The fascist’s utter disdain for weakness is the topic of episode eleven. To be clear, we’re talking about weakness as perceived by the fascist. Strongmen have always legitimized their control by contrasting their ideas about strength to the weaknesses they identify in their opposition. Whether it’s a physical disability, a lack of financial stability, or even lower television ratings, fascists will pinpoint weakness with glee and then rail against it. Thus, they redefine the meaning and appearance of strength for their target audience.

In episode ten, we will see that for the fascist, life is permanent warfare—we live only to struggle. All must be prepared to fight, endlessly, for the leader’s vision. If you are truly one of us, then you will destroy the enemy at every opportunity. If you are not willing to fight, then you must be the enemy, or at least trafficking with the enemy. Fascists remind us that pacifism is akin to degeneracy and leads down a path of ruin. They don’t want peace, much less appeasement, something we would have done well to recognize then as well as now. So much for giving peace a chance.

In our ninth episode, we try to wrap our minds around the duality of man, specifically the enemy, who is both weak and simultaneously too strong. The fascist tells us that the enemy is not only different from us, lesser than us, but that their differences—race/ethnicity, religion, political affiliations—are overwhelming. Furthermore, they are too many, they have too much, and they want to take more. They are, according to the fascist, “poisoning the blood of our country” and they must be stopped—if not by law, then by force.