Expect an uptick in cult activity soon too. The same conditions that lead to fascist organizing also empower cults.
This sounds interesting. While I can imagine a theory behind this, this doesn’t seem to match up with anything I know in history.
Are you thinking of specific times when cults became more popular simultaneously with fascists?
And if cults grow under the same conditions, shouldn’t we have already seen a rise in cults since the early 2000s, since that’s when fascists started gaining strength?
There were many of what historians have called “neo-volkisch” (or just “volkisch”)‘ societies in late 19th to early 20th century Germany which people have linked, directly or indirectly to the formation of the early Nazi Party. They usually combined elements of “nordic” neo-paganism, occultism, hardcore nationalism, esoteric thought, spiritualism and bizarre crack-pot historical theories (ie. Europeans are a super-race descended from the survivors of Atlantis) in their worldview.
They weren’t exactly “cults” as we would think of them today in a modern sense (like the Branch-Dravidians or Heaven’s Gate), but more like a loose collection of fringe occultists who were interested in extreme German nationalism.
The most direct connection to the Nazis was the Thule Society, whose members had sponsored the small hardcore nationalist party created by Anton Drexler , called the Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (German Worker’s Party),
which was the first iteration of the Nazi Party. Drexler has been described as Adolf Hitler’s (DAP Party member number #55) political mentor.
It’s been disputed by historians about how many prominent early Nazi party members were also members of the Thule Society or which ones were not Thule members whom just gave lectures to Thule Society meetings, either way the connections were pretty strong.
I can’t say much about Italian or other fascist movements, maybe someone can chime-in.
I am aware of the weird neo-paganist movements (which were indeed not really cults) within fascism but that’s not how I read the original post.
It seems to me like
trashgender-neurotica was saying that cults in general get more popular during the same period as fascists regardless of whether they have a connection to fashism because they exploit the same circumstances.
Unless I read that wrong, I am interested in understanding that theory and the possible historic evidence behind it. Do cults grow in times of financial crisis and rising nationalism and conservatism, the way fascists do?
QueerAnarchism 