In Toronto, the morning after US strikes ignited oil depots across Tehran. I reach for Michael Parenti. His core insistence is that fascism is not madness or mob psychology but a calculated counter-revolution: deployed when socialist and labour movements threaten property relations, used to crush unions, criminalize minorities, and restore profitability through repression. It puts the irrational back into perspective.

Sources:

Michael Parenti, Black Shirts and Reds: Rational Fascism and the Overthrow of Communism (1997, City Lights Books) https://citylights.com/city-lights-published/blackshirts-reds-rational-fascism/

Michael Parenti, Waiting for Yesterday: Pages from a Street Kid's Life (2013, Bordighera Press) https://www.michael-parenti.org/book-waiting-for-yesterday

Jean-Paul Sartre, Anti-Semite and Jew (1945/1948 English translation, Schocken Books) https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/330311/anti-semite-and-jew-by-jean-paul-sartre/

Bluesky: matthewremski.bsky.social

Instagram: @matthew_remski

YouTube: antifascistdad

TikTok: @antifascistdad

Patreon: antifascistdadpodcast

Pre-order Antifascist Dad: Penguin Random House