Fascism and the Mythical Past
More and more, we hear it: “Things used to be better.”
That we’ve lost our pride, our identity, our values- and that we must “take them back.”
But let’s be honest: that golden past never existed. It’s a myth used to sell an authoritarian future.
Political leaders and media figures are spreading fear and division.
They point to scapegoats – migrants, queer people, feminists, climate activists, scientists – and turn difference into danger.
Public debate becomes poisoned: not a clash of ideas, but of enemies.
And so, distrust of knowledge grows.
To think, question, or research is dismissed as elitist or “woke.”
That’s not an accident: discredit independent thinkers, and you eliminate dissent.
And when lies are repeated openly – not to persuade, but to confuse – the very idea of truth begins to erode.
Meanwhile, a new hierarchy is being constructed.
“Real citizens” versus “freeloaders.” “Normal people” versus minorities.
Always the same story: “We are the victims of a conspiracy.”
That sense of victimhood becomes permission -for injustice.
Gender diversity is attacked too.
People who dare to live as themselves are framed as threats to the “natural order.”
But what kind of order survives only by crushing others?
The same logic fuels the myth of the work ethic: hardworking citizens versus “parasites.”
As if human worth were measured by productivity instead of humanity.
And the city – countryside divide is inflated to turn neighbors against one another –
as if farmers and urban residents don’t share the same future.
Even the rule of law- meant to protect all of us- is being twisted into a weapon.
Used not to do justice, but to silence, punish, exclude.
Let’s call it what it is: fascism.
Not an ideology with coherent ideas.
But a method.
The method of power over principle.
Of defending “your own kind” at any cost.
In times of fear, that can sound tempting: someone stands up and says,
“I’ll fix it—and the problem is your neighbor, because he’s eating your cookie.”
It is politics of fear.
Replacing solidarity with suspicion.
Replacing humanity with domination.
And in the middle of the storm, the people at the center are rarely heard
“In the news and in politics, it’s always about people who don’t want an asylum center near their homes. But nobody asks what refugees have been through. They come from dangerous places, hoping to live freely in the Netherlands – but instead, they’re blamed for everything.”
Even for the violence committed against them.
“I’m afraid politicians will use the recent riots as an excuse to reject even more asylum seekers,”
People in the asylumcenter:
“When you could be deported at any moment, you make sure to stay informed. And then you see people on the news setting cars on fire, screaming against refugees – and you ask yourself: where is that freedom and protection we dreamed of?”
In just a few sentences, you hear everything: the hope, the fear, and the betrayal of our shared humanity.
But we do not have to accept this.
We can choose another story -one where truth, solidarity, compassion, justice, and peace matter more than fear and power.
A society that excludes no one, where difference is not a threat but a source of strength.
It begins with us.
Reject the lies. Think, speak, act.
Study the past – not as a weapon, but as a warning.
Because the future we deserve is not a repetition of a myth.
It is something we choose – and build – together.