One of the primary ideas of the counter-enlightenment is its attack of reason. The leaders of the counter-enlightenment argued that humans are not rational beings, and we are separated by our difference. The leaders were against all types of people coming together as one. This would probably explain their hatred for communism. Most were against women and other minorities. They looked at race and gender as means of inferiority.To some groups, the people who were considered superior of races and sex were European men.
These white men were considered to be the smartest, most creative, and strongest of all classifications of people. It is thought that these white men are born to dominate the less inferior, and rule the world. The leaders and followers of the counter-revolution were against the idea of universalism; which means that all humans are connected and equal. Counter-revolutionist argued that since everyone does not look alike, and we are not the same sex, we do not create the same things, and some people are clearly more talented that others that we can not be equal.Some of these core ideas led the way for ruthless dictators such as Hitler to lead race wars across the world. Leaving innocent victim dead along the way especially Jews. Women have also suffered such ideas because most men have thought of women as inferior to them.
I must note that women have been thought of as inferior long before the counter-enlightenment. As mentioned previously, Adolf Hitler was one of the most famous and successful leaders of the fascism movement. He is regarded as one of the supreme dictators. He evoked a spirit of unity and hope among the German people, with this hope Hitler was able to lead a crusade that extinguished millions of Jews and other inferior people.Hitler hated communism and Jews most of all.
He hated communism because he did not think that all people are equal, and if you tell inferior people that they are equal to the superior people then the inferior try to take away from the superior in the name of equality. This type of thinking proposed a problem for leaders like Hitler, but it could not stop them from attempting to complete their mission. Hitlers antidote for equality among humans was to simply to brainwash the Germans and other followers to see the inferior as de-humanized or in animalistic terms. He also promoted the ideas that in order to succeed in eliminating the inferior one must not be compassionate or have pity for the inferior. This is quite a genius plan because it is a lot harder for someone to someone that looks pretty much just like you, but if you make them believe that the human is an animal it is a lot easier to kill them. It appears as if Hitler hated the Jews because he thought they were behind the ideas of the Enlightenment.
Hitler believed that the Jews were spreading the ideas that everyone should start thinking for themselves, go out and test ideas, and stop accepting everything they hear. I think that the fascist ideology has distorted the ideas of the Enlightenment because the leaders of counter-enlightenment were primarily concerned with building up their own power over others. The enlightenment stood for rational thinking. Rational thinking has the ability to lead a person to self-empowerment. The fascist leaders recognized this problem, and utilized their knowledge to fight it.
The leaders also realized that it is a lot easier to take advantage of people that do not think for themselves. People like Hitler depend of people who follow as sheep to the Shepard. They need for people to simply listen to what they say, accept, and do it without question. This is why the enlightenment movement was detrimental to their plans. People might start questioning why should they listen to Hitler, and if Hitler could not force them they he would at least scare them to death with ruthless, murderous, sadistic tactics.
