According to the media and the House committee investigating January 6, the face of rising fascism has been a young one. Or young-ish, anyway, especially in a graying country like the United States. A lot of attention has been paid to the incel and 4chan communities, or other places where young men in their teens and early 20s are being radicalized. The 2017 "Unite the Right" riot in Charlottesville, Virginia crystallized the image of modern fascists as college-aged men with floppy haircuts and polo shirts. A number of authoritarian groups have grown up under Trump, but by far the most attention has been paid to the Proud Boys, whose name and manner of dress cast an image of youthful streetfighters. In the American imagination, "fascists" are young men, such as Hitler's Brownshirts, who are believed to have the energy and stomach for the skull-cracking necessary to impose their will to power.
As demonstrated by January 6 and the years of street fights in Portland, Oregon, this threat of relatively youthful violence should not be ignored. But there's a quieter, more pernicious threat to democracy: Older, retiree-aged Trump fanatics.
