Episode Overview
Podcast: New Books Network
Host: John Armenta
Guest: Dr. Jack Z. Bratich (Professor, Journalism & Media Studies, Rutgers University)
Book Discussed: On Microfascism: Gender, War, and Death (Common Notions, 2022)
Release Date: December 28, 2025
This episode delves into Dr. Jack Z. Bratich’s exploration of microfascism—a concept examining how fascist logics and desires manifest in everyday interactions, digital culture, and gendered social formations. The discussion connects historical and contemporary phenomena: settling colonialism, internet misogyny, COVID protests, Gamergate, and the normalization of right-wing cultural politics. Dr. Bratich also proposes the necessity—and emergence—of “micro-antifascism” as a form of resistance.
Main Themes & Purpose
- What is Microfascism?
Definition and theoretical lineage; how everyday behaviors and cultural products can constitute “micro” fascist formations. - Culture as a Political Field:
How fascism operates not just through the state, but in “micro” settings: rituals, online communities, and digital subcultures. - Gender at the Core:
How fascist formations are inseparable from misogynist, patriarchal, and anti-material (often anti-feminine) impulses. - From Death to Creation:
Tension in fascist logics between restorative/creative “myths” and a destructive, anti-life orientation. - Digital Manifestations:
Case studies including the manosphere, red-pilling, trolling, and Gamergate as contemporary microfascist phenomena. - Resistance & Hope:
The concept of “micro-antifascism” as practical opposition, from minor daily gestures to communal defense.
Key Discussion Points & Insights
Introduction & Motivation
- Bratich’s Academic Trajectory:
Shifted from analyzing progressive social movements (Occupy, Black Lives Matter) to understanding emergent right-wing cultural phenomena, especially those rooted in digital worlds, cosplay, and mythic imagery seen in Trump-era street protests.“We tend to try to make sense of the conjuncture... a cultural phenomenon in force that was right wing oriented but really tied to popular culture.” [03:19]
Why Study Fascism in Culture?
- Culture as Site of Struggle:
Cultural struggles impact politics; right-wing figures like Steve Bannon explicitly see culture as the battleground for political change (“politics is downstream from culture”) [05:21]. - Everyday Life as Arena:
Culture includes mundane rituals, small behaviors, and collective habits—not merely representations or high art.
Defining (Micro)Fascism
- Classical Definitions Evolve:
Cites Roger Griffin’s “palingenetic ultra-nationalism”—a nationalism constantly seeking rebirth or renewal.
Bratich's Extension:
Adds “eliminationist” desires: fascism as the process of self-assertion by eliminating the “other.”“To be oneself, to be a subject, to be something, one has to eliminate something else.” [07:16]
- Microfascism:
Term comes from Felix Guattari (with and without Deleuze): describes how fascist desires to dominate/discipline play out in everyday relationships (family, policing, local community) [10:47].- Not just “small-scale” fascism, but a layer or ecology (like microaggressions or a microbiome) [11:57].
Deep Roots: Reaction & Continuity
- Not Only Reactionary:
Settler colonialism and pre-modern traditions feed into microfascism; fascism can both predate and react against modernity.“There are ways it expresses itself as an anti-liberal, anti-modern force... at the same time... longer history [remains]... present in society.” [12:29]
Death, Suicide, Restoration: Central Tensions
- Restoring the Lost vs. Embracing Death:
Classic fascist regimes promoted “vitality” through sacrifice and death—this paradox persists in contemporary fascism.- Initiation rites: death of the old self to be “reborn” into a group (often masculinity/war-focused).
- Fleeing materiality, coded as “female,” to pursue abstraction/honor (ex. tech utopianism, Mars colonization) [16:29], [22:12].
“By ignoring life and fleeing life itself, one is doing a kind of almost necropolitics by neglect.” [19:36]
Core Concepts
- Palingenetic Eliminationism:
Fascist subjectivity as self-realization through the elimination of others [07:16]. - Autogenetic Sovereignty:
The myth of self-creation and self-authorization, with masculine selfhood posited as “self-made” and thus entitled to dominance.“Your power comes because you’re self-created. And by self-creating you’ve obviously demonstrated your power to do so.” [23:52]
- The Black Hole (Subjectivity):
Metaphor for how certain “microfascist” subjects collapse the world around them, seeking to take others down (mass shootings, incels, “forever alone together”).“It draws others or... the world into itself... not simply active in the world, but seeks also to work itself out in the world through action, through hurting others.” [27:01]
Case Studies
The Manosphere & Red Pilling
- Red Pill as Initiation Rite:
Not just a metaphor for learning “truth”—it’s about being initiated (almost like a secret society) into a gendered war, based in misogyny.- Tied to archaic rituals, practices of exclusion, and the myth of male self-creation [31:24].
“It’s not just, you know, bits of alleged truths... these were attempts at recruitment, mentoring, initiating into a war. Not just any war... the war on women.” [34:22]
Trolling & “Digital Numb Troops”
- Numbness as Virtue:
Online trolls (esp. from 4chan) elevate emotional numbness/shock tactics, often focusing on gender-based harassment and boundary-pushing.- Organization is decentralized, peer-to-peer, focused on chasing women/feminist voices out of public spheres (ex. Gamergate) [36:09].
“You could assemble people quickly for a campaign... didn’t need an organization... that was pivotal for the alt-right.” [39:28]
Collectives: War Bands, Squadrismo, Packs
- From History to Digital War Bands:
Classic fascist squads (Mussolini's squadrismo, German Freikorps) find micro-level parallels in temporary, digital squads, “brigading,” and decentralized hate campaigns [42:31].- The “Manorbund” or men’s bands as both literal and mythical foundation of fascist community.
“The war band... is the most explicit way to get into questions about... the pacting of men over against women, the need to flee the social, the material social...” [46:04]
COVID Protest “Death Styles”
- Neoliberal Liberty as Necropolitics:
Anti-mask, anti-vaccine protests exemplified the “death style”—valuing an abstract freedom over concrete survival.“If people die for my freedom, that’s OK... there were these moments of what, again, the death style is drawing off Mbembe’s necropolitics...” [51:18]
Micro-Anti-Fascism: Resistance & Alternatives
- Micro-Antifascism:
Resistance doesn’t have to mirror fascist tactics; instead, cultivate everyday solidarities, mutual care, calling in/out, and alternate kinships (queer, peer-based).“The book is designed to start that conversation... What are the forms of tradition that the left can also potentially invoke?” [56:49]
- Examples:
- Witchcraft, crafting, and cunning as symbolic traditions of resistance.
- Mutually-supportive “squads”—text groups, solidarity networks, restorative justice.
- Abolitionist practices as an alternative to eliminationist logics.
- Hope:
Anti-microfascist resistance is already happening, often untheorized, in people’s private lives or community groups.
Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments
-
On Digital Fascism’s Appeal:
“It’s not just about information... The red pill is an initiation rite... a recruitment into a war on women.” — Dr. Jack Z. Bratich [34:22]
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On Trolling and Gender:
“What can you take? What is your line of offensiveness? Or can you build up a tolerance to almost anything?... For me, that trolling was not a kind of... apolitical transgression... It was very much tied to gender-based harassment.” — Bratich [36:53]
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On the Black Hole Metaphor:
“There’s never actually an autogenetic subject... that black hole indicates that the autogenetic subject actually, or the sovereign, always needs others to enact what it wants to do—even if it’s to eliminate them.” — Bratich [27:01]
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On Resistance:
“How do we call out these misogynistic impulses... in our own everyday lives?... It’s about basic, let’s take care of each other by also calling each other out.” — Bratich [56:49]
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Host’s Reflection:
“While reading this book, I found it to be both incredibly illuminating and deeply unsettling... I started to recognize micro-fascism in many different places...” — John Armenta [01:35]
Timestamps for Key Segments
- [03:13] — Dr. Bratich’s background and turn toward studying fascist culture
- [05:04] — Why study fascism via culture? The role of meta-politics
- [07:16] — What is fascism? Palingenetic eliminationism
- [10:47] — Defining microfascism: from Deleuze & Guattari to everyday life
- [12:29] — Microfascism: reaction to and continuity with modernity/colonialism
- [16:29] — Central tension: death, suicide, and creation/restoration
- [23:52] — Autogenetic sovereignty: myth of self-creation
- [27:01] — Black hole subjectivity and collective nihilism
- [31:24] — The manosphere and red pill as gendered initiation
- [36:09] — Trolling, numb troops, and gender-based digital harassment
- [39:28] — Gamergate as a flashpoint for decentralized fascist organization
- [42:31] — Squadrismo, war bands, and squad-based organizing
- [51:18] — COVID protests, “death styles,” and necropolitics
- [56:49] — Micro-antifascism: strategies and everyday resistance
- [63:51] — Bratich’s new projects: fratriarchy, masculine fitness cultures
Conclusion
This episode offers a sweeping yet detailed account of microfascism—from its theoretical roots to its digital-age mutations—emphasizing how its logics pervade mundane, cultural, and gendered spaces. Dr. Bratich provides not just a diagnosis but also imagines anti-fascist responses at the same “micro” level: nurturing alternate traditions, collaborative squads, mutual care, and calling out harm. For listeners, the episode bridges the abstract and the concrete, the bleak and the hopeful, underscoring that both microfascism—and its resistance—thrive in daily life.