I Can’t Believe I Have to Say This: Erich Fromm Was Not an Anti-“Woke” Free Speech Warrior

In a time of rising far-right and fascist resurgence in the United States and globally, it makes sense to turn to Erich Fromm, whose groundbreaking work, from his early Escape from Freedom (1941), which assessed the possibility of and even earlier study of the German working class to his late Anatomy of Human Destructiveness (1977), has been foundational for understanding how contemporary capitalism gives rise to fascist character structures. As a scholar both of Fromm and of fascist movements, I have found Fromm’s work crucial for understanding the present moment.