Responding to Crypto-Nazi Bullshit: Nationalism Is Not Renewal, It Is Capitalism’s Last Refuge
The apologia for nationalism before us dresses exclusion in democratic garb. Its claims demand to be taken apart, one by one. The very word “renewal” unmasks its pedigree since it is the very diction that both Mussolini and Hitler used, never mind the present Orange Monkey Führer of MAGA-land himself.
Sovereignty and Algorithms
It is naïve to say sovereignty “remains the ultimate arbiter.” States exist, yes, but their operations are subordinated to global techno-capital and algorithmic infrastructures. Immigration quotas and trade treaties are not proof of sovereignty’s survival but evidence of its capture by transnational capital. Nationalism’s dream of “pressuring the state” is fantasy; it mistakes the survival of the state-form for the survival of sovereignty.
Immigration and Identity
The housing crisis in Australia is not caused by migrants but by speculative finance, deregulation, and land hoarding. To frame immigration as the culprit is scapegoating—an old nationalist trick that diverts anger away from banks and developers. As for “cultural cohesion,” it is code for exclusion. Solidarity has never been built on homogeneity; it has always been forged across difference, in multi-ethnic labor struggles that confronted capital directly. Nationalism fractures solidarity; it does not preserve it.
Populism as “Check on Elites”
Nationalist populism is not a brake on capital but one of its oldest tools. From fascist Italy to Trump’s America, nationalism has redirected class rage away from oligarchs and toward scapegoats. Yes, anti-colonial struggles used the language of nation—but always in internationalist, emancipatory terms. Today’s nationalist movements lack this content; they are algorithmically weaponized by elites themselves. Far from restraining capital, nationalism serves it.
Extremism Is No “Fringe”
To claim neo-Nazis are mere outliers misses the point: nationalist movements generate the very conditions extremists need to thrive. Civil rights and climate protests expand solidarity; nationalist rallies narrow it and normalize exclusion. The flag does not unite “ordinary citizens”; it sanctifies a stage where fascism recruits.
Pathology and Projection
Critiques of nationalism are not “stigmatization” but recognition of its delusional core. Nationalist psychology projects systemic crises of capital onto migrants, minorities, and “globalists.” This is not democratic agency but resentment manipulated into collective paranoia. The result is not renewal, but scapegoating in place of analysis.
Nationalism as Capital’s Refuge
The text concludes that nationalism is the only alternative to globalism. False. Nationalism is not resistance but capitalism’s last refuge, summoned whenever legitimacy falters. Elites stoke national identity to turn workers against one another rather than against capital. True resistance is transnational, intersectional, and solidaristic. Nationalism does not fight alienation; it weaponizes it.
As such, nationalism is not renewal. It is the oldest mask of capital. To call it democratic is to forget its history and engage in fascist amnesia, never mind to ignore the solidarities it shatters. The choice is not “globalism or nationalism.” The real choice is between capital’s endless recycling of exclusion—and solidarity that abolishes it.
