Let us say in the spirit of Thanksgiving that there is an article in the newspaper of record this week that is a step forward in the New York Times’s often confused coverage of Donald Trump. Recently when he did his own version of a Hitler monologue, calling his opponents “vermin” and tongue-bathing dictators’ assholes, the original Times headline said Trump had taken that speech in “a different direction.” (It has since been updated in its own slightly different direction. Still not great.)
But yesterday the Times published an article (gift link) and put the word “authoritarian” in the headline. “Trump’s Dire Words Raise New Fears About His Authoritarian Bent,” it says. Below that, “The former president is focusing his most vicious attacks on domestic political opponents, setting off fresh worries among autocracy experts.”
It’s a bit adorable that the Times is acting like there’s really been some new development here, regarding the man who incited a terrorist attack against America to steal the 2020 election and overthrow the Republic.
But baby steps and positive reinforcement! Everyone congratulate the Times on a job slightly less shittily done!
As for the meat of the article, it really does have real words. The authors, Michael Bender and Michael Gold, quote Trump’s Nazi Veterans Day speech and note that experts on autocracy “said the former president’s increasingly intensive focus on perceived internal enemies was a hallmark of dangerous totalitarian leaders.”
They even refer to his words as a “rhetorical turn into more fascist-sounding territory.” Which is approximately the gentlest way they could have said that, but again, we are being nice because it’s Thanksgiving week.
At least they did talk to real experts:
“There are echoes of fascist rhetoric, and they’re very precise,” said Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a professor at New York University who studies fascism. “The overall strategy is an obvious one of dehumanizing people so that the public will not have as much of an outcry at the things that you want to do.”
The Times briefly alights on Trump’s stated plans for a third term full of retribution and fascism, one that would have the Justice Department and indeed the entire federal government tear up the Constitution and replace it with minions who live to sniff his dirty underpants and take revenge on people he believes have wronged him. (For instance, people who have charged him with crimes when he’s committed crimes.)
And it includes the requisite bitchy retort from Trump’s spokesman Steven Cheung, but actually they just recycled his bitchy retort when people asked about Trump’s full Nazi Veterans Day speech. (He was too busy to respond to this article, apparently.)
The Times is careful to say Trump isn’t exactly like Hitler and Mussolini, but notes that it’s more because of specific differences, namely that Hitler and Mussolini wanted to conquer the world, whereas Trump is more isolationist. (Although Trump’s “isolationism” is arguably better understood as Trump shuffling out of the way like a nervous butler whenever a dictator he has a crush on wants to do something. Anyway, his version of “isolationism” is weird.)
They say he’s more like Viktor Orbán of Hungary or Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey. Or maybe we mean Viktor Orbán of Turkey. Or maybe we mean Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Hungary. Haha, we are being silly because Trump recently got confused which country Orban was president of.
That’s when he’s not constantly getting confused lately and talking like he’s running for president against his real archnemesis, sexy hot Barack Obama.
Point is, Joe Biden is old.
Here are four solid paragraphs about what fascism is, within the context of Donald Trump:
Mr. Trump’s rise to power was almost immediately accompanied by debates over whether his ascendancy, and that of other leaders around the world with similar political views, signaled a revival of fascism.
Fascism is generally understood as an authoritarian, far-right system of government in which hypernationalism is a central component.
It also often features a cult of personality around a strongman leader, the justification of violence or retribution against opponents, and the repeated denigration of the rule of law, said Peter Hayes, a historian who has studied the rise of fascism.
Past fascist leaders appealed to a sense of victimhood to justify their actions, he said. “The idea is: ‘We’re entitled because we’ve been victimized. We’ve been cheated and robbed,’” he said.
That does sound like Trump!
In summary and in conclusion, this is not the worst New York Times article we ever read. The end.
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FIL showed up at a family event wearing a FJB shirt. I laughed it off but my teen daughter confronted him about the shirt's propriety and loudly bashed it as stupid.
I didn't say anything but put myself between them and told my daughter to let it go. FIL came over and told me I needed to talk to my daughter about respect and I fucking lost it.
I pulled him aside and said:
"I'm ten times as liberal as my daughter, John" , leaning in right next to his face. He had not been aware of my views. I leaned in closer.
"You gonna stomp me out like vermin, John?"
He immediately turned beet red and stared at the ground. I stepped even closer, now with my mouth next to his ear. I poked his chest.
"You wear this shit to provoke people, you get what you get. No one else gives a shit and you need to fucking let it go."
He started to say something and I cut him off again. We stared at each other for about 15 seconds, then he mumbled to himself and ambled away. Age and a size disparity brought him to his senses before taking it any further.
I left early so things would calm down. FIL later sought out my wife to sincerely ask her to pass along an apology.
I think that the bubble was broken for him and he felt just as stupid as he looked when he realized I was one of those vermin liberals. He was not ready for humanization of his imaginary enemies. He was at least briefly truly ashamed. Maybe things can change.
This was at my one-year-old grandson's birthday party.
I can’t for the life of me remember how I know Ruth Ben-Ghiat but when I saw that name I recognized immediately that I was reading journalism, which was a refreshing change of pace.
Anyway, in lighter news, the Guardian assigned a reporter to sign up for and try out the anti-porn app used by Speaker Johnson and his (white) son. Verdict: The reporter thought about porn more.