Breaking news, fascism and the market

When a fascist sends you to the market, you see how the world changes and becomes a confusing place. Why the market? – you ask. – Why not to a camp?

By coincidence, however, the modern fascist does not have a physical camp at hand, at least for now, so the market comes to him as a substitute term that implies efficient execution. The proud owner of a Homeland Movement membership card, or someone similar, of course has nothing resembling economics in his mind: the word “market” that is increasingly torn from his lips is inscribed with his longing for the camp.

In the unrepentant Independent State of Croatia, for example, things were different: Serbs, Jews and others with business ambitions (or without them) – merchants, bankers, shoemakers, painters, restaurateurs, journalists, bricklayers, doctors, musicians... – were sent to camps so that they would not pollute the pure Croatian market. Now, however, the “market” would have to be a dumping ground for those who pollute the pure Croatian budget.

The modern fascist is forced to use the infrastructure at his disposal. After all, you can't have everything – both sheep and Jasenovac. It's just good to know that guys like Ivan Penava, Josip Dabra or Stipe Mlinarić Ćipe, when they point their finger at Novosti and shout "Get on the market!", are using coded language, and that their intention is not to strengthen the mechanisms of the liberal-capitalist order, but to organize a meeting between Serbs and hell.

The motive for drastically cutting Novosti's budget is therefore above all Serb-hungry, the Homeland Movement has publicly articulated it on countless occasions, and the "market" serves as a cynical fictional alternative, a platitude through which the project of liquidating a critically minded newspaper, which also bears a disgusting Serbian label, will be justified.

On the other hand, if the neo-Ustasha program of the Homeland Movement has been elevated to the level of a state operation, if it has grown from a party program into a state venture, isn't it unjustified and unfair to classify exclusively the activists of the party in question into the category of modern fascists?

What will we do with the Croatian Democratic Union and Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, who undoubtedly approved the project? What will we do with Minister Nina Obuljen Koržinek, in whose department the first act of slaughtering the undesirable media is taking place, and behind the scenes she is undoubtedly arranging and coordinating the concrete implementation of this act? What about the members of the Council for National Minorities, who, on political orders, formally implemented the project, trampling not only constitutional and legal norms, but also the purpose of their own existence?

In any case, the DP's chauvinistic criteria, which emerged from fervent anti-Serbism, were adopted and incorporated into the matrix of action of the entire ruling apparatus, and thus normalized for further social use, while the performance itself – where everyone cared about their own piece of image – developed dramaturgically according to the law of connected pretexts.

First, the DP set a condition that Serbs be removed from power, and that public funding for the "Serbian Novosti" be suspended, because there is a "market" for such anti-Croatian work; then the HDZ, in order to save the ruling coalition, brokered a compromise – Novosti would not be liquidated immediately, to avoid being slapped in the face by Brussels, but rather their budget would be drastically reduced, which means that due to financial suffocation, it would die gradually, but relatively quickly; then it turned out that the executive branch was not allowed to decide on the amount of public funds to be allocated to Novosti at all, but that the Council for National Minorities would decide on this autonomously; then members of the staff of Minister Obuljen Koržinek and other influential emissaries made sure that the Council for National Minorities would autonomously decide what the executive branch ordered; then the members of the Council for National Minorities autonomously decided to respect the DP's wishes and implement the HDZ's order, with the explanation that they were allocating money for "cultural autonomy", and Novosti was also involved in "politics" and even "influenced political developments in Croatia" (and what else should journalists do?)... and allowed those who gave the orders to wave their hands cleanly.

The last in the described chain thus agreed to the role shiteatersa. Shiteater is the one who obediently tastes the DP and HDZ shit, namely taking responsibility for their (mis)deeds, and without rational reasoning, because of current affiliations that we can only guess about, but most certainly to our own long-term detriment. There is no clearer illustration of fascist dynamics than the Council established to protect the rights of national minorities, which participates in the suppression of the rights of national minorities, and along the way, the distribution of forces on the scene is revealed to us: the collective Eichmann has devised a “solution” and issued the command, making sure not to be near the disturbing scene, and the minorities themselves are opening the doors of the crematorium, or – we understood – the market.

The issue with the market was further clarified by Mario Radić, president of the DOMiNO party, who is dissatisfied that Novosti's budget was not completely abolished, which, he believes, DP has "betrayed the voters". The newspaper of the Serbian minority in Croatia should be financed, he believes, but Novosti is not, "but rather an expanded editorial team of Feral Tribune": "That way we could have left Feral Tribune so that it can continue publishing. We should not confuse apples and oranges." These people have the right to express their views, Radić states, "but not with state money, but on the market", and Novosti - if it wants to be subsidized - must deal with "exclusively Serbian minority issues".

Speaking of pears and apples, it is worth recalling that at one time (while our right-winger was still looting Serbian houses in Slavonia) Feral did not have "state money" at its disposal, but its participation in market competition was supported by numerous other state benefits: the Ministry of Culture imposed a draconian tax on junk, state and other companies did not advertise, the editor-in-chief was arrested and mobilized, journalists' phones were tapped... The newspaper did, of course, exist on the market, but the configuration of the market - as far as Feral was concerned - was set by the parameters of a police state.

In other words – Radić's apples and pears are equally rotten, forming a gooey mush of the same terminological compost. I mention the market, and I mean a shooting machine! – says the housebreaker, as does Penava, as does Tibor Varga, as does Plenković-Koržinek... If the insistence on "exclusively minority Serbian issues" is added to the formula, the least surprising paradox is that it is the lack, not the excess, of Serbianness in Novosti that truly irritates Croatian nationalists.

I guess it's time to denounce the question from the opening paragraph of this text – Why not a camp? – as deliberately planted nonsense. The camp, namely already jest: it is precisely the most narrowly understood “cultural autonomy” that Obuljen and Varga elevate into an iron obligation, these are “exclusively minority issues”, a thematic territory surrounded by barbed wire with watchtowers, machine gun nests and a warning that crossing the border means execution. Emancipation that would break the strict mutual isolation is not permissible. The national minority is guaranteed all rights except the right to freedom.

Along with criticism of the government, the key problem with Novosti lies in its disrespect for the camp model, in the disobedience that manifests itself through what the editor-in-chief of this newspaper called “the media brotherhood of Serbian and Croatian journalists.” This is something that is maddening and deserves the harshest punishment.

That's why there's a “market.” That's why it's fascism.

(portalnovosti.com)