The Nazis who watched Tucker Carlson and claimed to “learn from him,” in terms of his rhetorical skills, but they were also fascinated by the spectacle of fascist subject formation being performed live. This is part of the intrinsic thrill and attraction of fascist politics: identification with a leader who is “coming to power” and “revealing the truth,” the accelerating revelation of the unstoppable strength of the leader, his defiance and contempt for the enemy, and their impotence in stopping him. We saw this process also with Trump’s run for the White House. I believe it was as much Trump’s embodiment of this subjective dimension of fascist politics as much as his actual stated views that drew the entire extreme right to rally around him. In their poetry and art, the Futurists were obsessed with the notions of “velocity” and “acceleration.” In like manner, Fascist politics give the feeling of “momentum,” “going there” and “moving towards,” an exciting sense of fatal direction. Every time a Carlson or a Musk moves towards closer to the adoption of explicitly fascist ideals, the audience for it reacts with excitement and encourages more: “Keep going, you’re so close.” (Obviously, it is difficult to separate this from a certain psychosexual dimension.)
