I approached reading Astra Taylor and Naomi Klein’s “End Times Fascism: And the Fight for the Living World” with trepidation, bordering on fear. “Fascism” and “end times” are not words you want to see yoked together.
But I’d read previous books by both authors, “Democracy May Not Exist, But We’ll Miss It When It’s Gone” (Taylor) and “The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism” (Klein), and they’d each provided insights into the state and shape of the world that would not have occurred to me otherwise. This is essentially my bar for a quality current events book, and given that they’d cleared it individually, I wanted to see what happened when their forces were joined together.
“End Times Fascism” does indeed tell a scary story, but I finished the book feeling not scared, but hopeful that we’re already managing these threats, and more progress is possible going forward.
Taylor and Klein identify three distinct, but related strands of end times fascism, “religious end timers,” “tech end timers” and “ethno-nationalist end timers.” While the authors call these groups an “alliance,” it is not so much a coordinated effort but a categorization based on the particular belief that the end times are not only likely, but from their points of view, desirable.
The tech end timers are represented by the Silicon Valley billionaire class who sincerely claim a significant likelihood of the AI technology they are funding and developing exterminating humanity, and yet continue to push forward with it anyway. As protection, they are building literal underground bunkers they can escape to in the instance of an apocalypse. Things like democratic will are hindrances to their goals.
The religious end timers are not a new phenomenon. Anyone who recalls the “Left Behind” series of books from the 1990s is familiar with Biblical prophecies of Armageddon, where the Christian faithful are raptured to heaven and those “left behind” endure tribulations beyond imagining. The religious end timers embrace a worldview where they should affirmatively pursue ends that reflect this biblical prophecy to hasten this eventuality.
The frightening notion Taylor and Klein alerted me to is that people who embrace this world view are installed at the highest levels of government, including Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought. What does it mean to have people who are responsible for managing the welfare of society believing that an end times scenario is desirable?
The ethno-nationalists are represented by figures like Nick Fuentes, the white supremacist leaders of the “groypers” who wish to create a fortress America for a white majority with people like him deciding who qualifies. Once again, these groups are nothing new, but they have been freshly empowered by a government that validates this worldview.
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It is all very grim, but Taylor and Klein want us to recognize that there is not only hope, but tangible progress. That progress is rooted in what they call a philosophy of “hereness,” essentially a recognition that there is one planet well-suited to humanity (the one we live on), that we are nurtured by acting in community with others, and that previous fascist threats have been defeated with these forces.
Taylor and Klein are unapologetic leftists, advocating for policies like wealth taxes and strong environmental actions to check the power of the members of this alliance that threaten our democracy. At times I thought, “we’ll never do that” to their calls for action. But for things that seem too bold at first blush, I encourage us to consider the alternative if we don’t act.
A bracing, vital read.
Book recommendations from the Biblioracle
John Warner tells you what to read based on the last five books you’ve read.
1. “Yesteryear” by Caro Claire Burke
2. “The Secret History” by Donna Tartt
3. “The Corrections” by Jonathan Franzen
4. “Piranesi” by Susanna Clarke
5. “Circe” by Madeline Miller
— Bev P., Chicago
Some works with quasi-fantastical elements mixed with more grounded drama. I’m sticking with the grounded drama, but going big (in terms of page count) with Paul Murray’s “The Bee Sting.”
1. “Heaven Is a Playground” by Rick Telander
2. “Just Mercy” by Bryan Stevenson
3. “Small Mercies” by Dennis Lehane
4. “Marble Hall Murders” by Anthony Horowitz
5. “We Chase Shadows” by Richard Osman
— Donald T., Chicago
Donald should dig into the first book in Colson Whitehead’s “Harlem Trilogy,” “Harlem Shuffle.”
1. “Wise Blood” by Flannery O’Connor
2. “The Dud Avocado” by Elaine Dundy
3. “Oreo” by Fran Ross
4. “The Fraud” by Zadie Smith
5. “Long Island Compromise” by Taffy Brodesser-Akner
— Jill S., Brooklyn, New York
Jill is not going to mind something that takes some risks, “Big Swiss” by Jen Beagin.
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Send a list of the last five books you’ve read and your hometown to [email protected].
John Warner is the author of books including “More Than Words: How to Think About Writing in the Age of AI.” You can find him at biblioracle.com.