Nietzsche, The Nazis and Sub$tack

A provocative account of ‘Master and Slave Moralities’ that helps us make sense of the above conflict.

Disclaimer : The following story is not about anti or pro Nazi. Instead, it is an attempt to explain the futility of the conflict. The overall providence of Nietzsche’s philosophy, as a ghost, plays the central character. To ask, if we can go beyond the common bias and fragmentation that plagues our objective thoughts and actions.

Recently, The Atlantic reported that Substack was not censoring “overt Nazi symbols” hosted by several prominent white nationalists and their supporters. America’s imperial media, the New York Times expressed concern by saying “Substack newsletters that incite violence”. The NYT itself a pro-war media-giant, serving the American empire, one way or another. The so called ‘Nazis’ who identify themselves as nationalist, radical-right, far-right, ultra-conservative etc are mostly based in North America and in smaller numbers in the UK, Italy, Holland, Spain, Poland, Hungary, France and Germany. According to Right Wing Watch, the above group numbers around 585,000 white men (and a few women) in the United States. While some see this group as “a severely disenfranchised mob…with varying levels of religious and nationalist ambitions.” (Klaus Wahl) others express fear, concern, need for intervention and outright calls for censorship of Neo Nazis. There is no ‘Left Wing Watch’ and missing are the numbers opposing the above group. An objective guess would place the figure in the tens of millions spread across the world.

The loudest proponents of this existential war, the online battles, overt ideas, symbols, images, text and multimedia - the entire specter is all taking place within the technosphere, on privately owned platforms. Which by construct are non-autonomous and prone to fundamentalism, conspiracy and tyranny. Or in reality, at best when the Nazis took over Manhattan in 2019 or when far-right mobs stormed the Capitol in 2022 or the radical Left erupted globally as the Occupy movement of 2011.

Nietzsche’s vision of a ‘Godless world’ where human beings are eternally fighting with each other, as slaves and masters, also provides rationality to this ongoing ‘Nazi Anti-Nazi Conflict’. Nietzsche (1844-1900) is famous for many disturbing visions, but most for his statement that “God is dead”. Within politically and morally absurd ideas of his age, Nietzsche saw the ethos of a meaningless world to come. His provocative account of ‘Master and Slave Moralities’ helps us understand the above conflict and what makes both sides attack each other again and again. Who is the master or the slave in this eternal struggle for power based on moral banality? Inside a ‘Godless world’ which is all but predicated by high-speed technology, owned by a plutocracy who’s primary motivation is profit and vertical expansionism (endless growth).

An early form of socialism is visible across social media, be it Facebook, Twitter, Tik Tok, Substack etc, by construct “aims to collectivize people, while eating into privacy and autonomy (freedom)… profiting from the clash of marginalized groups, irrespective of ideology, impact and consequence” (Truthout, 2021). Censorship, however totalitarian in nature, appears as a set of ‘benevolent community guidelines’ which essentially serve the above maxim. Nietzsche’s philosophy in a simplified sense, provides a decent explanation about the foundations of tyranny and the mechanisms it may inflict. According to Nietzsche, dominant moral forces (of any age) often equate to domestic forms of dictatorship. Then ‘Nazi’ now ‘Woke’. But the Nazi of today is very different in ideology and form, compared to the Nazi of the 1930s, much like the Socialists of today do not adhere to any Socialist values of that age.

While we prize and embrace notions like ‘freedom of speech’ and “political and gender diversity” (Grace Lavery, ex-Substack influencer), eventually the system coerces us to confirm and comply, be it online or in reality. Grace Lavery, who was initially supercharged about the newsletter industry, eventually gave up, shocked by the rise of transphobic content and criticism of trans-politics, on her favorite social media platform. She like thousands of social justice warriors of America, prefer ‘sanctuary’ or ‘echo-chambers’ where conflicting values or problematic questions have little or no space. Opposing groups, motivated to fight one way or another, yet at the same time striving for universal solutions. Not based on reason, rather a disenfranchised impulse. Like an innate tendency that latches on to systems of propaganda. Far from these social justice wars, one can find objective discourses by someone like Alberto Toscano, that clearly explain the conditions which help the rise of fascist values and practices within liberal democracies.

Less we forget both sides utilize the same techniques of propaganda. While one is hailed as good propaganda the other side is labelled as evil propaganda.

Hence, social justice warriors or Nazis, both strive for political success, inside a capitalist society which champions individualism above everything else. Similar to the people of Germany who brought the Nazis to power and eventually paid a terrible price for their devotion to a cause, arrogated by the Fuhrer in the name of an imaginary ‘Fatherland’. Struggles of common people, such as right to free speech, right to worship, freedom from want, freedom from fear, can be turned on their head. By flipping a “fight for” to a “fight against” - then directed against free speech, against religious minorities, furthermore spread fear and othering. Nietzsche’s dislike for human beings lead only by reason, often portrayed as a nihilist ideology, explicates the duality involved in such conflicts. Ones which can never provide resolution nor meaning to current society.

Hitler and the leading Nazis based Nietzsche as their principle inspiration and that is why many people today associate Nietzsche and the Nazis together. Nietzsche as an anti-Semite. Nietzsche as the ultimate doomer! But Nietzsche died 30 years before the Nazis came to power. Nietzsche equally criticized the liberals and the orthodox, the religious and the atheist, as well as the Germans and the Jews of his age. Less we forget that the Nazis inspired by Nietzsche, were outspoken anti-capitalists, anti-liberal, pro-science and socialists to begin with.

Their vision of the world was based on a ‘Master Slave’ regime that would last forever. Their ideas of superiority, based on race, technology and Nietzsche’s ‘Overman’ (giver of meaning) all went horribly wrong, for everyone involved. Nietzsche’s “blonde beast” eventually ruined most of Europe. Less we forget the Gulags commissioned by Stalin or the revolution of Mao Zedong in China or Harry Trueman’s Atom Bomb, as aspects of the “final solution” or acts which sentenced millions of innocent people to death.

But these leaders were never defeated nor punished. Worse, many more like them followed, who all wanted to strip society of ‘bad ideas’ and cleanse ‘inherent evil’. Hence, be it Nazism, Fascism, Communism, Capitalism or Socialism, at some point in history, all have wielded terrible outcomes and continue to do so. Think broadly and abstractly. About a hundred years ago (1910-1930) a similar zeitgeist prevailed, however without the power of the internet and was mostly concentrated within Europe. Today the conflict reappears again and again at a global scale. For this is the “Age of Anger” (Pankaj Mishra). While the ‘superior type’ can belong to any given race, it always provides the ‘highest and best hope’ for the world, based on whatever faith, be it religious, technological, linguistic, racial, etc, Always manifesting itself as an “hierarchy based closed society” (Karl Popper).

Nietzsche’s “Blonde Beast and Racism” would make a cool fairy tale for children of today. However imaginary, the blonde beast was symbolic of European imperial arrogance, which in spirit and form gave way to Socialism, Nazism, Fascism and was eventually absorbed by Anglo-American militarism, within it’s dominant culture, movies, by war heroes and by the entire ruling elite (left, right and center). But Nietzsche’s “Blonde Beast” was totally distorted and taken out of it’s context, towards insane acts of violence and domination. Donald Trump could symbolize the “blonde beast” yet he is not alone in this “reckless power circus” (Sheldon Wolin, Inverted Totalitarianism). In a nutshell, the beast (blonde or not) was Nietzsche’s euphemistic lion, a desire to see man achieve his true potential. For it was Nietzsche, who coined the term “potentiality”. For who? For all human beings, especially those trying to find meaning in a Godless world.

A hundred years later, that “blonde beast” in spirit is still running around, yet without any context, inside a globalized world, where human beings by construct have one clear purpose, and that is to serve the current system. Or as defined by Jacques Ellul, a continuous flow of “Propaganda which creates a total absence of social gravity and reason.” (Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes, 1962).

As symbols of success, galloping along the blonde beast, are really bad ideas backed by lofty visions. But we recoil at the mention of a “Master Race” and the blonde swastika bearing Aryans, who committed terrible acts of cruelty upon millions of common people. We lash out at nationalism, racism, anti-Semitism, ‘Christian Identity’, homophobia, misinformation and conspiracy theories, at the same time we enable a system, totally privatized, which profits from “powerlessness and political apathy”. This motion, comes across as an endorsement, for social justice warriors and Nazis alike, to try and take back power and lost dignity. Happens online and in reality, on a daily basis.

While Substack hosts a range of writers committed to social justice, including renowned journalists, plus anti-capitalists, transgender and environmental activists, anti-Zionists, anarchists, doctors, scientists, psychologists, social libertarians etc, it is also a platform for communities based around magic healing, survival expertise, conspiracy theories, doomer narratives, techno-futurists, spiritual gurus, people who love cats and dogs, people who love nature, people who love cryptocurrency and vegan food, and also who identify themselves as far-right conservatives. It is akin to a market or a shifting index and not a real society, in terms of who is right or wrong. While co-founder of Substack, Hamish McKenzie’s plans to “strip bad ideas of their power” how he does so in reality, will be predicated by the business model and not by any democratic policy. Privately owned social media by no means ensures the well being and safety of democracy or it’s users.

The justification of settler colonialism, white pride and christian nationalism that manifests online via advocates of white supremacy currently thriving on Substack, makes it sufficiently clear that ‘freedom of speech’ has been weaponized, by both sides and effectively converted into propaganda and counter-propaganda. White men who lobby openly for fascism, also justify oppression, yet their ‘daily drivel’ can also be taken as “Enlightenment with Mythopoetic Hyperstitions”. The hilarious part, that their disenfranchised status is similar to the “communist” and “liberal” and “vermin” counterparts, all consistently feeding into a system, demonizing each other, which by construct thrives on conflict and not mutuality. Hamish McKenzie and Substack remain tacitly mute in any case, as long as profit and traffic rise, all be it based on hate, divisive propaganda and prejudice.

On May 10th, 1933, over 40,000 books were burned across 34 German universities, including books by Albert Einstein, George Orwell, Sigmund Freud and Ernst Hemingway. “The future German man will not just be a man of books, but a man of character.” (from Joseph Goebbels’ radio broadcast 1933). A collusion of top-down censorship and mass hysteria. Similar in spirit are the widespread calls to de-platform Nazis and the far-right of today. Take down their content, cancel their monetizing rights and punish them as “online outcasts” (Vox magazine, 2019).

While in reality, they carry on, threatening and attacking the weak and the minority, on an ever increasing basis. Inside a technological society, the state and law can do little, to control the spread of of radicalism. What makes for condemnation now, was felt and seen as great hope back then. What makes for hope and justice now, was condemned back then. Back then, it was about conquest and war, now it is about “…group identities, locked in a zero sum game, constantly at war, with other groups” (Nietzsche and the Nazis, Stephen C. Hicks)

“From our perspective as Substack publishers, it is unfathomable that someone with a swastika avatar, who writes about “The Jewish question,” or who promotes Great Replacement Theory, could be given the tools to succeed on your platform. And yet you’ve been unable to adequately explain your position” (In the Writing Burrow, Margaret Atwood). As morally loaded the text feels, as clear is the maxim of all privately owned social media platforms. Profit first, consequences later.

Current social justice movements in America partly resemble values akin to Socialist and Nazi ideologies of the 1920s and 30s. But the equation based on power has been reversed. Margaret Atwood of all, now bearing the Anti-Nazi torch. While it’s true that there is visible censorship online, there are some Substack newsletters written by Nazis and white nationalists which have thousands of subscribers, making the platform “a new and valuable tool for creating mailing lists for the far right” (Jonathan M Katz -Substack Has a Nazi Problem). But so do their opponents and so does every social justice warrior dedicated to a given cause. The business of collecting dollars and members, while feeding off and into an entirely capitalist mechanism, works for both sides. But for how long, no one knows.

Like black exists as long as white does, evil persists as long as good does. The notions change over time, but the conflict remains. One cannot behave like a “blonde beast” neither attain the status of Nietzsche’s “Overman”. In that sense, the Nazis will exist, however de-platformed and cancelled, as long as the social justice warriors do. So ironic that Zionists are increasingly seen as members of “a genocidal regime” but a hundred years ago the group symbolized solidarity, peace, intellect and struggle for legitimacy.

Substack, for whatever it may stand for in words, is eventually defined by profit maximization and market dominance, and without appearing good and righteous it cannot sustain it’s popularity. It can experience a slow decay or a mass exodus, a loss of quality and reputation, especially for the ever fleeting economy of writing online.

For a vast majority of people, good leaders equate to just leaders, as what Nietzsche called “Ones who herald new symphonies… the higher powers that shoulder responsibility and reason”. We cannot blame Nietzsche for presupposing the arrival of any such age in reality, because he could not foresee a horizon metastasized almost entirely by technology. A type of global serfdom, felt within all current forms of governance. But we can hold Nietzsche up, for heckling us to think freely. Step outside given limits. To trust instinct, passion and will, not be chained by reason and fear. Leading us all towards a world, where no one is in control anymore, of anything particularly important. Makes for a squishy feeling of panic for the moment!

Ahead of time, we cannot predict what the near term future would be like, within fragmented societies regardless of the internet, social media or not. We know not, how the dominant ideas, decisions and theories of today would translate ten years down the line. Wither Nazi or Anti-Nazi, in a world where human beings have become easily dispensable, at the same pace as machines, vehicles and computers. Reason itself might disappear from the overall picture. Then if something is good or bad is less and less important, than one may presuppose.

Inside the technosphere, how this ‘cat and mouse game’ will end up, we don’t know. We can hardly distinguish between the cats and mice anymore. To an extent, popular social justice has been hijacked or subverted by self-serving entities and organizations. Most them self-guided, yet operating within the limits of the technosphere.

The Nazi versus Anti-Nazi conflict is actually between a set of ambitious people. Say thousands and thousands of ‘Overmen’ at each other, inside a closed society. Not so much about the specificity of the morals they stand for, the conflict has no real outcome, other than individual alienation or collective psychosis. A world dominated by highly evolved self-serving entities, that Nietzsche called the ‘Übermensch’ - “Caesars with a soul of Christ”. Be they Nazi or anti-Nazi, inconsequential difference then, for both sides belong to a civilization that itself faces possibility of collapse. What do the well meaning owners of Substack have to say about that?

History tells us, the power and philosophy that the Nazis stood for, are and were false. And terribly destructive! However, the new Übermensch of today, show the same resolve and confidence, out to set new “goals for humanity” (Thus Spoke Zarathustra). But we do not do ourselves any favors, nor to future generations, by calling the Nazi ‘madmen’ or ‘evil’ or ‘crazy’. For a new set of intellectual and emotional powers, radical ideas, as libertarian that they appear today, may turn totalitarian or totally Nazi in the coming future.

🥜 🐿️