It took Hilter 18 months to turn Germany fascist. Trump has been in office a little less than 8 months. I hear folks talking about thinks turning around after midterms. By then, it will be far to late. If it isn't already.
I live in a state with a Democratic governor and two Democratic senators; I live in a city with a Democratic congressional representative and a Democratic mayor. So far, I have heard nothing from them the federalization of the D.C. police, the invasion of Los Angeles by the National Guard, or the i5er horrors you enumerate. So, you must be right. Everything is fine.
We’ve heard from our D Rep. The D Senator, when they get around to making comments on anything, tends to be dismissive and condescending in her interactions. We get it: she’s “the Senator” - we’re just the mere civilians, voters, people that she then has to audacity to contact for donations. Haven’t heard anything from our Governor yet.
Yet so many R’s can’t seem to shut tf up… about anything.
And our one Senator (actually both, but one is insanely annoying in her smug condescension) keeps making statements that folks leap on (“ooooh, she’s our new leader!!!!”…. um - no - my doG, no… she’s not)
Life in sound bites to meet the needs of the short-attention-span audience?
Most Americans are myopic, selfish, politically ignorant people who believe that unless and until what is happening to others personally affects them, then it isn't real.
Pretty sure that's a "most humans throughout history" checklist. But agreed the Yanks have had a big boost to the impetus of those traits for a generation or two.
So, I always appreciate that the word is finally getting around, and there are none better at articulating the truth than Mr. Harriot.
It is fascism, it always was fascism, and every single GOP voter brought us to this place, because they are, in fact, fascists. They want this.
I've wished more people would have recognized this sooner, but here we are. I said this two and half years ago (expounding on things I'd been shouting at the wind for several years before that-
'The Authoritarian Personality and GOP voters: conservatism's true face is fascism.' (Feb. 10, 2023)
"When I first wrote about the GOP as a fascist organization, and its rank and file voters as the true threat to our democracy- not the fascist figureheads— since the rank and file compose the fascist crowd, I received a fair amount of disdain (and vitriolic opprobrium, to be honest) for my broad-brush, hyperbolic labeling.
My impression of that reaction, from self-described progressives mind you, was that I provoked it because I was asking these same self-described progressives to look at family members, neighbors and coworkers in an uncomfortable way— as adults choosing to be complicit in atrocities, and facilitating the dismantling of our democracy, and generally, these rank and file fascists are in fact enthusiastic about it. As I’ve said many times in the past seven plus years about the rank and file fascists- none were duped...
The pedantic quibbles of Prof. Paxton, echoed by Prof. Evans, about when some arbitrary threshold is crossed and the person, in some ambiguous Poof! of manifest fascist-ness becomes a ‘for real, no kidding this time, real fascist’, is as inane as it is disconnected from human experience. And when it comes to confronting the threat posed by the fascist crowd, inane pedantic blathering about who gets to divine and proclaim the markings of the true fascist gets people killed, and will cost us our democracy. Not good.
Contrary to all this inane pedantic blathering, I submit that we are better served paying attention to some very smart people who happened to live through the horrors of fascism as it unfolded in its full murderous form in Europe- Theodor Adorno and Umberto Eco.
These two brilliant scholars and writers lay bare the features that make a fascist a fascist, before they sign on to storm a capitol and engage in mass violence against disfavored groups...
These are over seventy million of your fellow citizens, and they don’t think any of us, not one person who calls themselves a progressive-- especially those who are not white heterosexual Christian males --deserve any place in society, are entitled to political representation, or equal protection of the law.
Believing otherwise, no matter how much you may want to, will get a lot of us imprisoned and killed. Because that was already happening before Trump’s election...
Make no mistake— when a person speaks of ‘traditional values’, as so often we hear from conservatives, what they are really communicating is a fundamental rejection of change and pluralism. This is the very core of conservatism, and it is aligned with authoritarianism...
Trump voters voted for him for the simple reason that they agreed with his basic premise: the country, and the sole authority to rule over it, belongs to them, and it’s being stolen from them by the ‘basket of liberal special interests’, with the assistance of ‘powerful international elites’ . No need to read between the lines, Steve Bannon and Anne Coulter will tell you— and have said explicitly, repeatedly- the powerful international elites are the Jews.
We need to see them for who they are, GOP voters, and name them, if we are to oppose them- they are America’s fascist crowd."
The one thing that frustrates me is when people claim Americans are lazy, ignorant, burying our heads in the sand. We ARE woefully unprepared for this moment BUT it’s also important to remember that this goes way beyond Trump. The folks behind P2025, the Heritage Foundation, Koch and so many more have been laying the groundwork for DECADES.
Think of the judicial appointments in our lifetimes. Everyone of a certain age remembers Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill but there were so many pawns of this regime installed since then as well
And propaganda. Remember when Fox was annoying but not constant and lethal? Real wages haven’t increased since I was a child in the 70’s. Our buying power has diminished, our social networks have been torn apart, we’ve been moving backwards for a long time and we’re all frogs in boiling pots
But you know what doesn’t motivate people? Dissing them. If we want to ignite the people and it’s literally OUR ONLY WAY OIJT OF THIS…we need to compassionately acknowledge that they’ve been playing the long game and we’ve been conned
Same reason they can’t see systematic Racism - Cognitive dissonance. If this was a Fascist country, then all my friends would be fascists. Then *I* would be a Fascist. Then I would be bad.
Fortunately, I’m not a bad person. I’m a good person. Therefore, they are all wrong and everyone is overreacting. What a relief!
It’s going to take something super horrendous to break Evan average republicans into admitting we are a fascist state. Like Trump nuking San Francisco or something. And that would probably only peel off 1/4 of them.
You are just like Trump, a racist, a criminal, a thief, a liar. This is truly racist. Supreme's action will leads into faseason period so you're bringing wave want to change everyone without due process? Foreign judges no right to make comments against an idiot. Go s*** your pants like dead j******We got in office have a good 🔎🔦🕶
You ever get the impression that a lot of people will use willful ignorance to excuse moving fast and breaking things until they are done breaking things in the communities they wanted to get rid of?
Then they can give a speech about not bickering and arguing over who destroyed what, when we all have to work together to rebuild those destroyed places with what they wanted to build there.
It took Hilter 18 months to turn Germany fascist. Trump has been in office a little less than 8 months. I hear folks talking about thinks turning around after midterms. By then, it will be far to late. If it isn't already.
It seems most Americans are in a coma of their own creation. A coma of denial.
Not to mention a coma of silence or a coma of uncertainty.
I live in a state with a Democratic governor and two Democratic senators; I live in a city with a Democratic congressional representative and a Democratic mayor. So far, I have heard nothing from them the federalization of the D.C. police, the invasion of Los Angeles by the National Guard, or the i5er horrors you enumerate. So, you must be right. Everything is fine.
Same and it drives me insane. I call and I write letters because I they need to be united and loud
We’ve heard from our D Rep. The D Senator, when they get around to making comments on anything, tends to be dismissive and condescending in her interactions. We get it: she’s “the Senator” - we’re just the mere civilians, voters, people that she then has to audacity to contact for donations. Haven’t heard anything from our Governor yet.
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than speak up and remove all doubt.
Yet so many R’s can’t seem to shut tf up… about anything.
And our one Senator (actually both, but one is insanely annoying in her smug condescension) keeps making statements that folks leap on (“ooooh, she’s our new leader!!!!”…. um - no - my doG, no… she’s not)
Life in sound bites to meet the needs of the short-attention-span audience?
Do you live in Michigan? Asking for friend.
🙂 how did you guess?
Two hints: (1) she, (2) smug condescension [curious for someone who received fewer Michigan votes than Harris].
Most Americans are myopic, selfish, politically ignorant people who believe that unless and until what is happening to others personally affects them, then it isn't real.
Pretty sure that's a "most humans throughout history" checklist. But agreed the Yanks have had a big boost to the impetus of those traits for a generation or two.
Facts and evidence are irrelevant when your political agenda is based on anti-blackness and white nationalism.
So, I always appreciate that the word is finally getting around, and there are none better at articulating the truth than Mr. Harriot.
It is fascism, it always was fascism, and every single GOP voter brought us to this place, because they are, in fact, fascists. They want this.
I've wished more people would have recognized this sooner, but here we are. I said this two and half years ago (expounding on things I'd been shouting at the wind for several years before that-
'The Authoritarian Personality and GOP voters: conservatism's true face is fascism.' (Feb. 10, 2023)
(https://iandouglasrushlau.substack.com/p/the-authoritarian-personality-and)
"When I first wrote about the GOP as a fascist organization, and its rank and file voters as the true threat to our democracy- not the fascist figureheads— since the rank and file compose the fascist crowd, I received a fair amount of disdain (and vitriolic opprobrium, to be honest) for my broad-brush, hyperbolic labeling.
My impression of that reaction, from self-described progressives mind you, was that I provoked it because I was asking these same self-described progressives to look at family members, neighbors and coworkers in an uncomfortable way— as adults choosing to be complicit in atrocities, and facilitating the dismantling of our democracy, and generally, these rank and file fascists are in fact enthusiastic about it. As I’ve said many times in the past seven plus years about the rank and file fascists- none were duped...
The pedantic quibbles of Prof. Paxton, echoed by Prof. Evans, about when some arbitrary threshold is crossed and the person, in some ambiguous Poof! of manifest fascist-ness becomes a ‘for real, no kidding this time, real fascist’, is as inane as it is disconnected from human experience. And when it comes to confronting the threat posed by the fascist crowd, inane pedantic blathering about who gets to divine and proclaim the markings of the true fascist gets people killed, and will cost us our democracy. Not good.
Contrary to all this inane pedantic blathering, I submit that we are better served paying attention to some very smart people who happened to live through the horrors of fascism as it unfolded in its full murderous form in Europe- Theodor Adorno and Umberto Eco.
These two brilliant scholars and writers lay bare the features that make a fascist a fascist, before they sign on to storm a capitol and engage in mass violence against disfavored groups...
These are over seventy million of your fellow citizens, and they don’t think any of us, not one person who calls themselves a progressive-- especially those who are not white heterosexual Christian males --deserve any place in society, are entitled to political representation, or equal protection of the law.
Believing otherwise, no matter how much you may want to, will get a lot of us imprisoned and killed. Because that was already happening before Trump’s election...
Make no mistake— when a person speaks of ‘traditional values’, as so often we hear from conservatives, what they are really communicating is a fundamental rejection of change and pluralism. This is the very core of conservatism, and it is aligned with authoritarianism...
Trump voters voted for him for the simple reason that they agreed with his basic premise: the country, and the sole authority to rule over it, belongs to them, and it’s being stolen from them by the ‘basket of liberal special interests’, with the assistance of ‘powerful international elites’ . No need to read between the lines, Steve Bannon and Anne Coulter will tell you— and have said explicitly, repeatedly- the powerful international elites are the Jews.
We need to see them for who they are, GOP voters, and name them, if we are to oppose them- they are America’s fascist crowd."
Brilliant as always, Mr. Harriot. The question for me is: what do we do now?
The one thing that frustrates me is when people claim Americans are lazy, ignorant, burying our heads in the sand. We ARE woefully unprepared for this moment BUT it’s also important to remember that this goes way beyond Trump. The folks behind P2025, the Heritage Foundation, Koch and so many more have been laying the groundwork for DECADES.
Think of the judicial appointments in our lifetimes. Everyone of a certain age remembers Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill but there were so many pawns of this regime installed since then as well
And propaganda. Remember when Fox was annoying but not constant and lethal? Real wages haven’t increased since I was a child in the 70’s. Our buying power has diminished, our social networks have been torn apart, we’ve been moving backwards for a long time and we’re all frogs in boiling pots
But you know what doesn’t motivate people? Dissing them. If we want to ignite the people and it’s literally OUR ONLY WAY OIJT OF THIS…we need to compassionately acknowledge that they’ve been playing the long game and we’ve been conned
Same reason they can’t see systematic Racism - Cognitive dissonance. If this was a Fascist country, then all my friends would be fascists. Then *I* would be a Fascist. Then I would be bad.
Fortunately, I’m not a bad person. I’m a good person. Therefore, they are all wrong and everyone is overreacting. What a relief!
It’s going to take something super horrendous to break Evan average republicans into admitting we are a fascist state. Like Trump nuking San Francisco or something. And that would probably only peel off 1/4 of them.
GOD BLESS THE USA!
You are just like Trump, a racist, a criminal, a thief, a liar. This is truly racist. Supreme's action will leads into faseason period so you're bringing wave want to change everyone without due process? Foreign judges no right to make comments against an idiot. Go s*** your pants like dead j******We got in office have a good 🔎🔦🕶
Can you write that again, in English?
Right? You made me laugh, so you’ve improved my day.
Thank you.
Have a good magnifying glass flashlight sunglasses to you, too! 😅
Wow this one hit hard.
You ever get the impression that a lot of people will use willful ignorance to excuse moving fast and breaking things until they are done breaking things in the communities they wanted to get rid of?
Then they can give a speech about not bickering and arguing over who destroyed what, when we all have to work together to rebuild those destroyed places with what they wanted to build there.