Why waste time debating the extent of Trump’s fascism when we ought to be fighting it instead?
“No, no,” some admonish: “Don’t get carried away. Sure, Donald Trump is dangerous, perhaps uniquely so. But … fascist? The need to label him a fascist says more about the labeler than about Trump.” This argument has sprung from certain quarters of the right, which was to be expected, but it has also sprouted from the left, where a point of view has arisen that the “hysterical” invocation of the f-word is as much a danger as Trump.
We have trouble seeing the hysteria. We chose the cover image, based on a well-known 1932 Hitler campaign poster, for a precise reason: that anyone transported back to 1932 Germany could very, very easily have explained away Herr Hitler’s excesses and been persuaded that his critics were going overboard. After all, he spent 1932 campaigning, negotiating, doing interviews—being a mostly normal politician. But he and his people vowed all along that they would use the tools of democracy to destroy it, and it was only after he was given power that Germany saw his movement’s full face.
Today, we at The New Republic think we can spend this election year in one of two ways. We can spend it debating whether Trump meets the nine or 17 points that define fascism. Or we can spend it saying, “He’s damn close enough, and we’d better fight.”
We unreservedly choose the latter course. And so we have assembled herein some of our leading intellectual historians of fascism
This gives all those that keep saying that leftist are exaggerating Trump’s potential (and further) damage the chance to now say “oh see Trump isn’t tied to Project 2025 because he said he isn’t” and that is as far as they will research and go.
I had posted a reel on IG of someone explaining Project 2025 yesterday and saw my dad’s crew was seeing it.. and thought maybe they might look it up. My dad is just a “conservative” but we have gotten into brutal arguments and not spoken for months because of his belief in Trump. He used to look down on the craziness of the MAGA base but recently he was trying to explain to me how people are so against MAGA “but what is so wrong about Making America Great Again?” Any facts I give him about the obvious racism, sexism and homophobia etc he just brushes off until I get so upset and emotional he can then say I am over reacting. Gaslighting or “reactive abuse” over and over. So instead of getting more facts in front of him possibly, mainstream media is still focusing on Biden’s age and Trump’s cool factor 🤢 and the hope I had that Project 2025 might scare people will be faded into just another “but Trump said..” Guess my dad and the majority of my fellow Floridians are just forever lost to cult anyhow.
But does anyone else think Kevin Roberts looks like the love child of Dr. Phil and Mike Lindell?
"what is so wrong about Making America Great Again?”
Let's start with the notion that this slogan suggests America *isn't* Great right now. Why do they hate America? Why don't they support our president? What would your grandparents think about those positions? Saying America isn't great is kind of *unpatriotic*, don't you think? Turn it around and put it in language even a MAGAt infested brain might understand. You want to make America better, sure; we all agree on that (tho granted not what that means or how to do it; but that's advanced level). But only ~c0mMuNiSts~ hate America - right??
So this is what Jen Psaki has to say about Donald's selective amnesia (when literally everyone including the HF-ers themselves knows the Donald's minions/former staffers are not only amongst the fascist manifesto's most enthusiastic drafters but also amongst its most enthusiastic enforcement recruits):
""It doesn't matter what you call it, or what Trump says about it... because these plans are Donald Trump's plans, and no one should forget that."
@jrpsaki
on Trump's selective amnesia about his Project 2025 agenda"
That ought to not only settle it, but perhaps cut into that penchant even the most progressive sometimes have for just reactively parroting the far right's rhetoric instead of pushing back against it
Given what we're reading about that literally just happened in France, it does feel like we're going to have to be even more careful going forward about that
Years ago when I lived on that side of town, my dog had the good sense to piss on the Heritage Foundation’s bushes whenever we walked past their building. I would not be mad if a meteor made of salt smashed that place to the ground, simultaneously salting the earth where it stood. Fuck those assholes with a rusty steak knife!
Nauseatingly but coincidentally close to "Gruppe 47," a group of German writers and intellectuals who sought to reform the German language in the wake of its befoulment by the Nazis. They first met in 1947, hence the name.
It feels like they really REALLY want to believe that if they say this bullsh*t loudly enough and often enough -- the "we don't know her we don't know it we don't KNOW WHAT ANY OF IT MEANS" -- it will create the plausible deniability until it's too late for the rest of us and they've implemented it all.
Listening to Dr. Maya Angelou; not falling for the banana in the tailpipe.
I think white middle aged dudes like me should apply.
I think it was in "Black Spring" that Henry Miller tells of his time working at the Cosmo Demonic telegraph company or some such. He was tasked with screening of new hires.
He purposely hired the worst people for the job for reasons one might imagine.
We could do this, nauseating string of emails to follow from the fascists notwithstanding.
Yes, I signed up for Project 2025 on that site. They ask you things like "What book influenced your political thinking and why?" I told them, "1984, because it shows how efficient a totalitarian dictatorship can be." Think they will call me back? You do have to give them a phone and email and your address. I'll post again if they call back. If I never post again...
Message to Kevin Roberts, please be advised, the left will most assuredly not allow your fascist wet dream of a second revolution. Be careful what you wish for. We will not sit quietly by while you destroy 248 years of democracy, progress and hope. We will not sit idly by, like the bleeting sheep who blindly follow a convicted felon, rapist, serial liar and narcissistic psychopath. We remember Germany and Italy of 90 years ago. You should, too. Even though it took a few decades, it did not end well for the Dear Leaders of those countries. If necessary, we will resist, and the resistance will be forceful and unending. You have no idea of what you will walk into. I know you've got your little peen all primed for violence, but, again, be careful what you wish for. Oh, and, please and thank you, go fuck yourself.
FASCISM NEEDS RACISM - fascist billionaires use racism as a dividing strategy - "if you want power and resources solely (or even mostly) in your own hands, then you have to divide the rest of the country" - Professor Ian Haney Lopez talking with Lurie Daniel Favors
For grins, I'm copy/pasting chunks of this post in response to various right wingnut comments on "news" sites (with attribution, natch). 😎✌️
GO NEW REPUBLIC
DAMN.
Good.
"Yes, That’s Right: American Fascism
Why waste time debating the extent of Trump’s fascism when we ought to be fighting it instead?
“No, no,” some admonish: “Don’t get carried away. Sure, Donald Trump is dangerous, perhaps uniquely so. But … fascist? The need to label him a fascist says more about the labeler than about Trump.” This argument has sprung from certain quarters of the right, which was to be expected, but it has also sprouted from the left, where a point of view has arisen that the “hysterical” invocation of the f-word is as much a danger as Trump.
We have trouble seeing the hysteria. We chose the cover image, based on a well-known 1932 Hitler campaign poster, for a precise reason: that anyone transported back to 1932 Germany could very, very easily have explained away Herr Hitler’s excesses and been persuaded that his critics were going overboard. After all, he spent 1932 campaigning, negotiating, doing interviews—being a mostly normal politician. But he and his people vowed all along that they would use the tools of democracy to destroy it, and it was only after he was given power that Germany saw his movement’s full face.
Today, we at The New Republic think we can spend this election year in one of two ways. We can spend it debating whether Trump meets the nine or 17 points that define fascism. Or we can spend it saying, “He’s damn close enough, and we’d better fight.”
We unreservedly choose the latter course. And so we have assembled herein some of our leading intellectual historians of fascism
This gives all those that keep saying that leftist are exaggerating Trump’s potential (and further) damage the chance to now say “oh see Trump isn’t tied to Project 2025 because he said he isn’t” and that is as far as they will research and go.
I had posted a reel on IG of someone explaining Project 2025 yesterday and saw my dad’s crew was seeing it.. and thought maybe they might look it up. My dad is just a “conservative” but we have gotten into brutal arguments and not spoken for months because of his belief in Trump. He used to look down on the craziness of the MAGA base but recently he was trying to explain to me how people are so against MAGA “but what is so wrong about Making America Great Again?” Any facts I give him about the obvious racism, sexism and homophobia etc he just brushes off until I get so upset and emotional he can then say I am over reacting. Gaslighting or “reactive abuse” over and over. So instead of getting more facts in front of him possibly, mainstream media is still focusing on Biden’s age and Trump’s cool factor 🤢 and the hope I had that Project 2025 might scare people will be faded into just another “but Trump said..” Guess my dad and the majority of my fellow Floridians are just forever lost to cult anyhow.
But does anyone else think Kevin Roberts looks like the love child of Dr. Phil and Mike Lindell?
"what is so wrong about Making America Great Again?”
Let's start with the notion that this slogan suggests America *isn't* Great right now. Why do they hate America? Why don't they support our president? What would your grandparents think about those positions? Saying America isn't great is kind of *unpatriotic*, don't you think? Turn it around and put it in language even a MAGAt infested brain might understand. You want to make America better, sure; we all agree on that (tho granted not what that means or how to do it; but that's advanced level). But only ~c0mMuNiSts~ hate America - right??
I can't convey how much I despise Johnny McEntee.
So this is what Jen Psaki has to say about Donald's selective amnesia (when literally everyone including the HF-ers themselves knows the Donald's minions/former staffers are not only amongst the fascist manifesto's most enthusiastic drafters but also amongst its most enthusiastic enforcement recruits):
""It doesn't matter what you call it, or what Trump says about it... because these plans are Donald Trump's plans, and no one should forget that."
@jrpsaki
on Trump's selective amnesia about his Project 2025 agenda"
https://twitter.com/InsideWithPsaki/status/1809995093190877343
That ought to not only settle it, but perhaps cut into that penchant even the most progressive sometimes have for just reactively parroting the far right's rhetoric instead of pushing back against it
Given what we're reading about that literally just happened in France, it does feel like we're going to have to be even more careful going forward about that
Years ago when I lived on that side of town, my dog had the good sense to piss on the Heritage Foundation’s bushes whenever we walked past their building. I would not be mad if a meteor made of salt smashed that place to the ground, simultaneously salting the earth where it stood. Fuck those assholes with a rusty steak knife!
He'll immediately betray Ukraine. Then he'll betray Taiwan and South Korea to please his dictator pals
Does anybody doubt that? I don't think anybody doubts it
https://www.wonkette.com/p/trump-suffers-bout-of-project-2025/comment/61240169
"Project 2025? I barely knew him. I think he was a coffee boy. Authoritarian fascism you say?.I wouldn't know about that."
6 months later: "Bow before your new God or feel my vengeance, Libtards!"
It won't take six months
https://www.wonkette.com/p/trump-suffers-bout-of-project-2025/comment/61240169
urfkd
1933 Nazi Germany all over again.
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/1933-key-dates
"Project 47"
Nauseatingly but coincidentally close to "Gruppe 47," a group of German writers and intellectuals who sought to reform the German language in the wake of its befoulment by the Nazis. They first met in 1947, hence the name.
It feels like they really REALLY want to believe that if they say this bullsh*t loudly enough and often enough -- the "we don't know her we don't know it we don't KNOW WHAT ANY OF IT MEANS" -- it will create the plausible deniability until it's too late for the rest of us and they've implemented it all.
Listening to Dr. Maya Angelou; not falling for the banana in the tailpipe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5cCnICazWQ
One assumes someone has posted the obligatory Sgt. Schultz gif somewhere below, so...
"Sometimes nussing can be a real cool hand."
No way Donnie Dimwit wrote that tweet. “Abysmal”?? Come on. He doesn’t know how to spell OR define that word.
Sure, he takes it every time he has overdone it on the hamberders: "Pepto Abysmal."
Stephen Miller wrote that, I'm sure
But given that they're on the same "side" -- the fascist "side" -- does it matter?
I think white middle aged dudes like me should apply.
I think it was in "Black Spring" that Henry Miller tells of his time working at the Cosmo Demonic telegraph company or some such. He was tasked with screening of new hires.
He purposely hired the worst people for the job for reasons one might imagine.
We could do this, nauseating string of emails to follow from the fascists notwithstanding.
Yes, I signed up for Project 2025 on that site. They ask you things like "What book influenced your political thinking and why?" I told them, "1984, because it shows how efficient a totalitarian dictatorship can be." Think they will call me back? You do have to give them a phone and email and your address. I'll post again if they call back. If I never post again...
Message to Kevin Roberts, please be advised, the left will most assuredly not allow your fascist wet dream of a second revolution. Be careful what you wish for. We will not sit quietly by while you destroy 248 years of democracy, progress and hope. We will not sit idly by, like the bleeting sheep who blindly follow a convicted felon, rapist, serial liar and narcissistic psychopath. We remember Germany and Italy of 90 years ago. You should, too. Even though it took a few decades, it did not end well for the Dear Leaders of those countries. If necessary, we will resist, and the resistance will be forceful and unending. You have no idea of what you will walk into. I know you've got your little peen all primed for violence, but, again, be careful what you wish for. Oh, and, please and thank you, go fuck yourself.
Ol' Kev up there looks like he's either trying to grow a Hitler 'stache or shaved it off before going on camera. Hard to tell which.
FASCISM NEEDS RACISM - fascist billionaires use racism as a dividing strategy - "if you want power and resources solely (or even mostly) in your own hands, then you have to divide the rest of the country" - Professor Ian Haney Lopez talking with Lurie Daniel Favors
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8sfSSkTv7A