Thomas Fuchs
(Independent Scholar)
“The Historic Roots of Trump Fascism”
May 14, 2024, 4:15pm, Fakultätssaal (01-185, Philosophicum)
In the North American context, fascism has taken a distinctive look and rhetorical pattern. Trump’s brand of fascism can be traced to deeply embedded racial and economic disparities which became key elements of his presidential campaigns. Tapping into the culture wars concerning racial, gender, and sexual minorities simmering in American political discourse, Trump’s brilliant abuse of social media and demagogic rhetoric elevated him into a Jesus-like figure, the only one who really understood underprivileged and uneducated white people in fly-over country. In this lecture, Dr Fuchs traces the historical roots of the peculiar brand of fascism surrounding the figure of Donald Trump and how, as a cult leader of the alt-right, Trump has gained complete totalitarian control of the Republican Party and transformed it into a classic fascist “Führer” party, exemplified by the violence not only advocated
but implemented by Trump on January 6, 2021.
Thomas Fuchs is an independent researcher. He has taught English at a number of Colleges and Universities in Germany and the United States. He obtained his PhD in philosophy at the University of Oregon with a dissertation about financier Henry Villard.
You can download the poster for the event here.
