

But the biggest reason you have to stop calling them Nazis is that it doesn’t have the effect you think it has. When you think of Nazis, you feel revulsion, disgust and possibly fear. They don’t. They admire what the Nazis did.

You’re vocal about the similarities to the Nazi regime that you see because you think pointing them out will make people who haven’t noticed turn away from them in disgust. Just as you would.

But that is not what happens.

Yes, in the beginning, when yous see the first signs and speak up, people hear “Nazi,” they take notice and observe. They may even be outraged by something a fascist is saying about immigrants, women or homosexuals. But, they look for the little they remember about Nazis: concentration camps, swastikas, mass killings, state surveillance, dictatorship. And they can’t find it.

So, when they don’t immediately see what they’re looking for and don’t feel any personal impact from what is happening, they return to business as usual.

Then something else happens that alarms you and people hear you say Nazi again. They still can’t find the blatant signs they’re looking for and still feel nothing has changed.

And then a third and a fourth and a fifth time. At some point, they start to feel you’re crying wolf and stop paying attention.

We’ve watched this happening in Austria for the last 35 years. A far-right fascist says something atrocious, and the moderate media reports call them Nazis, a short public outrage happens. Then nothing.

And it initiates a circle of desensitization and normalization. On the one hand, people get used to the open discussion of fascist ideology and policies; on the other hand, the lack of consequences fuels the feeling of normalization of these talking points.

The Overton window of acceptable behaviors and thoughts slowly shifts further right, and what once seemed atrocious becomes normal. And while they say more and more things that used to be unacceptable, society shifts further right. More and more people start voting for them despite their vile ideas.

The other parties—and this is the worst outcome—shift further right too as they try to stem the flow of voters to the far right.

Since 1986, the far-right party FPÖ in Austria has risen from 5% of the votes to 57 of the 183 seats in our National assembly, more than any other party. At the same time, our conservative party has been taking on more and more far-right talking points. It hasn’t helped them because people always vote for the original. Instead, they have lost more and more seats and eroded the moral consensus our society was built upon.

At the moment, we can see the same thing happening with the CDU (Christian Democrats) and the AFD (Musk’s far-right pets) in Germany.

Our last election was in October, and we still don’t have a working government. At the moment, it looks like there will be no positive outcome to the coalition negotiations. If we have to run another election to break the status quo, there is a high chance that they will get even more votes.

No amount of calling these people Nazis has stopped them from becoming more and more successful. The only thing it’s achieved is that people no longer care if you call anyone a Nazi. It no longer has any meaning.

So stop calling MAGA Nazis. Call them Christo-fascists. Talk about what their policies will do to hurt the person you’re talking to. Explain in simple terms why you don’t want to live in a world run by religious fundamentalists. And what that would look like.

And stop doing it when you talk to people who’re not in the MAGA movement, too. Most people don’t understand why you’re making this comparison because they know next to nothing about how fascism rises. They don’t see the signs because they’re not like in the Nazi movies they’ve seen.

Maybe they’ll understand if you relate what is happening to what concerns them. It’s not guaranteed, but you have a better chance of them thinking about what you say. They really don’t care anymore if you call MAGAs or Musk Nazis.