Tornado Alley (PROG)

[12yearplan]

Can the term ‘cloud fascism’ help us understand – and resist – the hard right?

Many of us – writers, thinkers and politicians – try to come up with a catchy term for today’s fascism. At the heart of it, I have come to think, lies not only the desire to analyse but also the urge to attract people’s attention so they are adequately alarmed. It may be an all too human urge to think: “If only we could find the right word, people would stop and listen. Perhaps then they’ll do something.” In fact, it is good old fascism, only with many new spectacles and glamorous gadgets, like an updated app with new features. One of these new features of 21st-century fascism is being cloud-like. After all, it is the political child of cloud capitalism.

The late Pope Francis called this umbrella attitude “global indifference”. He often referred to human dignity as the last defence line of human morality against the indignities of our present political and economic reality.

This cloud of ours, this cloud fascism, is travelling the planet, showering us with acid rain. Yet each time it appears in a country, the citizens of the land behave as if it is the first time and only happening to them.

A cloud of resistance that is as random, fluid and unpredictable as cloud fascism. What can stop this acid rain is the everywhereness of the cloud resistance of human dignity.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/may/10/cloud-fascism-understand-resist-hard-right