Regressing to Nature: Culture Industry and Fascism inTimes of Ecological Crisis

Over the past decade, mounting evidence suggests the climate crisis is moving toward an authoritarian—or even fascist—future. Rather than cooperatively addressing the causes of global climate change, many wealthy nations are protecting themselves from its consequences in increasingly brutal ways (such as border closures or military interventions to secure resources) in order to safeguard their privileges built on unsustainable exploitation of nature (Klein 2019; Blumenfeld 2022). Across many regions, right-wing, authoritarian, and antidemocratic parties are coming to power, denying climate change while glorifying fossil fuels as a symbol of national strength (Malm and The Zetkin Collective 2021). Some individuals celebrate environmental destruction in private (e.g., through so-called “rolling coal”) and passionately hold on to climate-damaging lifestyles (Daggett 2018).