Fascism is a fandom, and people leave fandoms all the time.

I mentioned parasocial relationships a post or so ago, and that got me thinking about what those relationships provide and how they function and that led me to thinking about Fascism as Fandom and the cult of personality and how it cracks... because sometimes it does crack.

People make their fandoms part of their identity, it’s true. But it’s also possible to change your mind about something. As a case in point, I loved the TV show I, Spy.  I still do in a theoretical fashion, but I can’t watch it anymore because I am so mad at Bill Cosby. Thanks for ruining my childhood, Bill, you dick.

And that’s why I grow increasingly frustrated with the facile cynicism and learned helplessness-as-excuse for those unwilling to fight it. I understand that there’s a lot of trauma at work here, and that it does seem like an uphill battle against the fasch, but it’s exhausting when every positive development in prosecuting January 6th seditionists or uncovering more Trumpian crimes is met by people who ought to know better rolling their eyes and declaiming, “Well, nothing will ever come of it.”