(PRE)FIGURING FASCISM #3: The State of Exception in Which We Live – Lessons from the Black Radical Tradition’s Analyses of Fascism

Thursday, 11 June, 2026 – 17:00 to 19:00

Fascism and authoritarianism are often framed as a danger in the future that paradoxically resembles a relapse into the past: If we do not defend our democracy now, we might experience again what we believed to have left behind. Informed by the interventions of black radical thinkers and activists such as W.E.B. Du Bois, Aimé Césaire, Bobby Seale, and Angela Davis, this talk proposes a different understanding of the temporality of fascism: fascism and liberal democracy are not opposites but can coexist. The liberal democracy of some is at the same time the fascism for others. We will together talk about some of the political and strategic implications of this claim.

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Daniel Loick teaches social and political philosophy at the University of Amsterdam. He is interested in critiques of state-inflicted violence (police, prison, borders) and the politics of forms of life. He is Principal Investigator of the research project “Emergencies of Authoritarianism”.

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(Pre)Figuring Fascism is a series of talks drawing attention to the continuities between liberal governance and fascism, hoping to stimulate an understanding of fascism as it relates to colonialism, imperialism, and capitalism – rather than viewing it as a kind of shock to an otherwise well-working liberal system. Because we know: So long as the conditions for fascism’s emergence are not overcome, we are always living in proto-fascist times.