Me crie como un fascista

After years of investigating the far right, reading intellectuals and historians, but also facing threats in the streets and in court, Antonio Maestre still couldn't find an answer to the most uncomfortable question: Why does the radicalization of people who have never been extremists occur? What leads people with whom you share work, or even family, who would never harm anyone, to replicate fascist behaviors? What goes through their minds that makes them suddenly see the most vulnerable people as enemies and embrace the most toxic ideas in our history? For Maestre, the answer necessarily involves an intimate and emotional, almost psychological, approach. Because the rise of the far right has less to do with external reasons (the economic crisis, social discontent, the dismantling of the welfare state) than with internal factors, with how men have been raised with sexist and misogynistic values, such as domination, humiliation, and violence, from which it is difficult to escape, even for him. In his words, “We can all have fascist impulses, and sometimes we act in ways that allow this ideology to gain ground in our daily lives. Looking back on my childhood and adolescence, I've realized that I was raised as a fascist, and what's strange is not developing in the same way as an adult.” "Raised as a Fascist" is an honest and relentless essay that blends biography, analysis, and readings to offer us an original approach to the rise of neo-fascism. A personal journey that begins in the domestic sphere, in our neighborhoods and our homes, inviting the reader to understand a worrying phenomenon that is gaining ground worldwide. It is also a book that offers us tools to combat it and a starting point for doing so: we need to replace the prevailing resentment with empathy for others.