this post was submitted on 06 Jul 2026
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As I said in my previous comment to someone else, reading any old slop will get you nowhere. But there is still a basis upon which the thinking generally arises, and that can be analyzed. Carl Schmitt, piece of absolute shit, was a very good philosopher (derogatory). And understanding him is vital, imo, to getting fascism. And Nietzsche too. I think Losurdo describes Nietzsche well enough that reading him directly might be unnecessary, but seeing how aesthetics lies at the bottom of his justification right next to goodness is really something that you only get from reading Good and Evil.
I second skipping Nietzsche and just reading Losurdo's *Nietzsche, the Aristocratic Rebel: Intellectual Biography and Critical Balance Sheet". I made the mistake of reading a lot of Nietzsche at a formative stage of my life and the poison still lingers in me to this day. I haven't finished Losurdo's book yet (it's long af and I keep losing discipline for a few weeksiat a time before diving in for a few more weeks), but he does a good job of explaining Nietzsche's ideas and their relevance.
There's a lot about Nietzsche that trying to connect everything with someone unfamiliar with Losurdo's explanation feels like being a conspiracy nut with red string and a corkboard, but, in a nutshell, his view is that keeping most people in a society enslaved is essential for it to have culture, and that the European ruling classes should abandon any attempts to better the lives of the masses. They should also abandon any views that lead to them treating people as fundamentally equal, especially Christianity (which, to him, is literally the same as post Babylonian Exile Judaism).
obligatory mention of https://redsails.org/really-existing-fascism/ which has some good stuff on Nietzsche
of course! Though this is mostly an extension of Losurdo (good thing), so I like the source a slight bit better myself :). But Redsails is amazing, yes, and I've linked this exact essay all over the internet and among friends/comrades