Smol Bean Fascism & White Fragility

In a recent discussion with a friend of mine about one of my favourite terms to have been spawned directly out of twitter, “smol bean fascism” and it unfortunately occurred to me that many might recognize the term, but not truly comprehend what itself represents and how to identify it online and increasingly online.

It’s important to first identify what the hell does smol bean mean? Smol itself is an internet devised slang word that semi obviously, means small and originates from the world of “DoggoLingo” [1] (the same sphere of users online who popularized words like doggo also) and has a connotation that small is cute or adorable. As a result, smol bean is a further evolution of the word and more specifically relates to a person/character and really came into prevalence during the 2010s on fandom Tumblr pages [2]. As the internet does, slowly it evolved from saying your favourite Doctor from the hit show Doctor Who is a “smol bean” to self description of internet users. There was a point in time that you could often hear people at your local café calling themselves “smol beans” where you might have been able to recognize that there was a strong overlap between these bean-kin and the still prevalent genre and style of cottage core. If you are innocent as a smol bean, the ideal cottage home appears at least equally as innocent and peaceful.

But this is not the case, cottage core itself has evolved greatly over time, but this time not in the case of less than 10 years, but decades potentially even centuries. Cottage core for the even less unaware and offline readers, is an aesthetic style that characterized by a strong nostalgic feeling for off the grid, self sustainability and integration with nature with heavily inspired by rural western European countries such as southern England, France and even some parts of the lowlands, and limited parts of central Europe [3]. While the term itself was only created as early as 2018, the idea of an idolized life living off the land, unaware purposefully or not of the larger world has existed for a long time. Not to get to heavy handed with the idea, but even Marie Antoinette had a sense of this with private retreat of Hameau de la Reine where she pretended to be a milk maiden away from the poors [4] has this same sense nostalgia even in her own time. This concept never has expanded overtime but as persisted with any doubt. The beginning of the reason as to why smol beans and the political ideology known as fascism are interlinked is that the cottage core aesthetic was heavily popularized by our favourite friend the Nazi Party! It is a known fact that nazi ideology, surprisingly at times, was very promoting of environmental policies that would exist to preserve and expand naturally areas, and before you give them any ounce of credit, do not forget that this environmental positivity was only in place for the absolute upper classes of their society and that during invasions across Europe, they often destroyed nature for no points other than to rid the enemy of it (such as the scorched earth retreat from the USSR). Nazi home life also embraced the ideas of self sustainability and living off your land (in all likely hood land stolen in blood from eastern Europeans) and where the women of the household were the ones to be tasked with these jobs and maintaining of that positive, cottage core adjacent look. It is no wonder then why demographics of the smol beans fascists are so heavily skewed to the female side. While cottage core is something that is more stereotypically feminine and has that broader appeal, there is an overlap of the nazi home life utopia and the rural escapism of cottage core. Don’t forget also that the specifics of the aesthetic such as the very specific style of stone cottages with thatches roofs are found exclusively in parts of western Europe or remade in parts of north America (surprise surprise).

We now know what a smol bean is and have established their innocent look to the more traditional appeal of cottage core as we know it today and its routes. But where does the modern sense of fascism appear? Due to the fact that a smol bean is supposed to be someone who is distinctly small, weak or powerless, there is also often an association of pure innocence in a childlike sense. A child knows not the historical conations and issues when they may draw a swastika that they saw over the shoulder of one of their dad’s weird historic documentaries. The smol bean fascists (here by referred to as SBF) use this same tactic sometimes purposefully or unintentionally. The most often time that you will come across a SBF online is in the aftermath of a political event. For me personally, the first time I ever really came across these freaks was in 2020 during a mix of lockdown and of the Black Lives Matter movement. To any sane human being, these two events are something that are extremely understandable and something that we might hope everyone can support, but this is sadly not the case. The SBF could be found talking and complaining on all sorts of sites (not just twitter!) about how they failed to understand why some folks were still going outside their home and to work, and they did not isolate. Obviously, there is a whole host of justifiable reasons and especially justifiable positions for people to have been out of the house, mainly our essential workers. But this somehow did not sink into the SBF, who while upset about these excursions outside, would still often justify that it was acceptable for an idealized situation where people in the countryside that they would love to join, could realistically still go and have a lovely tea and lunch with their friends. While this all might seem a degree of ignorance on the part of SBFs, it is the 2^nd large event of that year that at least to be made it clear exactly why this term exists.

Do you remember the phrase “All lives matter”? Used as a reactionary push back to the Black Lives Matter protests that swept across the globe, it was almost used exclusively by the white older folks that we all know at least one of, in what they all assumed (but not at all actually) to be a witty retort. This is where the SBFs showed their real colours. They brought forth some of the worst possible takes you could imagine ranging anywhere the police are doing their jobs or they were causing disorder. Any normal human being would immediately see the glaring issues with those takes, but when you take a moment to examine where they might originate from it makes at least some semblance of sense, albite still a very bad take. If you put yourself into an imaginary world of the cottage, where the policeman walks around and says hello to all you and your neighbors and the biggest mess in town is your town square on a windy day. If you so fully absorb yourself into this world of make believe it is no wonder, you would too be surprised at large scale political movements unfolding in the real world. This is obviously not an excuse, we are expected to at least slightly be aware of the wider world around us. But quite literally when that pretend world falls about, in its distinct fragility you leave the white world behind and enter a real, better world.

[1] “How Smol Became Internet For Small,” Dictionary.com. https://www.dictionary.com/e/slang/smol/

[1] “Urban Dictionary: smol bean,” Urban Dictionary, 2016. https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=smol%20bean (accessed Aug. 03, 2024).

[3] K. Reggev, “What Exactly Is Cottagecore and How Did It Get So Popular?,” Architectural Digest, Oct. 21, 2020. https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/what-exactly-is-cottagecore

[4] “Marie Antoinette, dairy queen,” Apollo Magazine, Jul. 31, 2021. //www.apollo-magazine.com/marie-antoinette-dairy-milkmaid-rambouillet-neoclassicism/ (accessed Aug. 03, 2024).

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