Part I: The fascists and the ultraconservatives are all lying when they say today's Czech Republic is "totalitarian"

This movement involves various people, just some of whom are aware of what they are doing, namely the losers, the Putin supporters, and the ultraconservatives. Ideologically confused persons can also be found among them who are continuing the Czech fascist interwar tradition, which fed on hate against Jews and Roma and is now doing so from beyond the grave.

Other people are doing this without being aware of what they are involved in because they are foolish, ignorant of what is going on, or embittered and squeamish – such persons can especially be found among those who claim to want “peace” between Russia and Ukraine. Still others do it for the money.

Putin pays people well to engage in this behavior. Others would like to improve their public images, as one of the spineless servants to the communists, the singer Michal David, is doing when he deceptively claims to have fought totalitarianism in the past and says that once again today, “nobody is allowed to say anything anymore”.

Alongside all of the above there is also a small group of normal people who are justifiably criticizing the errors of Czech politicians, but because they have the (sometimes) justified sense that nobody is paying attention to their reproaches, they seek allies among these losers – which is, of course, a much bigger mistake than the mistakes they themselves are criticizing.

Freedom = liberal democracy

Let’s start by recalling some things that were once considered a matter of course: The system that simultaneously guarantees our dignity, equality and freedom involves political liberalism, the democratic rule of law, and democratic mechanisms such as elections and institutions sharing power. We call it liberal democracy.

Whoever does not want liberal democracy, whoever does not want liberalism as we understand it today in Europe, wants an illiberal, undemocratic regime. That involves limiting freedoms, because only democracy combined with liberalism guarantees the dignity, equality and freedom of citizens simultaneously across all of society.

Between dignity and equality, on the one hand, and freedom, on the other hand, there is sometimes tension, which is why we are instituting a democratically liberal state system, as that is the one where individuals are the most free without threatening the dignity, equality and freedom of others. It only works insofar as each of us gives up a bit of our individual freedom to benefit others.

There is a saying that encapsulates this: The freedom of one ends where the freedom of another begins. Nobody here, for example, can kill others, or perpetrate violence against them, or cheat them, or rob them, or defame them completely freely, with impunity.

One also cannot hatefully incite others against people who are different, or incite others against the law guaranteeing civil and human rights for all irrespective of who they are (in other words, equality). That is immeasurably important, because it is exactly how liberal democracy protects itself against the tyranny of the majority.

That means liberal democracy protects itself against the majority being able to institute ideas that violate the rights of minorities, whether they be minority opinion-holders or social minorities. For example: At the end of the 1990s, according to public opinion polls, most inhabitants of the Czech Republic wanted stricter laws to apply to Romani people only.

It was impossible to institute such legislation because our Constitution and the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms, which is part of it, insists on the equality of all citizens irrespective of their skin color. It was also impossible because almost all politicians back then realized that a demand of that kind is part of an authoritarian or totalitarian regime, not a liberal democratic one.

The exception at that time was Miroslav Sládek with his party minions and his pack of skinheads in the public square who did not hide their racism. The singer Daniel Landa, who aided and abetted the birth and operation of the racist, xenophobic skinhead movement, could tell us a thing or two about that.

Perversity

The fascists, losers and ultraconservatives want more freedom for themselves and less for everybody else. One of the main reasons why the present-day Sládeks want the end of liberal democracy is their belief that the majority should always decide everything irrespective of minorities or anything else.

These people feel discriminated against because they do not have the freedom to make decisions according to their perverse notions, because they are not allowed to discriminate against Jews, LGBT+ people, liberals, or Roma, or to eliminate them from society – even if (allegedly) the majority of people here wish that were the case. They are unable to absolutely ban abortion such that the situation of the pregnant woman is ignored; they are unable to force others into Catholic or Orthodox Christian Churches, where we all belong, in the their view, whether we want to be there or not; they want families to be ruled by men once more as if they were little Fűhrers; they are unable to criminalize the bisexuals, gays, lesbians or trans people; they are unable to ban the art that, in a free society, sometimes contravenes their world view; they are unable to dictate to others how they should live and what they are allowed to think.

That is why these people want to reintroduce totalitarian rule here, a system in which they will have more freedom to take freedom away from others, or to reduce others’ freedoms and decide about their lives.

They like Putin’s regime

The fascists, the losers, and the ultraconservatives are now shouting that there is just one “correct” opinion in charge in this country and that any other opinions allegedly “cannot be voiced”. This frequently-used lie is also bandied about by Donald Trump, the presidential candidate of the fascists, losers and ultraconservatives in the USA – and one of the most powerful people on the planet.

The opposite is the case: Liberal democracy welcomes other opinions because it is based on a diversity of world views, and the advocates of those different opinions can come into power and can also lose power through elections. What is actually not allowed to be voiced with impunity, according to democratically-adopted laws, is antigypsyism, antisemitism, calls for violence (especially those linked to regime change) and racism.

Those are the very ideas which the anti-system initiatives want to voice, which is why they are telling this lie about no other opinions being allowed. It is no accident that the fascists, the losers, those who want “peace” between Russian and Ukraine, and the ultraconservatives are yelling that what we have here is totalitarianism – they are proceeding exactly like their favorite politician, Putin.

Historian Timothy Snyder, in his book The Road to Unfreedom (Czech title Cesta k nesvobodě (Prostor, Paseka, 2019), pp. 143-4), calls the Russian regime schizofascism: 

“The actual fascists call their opponents ‘fascists’ , attribute the blame for the Holocaust to the Jews, and give the Second World War as an argument for new violence (in Ukraine)… The fascist Dugin was able to use the expressions of fascism when celebrating a real victory for fascism while tarnishing his opponents as would-be fascists. The Ukrainian defenders of their own country are, according to Dugin, ‘junta mercenaries from the ranks of the fascist Ukrainian swine.'”

All of our little Czech fascists, our losers, those who want “peace” between Russia and Ukraine, and our ultraconservatives are defending Putin’s regime, including his genocidal war in Ukraine, because they see themselves in him. They, too, would love to have such a regime in the Czech Republic, and the person who could aid them with achieving that is the Russian president in particular and his imperialist policies.

Boosting fascism in Příčovy

Why am I writing about these fascists, losers, those who want “peace” between Russia and Ukraine, and the ultraconservatives? Because their ideology and their methods are gradually fusing, because they are coming together and strengthening each other in this fusion.

This is clear to see from their annual gathering at the chateau in Příčovy, where you can meet them all at the same time, from Tomáš Vandas, whose Workers’ Party was dissolved by the Supreme Administrative court as a Nazi party, to Okamura, Foldyna and their colleagues, to the loser Rajchl, to religious fanatic Semín and eternal opportunist Petr Žantovský. We will explore this further in Part Two of this cycle.