To me, this is the worst crisis in my 71 year life. As an Army veteran, who served during the 'cold war', I never felt that our country was threatened by the USSR. Now with the polarized politics of today, I fear we will not be able to face our internal issues, let alone, the very serious world situation. I have even thought that the world will soon be involved in another World War. Very scary indeed!
We in Canada are watching closely. Up to now, we've enjoyed a peaceful relationship with our larger neighbor, a relationship that depends on which direction you choose. We've seen how fascist nations treat their neighbors; our future is in your vote also.
As hard as it is to identify the outward trappings of fascism during the formative period after they take root, the seeds of fascism planted early in the susceptible minds of the gullible are, by design, almost impossible to detect as they slowly metastasize in one brain cell at a time, usually over a period of years.
Paul Pelosi's attacker, a wannabe Trump "brownshirt" in all but name, was slowly groomed over time by the ubiquitous enablers and influencers flooding the wingnut zone. Obviously, his personal descent into right-wing madness infected his mind at an imperceptible level until the statements he made to police revealed just how normalized a terrorist attack can seem to the perpetrator, even to the point that such pointless violence can be so easily misconstrued as acts of patriotism and, in way too many cases, as religious acts ordained by "God."
More important than weapons and uniforms and the tools of government, the essence of fascism first requires a credulous mind free of self-doubt.
I suggest for further understanding of How Fascism Work, reading Jason Stanley's 2018 book by that title:
HOW FASCISM WORKS
Fascist politics are running rampant in America today—and spreading around the world. A Yale philosopher identifies the ten pillars of fascist politics, and charts their horrifying rise and deep history.
Fascism in the US takes on many forms. The Republican form is the most exploitable for those making a living off of it, but other forms are just as harmful and dangerous primarily to those who are not in the beltway so to speak. The addition of 100,000 police to a militarized force that brutalizes its people without reproach on a daily basis is certainly a form of fascism. The response to any suggestion of peace or diplomacy in regards to the war in Ukraine, from the granular in your own response to callers who suggest Biden is remiss in his blind escalation towards World War III to the systemic in the Democratic Party response to a benign letter suggesting diplomacy be used in addition to military aid, is a stifling form of fascism that sees history repeating itself. The Affordable Care Act has seen the government subsidizing for-profit companies through the exchanges and Medicare Advantage, an ominous merging of private equity investment with government that Democrats have pushed through. So even if we vote for Democrats in our extremely limited democracy, and even if we could stop the Republican conspiracy to take over the electoral process, the fascism liberals are supporting and enabling results in a slower death perhaps (apart from the prospect of nuclear war which you so glibly dismiss and our wholly inadequate and performative response to climate change) but unless one is wealthy the democracy you are defending is largely illusory.
How strange, how ironic, how almost funny if it wasn't so deadly serious and tragic, that the taunt of the far right fifty years ago has now come back on them, when I can almost find myself willing to say, "Better dead than red (Republican)."
The inoculation against this creeping malice and vice is self-awareness, self-disclosure, and self-honesty and a level of education which permits and promotes an understanding of real events and policies that reflects the reality and allows one to forecast potential future events and policies. “How is this to be avoided, among ordinary men, even highly educated ordinary men?” Mayer’s friend asked rhetorically. That is a misleading question. It does not happen among highly educated men. It happens to highly schooled men, because school is the precursor and the training ground for sleep-walking, apathy, distraction, bias, and cynicism. It doesn't have to be. It is, only because the state has inserted itself via the laws and by deceiving the people intentionally or inadvertently with the false promise of education, which they cannot deliver and which is substituted for with behavioral modification, obedience training, internalized guilt and inadequacy, and chronic dependence on authority. There, I've said it again.
I applaud your belief that voting will change, or even defend, anything. I voted, but my future is determined by idiots in Arizona, Georgia, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania ... I long for the day that my vote in Oregon will have meaning in the Western American States.
Can a candidate outdo Trump in the fascistic arena? I think so. Tim Michels running for governor in Wisconsin said, if elected, his Republican Party “will never lose another election”. He is a Big Lie, Trump endorsed FASCIST. Oh by the way, the small group he was addressing whooped it up about that statement. Democracy really is on the ballot there.
If you want a glimmer of hope, watch the interview Stephen Colbert just did with Bono. He has been everywhere and fought inequality anywhere he could. He's been quite the student and is now an expert. Bono believes America will fulfill its promise.
Diversity, democracy, and free and fair elections is the future we deserve, not the likes of that fascist Tim Michels!
Hum, great post. Here are some corroborating facts, which I got by interviewing several dozen normal people, multiple ages, skin tones, etc..
I found that about 20% WANT a "daddy". They are perfectly happy being ordered around. I think back to a relative who insisted she could never work without a boss. The truth is, I hired her and made her a boss and she was great, but she'd had a boss all her life and preferred what she knew.
About 20% were thinkers, workers, entrepreneurs. Several are successful business owners or consultants. More or less like most of the people you see here on Thom's site.
60% were pretty much ambivalent. They said quite honestly that they never vote because neither wing of the political machine represents them or America or Americans. Recently, we have all been SHOCKED to see congress and the Democrats actually doing something. None of us believe it will continue. I sure don't. I'm 69 and haven't seen government do ANYTHING for America or Americans since the 1960s, until last year. Maybe it will continue, but I dunno, it sure looks like what they did was done out of desperation.
I'll tell you what I expect. The Democrats, handed hundreds of slam dunk convictions by Mueller, impeached the Kremlin's Actor Asset on two charges nobody would convict on. A Kremlin funded and NaziRepublican Party organized attack on our capitol WOULD HAVE KILLED THEM ALL, yet for the last two years, nothing has been done except slap a few of the brownshirts while allowing them to go on Kremlin Media and make piles of Rubles. Hey, I'll volunteer to be tossed in the hoosegow for 90 days for a million bucks.
By not holding US politicians to US laws, two things have been achieved. First, the brownshirts noticed that essentially nobody is held responsible, so why not attack and kill Dems? Second, American voters don't believe anything the Dems say or do. All the good laws they pushed through were saving America from total collapse. We don't want politicians waiting until the last breath of America to act, we want to return to a growing middle class and thriving economy. We aren't seeing that, and sorry, I don't buy the excuses. I worked all over the planet for outrageous wages fixing failures costing $400 a minute - and never once thought of blaming the people who caused the failure, hell no, I enlisted their help to fix it and trained them to avoid future problems. The Dems need to prosecute the seditious criminal Kremlin agents in congress and they need to do it NOW, not keep making excuses why they have to delay. They have delayed TWO YEARS, we no longer believe anything they say.
Right now, the main reason I'll vote for the Dems is Trump and the American Fascist Party, but the Democratic Party is trying to convince me to vote fascist. Anyone but me notice this?
John Dean made extensive use of Professor Robert Altemeyer's decades of work to better understand why and how Nazi Germany happened. Altemeyer coined the phrase right-wing authoritarian, developed a psychological test for identifying this auhoritarian personality and surveyed Americans to establish that RWAs exist at all levels of the GQP.
Someone else who has studied the right-wing in America is Professor Lawrence Rosenthal who established the one-and-only Berkley Center for Right-Wing Studies in 2009. Here is an interview of Professor Rosenthal on understanding the threat of the right-wing in America:
Scared all the time. If we lose Congress, my middle aged children and teen grandkids will have to live with fascism for decades. And I will be glad I am 80 and won’t have too many years left to witness what would come. And so many just want to live their lives and not worry. I am told to cheer up. Stop watching the news. I was born with a red pill in my mouth. It’s still there. 😢
To me, this is very easily solved. Economic sector by economic sector, the US Congress could do their job and make sure no company has more than 5% of the sector. Second, call "Move to Amend" and get the last few states to sign the proposed new amendment, which says "Money is not speech and corporations are not people". Succinct, and needed, though we also need to add "and by universal congressional agreement, the Supreme Court may not rule in any matter related to this law".
I'm sure everyone on this website knows, but some of you may have forgotten that fascism loves Oligarchy, but it cannot exist without Oligopoly. You don't see stock clerks and truckers buying judges or other politicians, they are only affordable to a huge entity because once the bribery exchange is agreed, it's permanent while they are in office. Most judges and other politicians have multiple owners, which must be interesting when two bribe in opposition. That's probably when the majority leader quietly never brings up the bill for a vote. They know they can do nothing at all and most Americans will still vote for them, so they ignore us.
To me, this is the worst crisis in my 71 year life. As an Army veteran, who served during the 'cold war', I never felt that our country was threatened by the USSR. Now with the polarized politics of today, I fear we will not be able to face our internal issues, let alone, the very serious world situation. I have even thought that the world will soon be involved in another World War. Very scary indeed!
We in Canada are watching closely. Up to now, we've enjoyed a peaceful relationship with our larger neighbor, a relationship that depends on which direction you choose. We've seen how fascist nations treat their neighbors; our future is in your vote also.
As hard as it is to identify the outward trappings of fascism during the formative period after they take root, the seeds of fascism planted early in the susceptible minds of the gullible are, by design, almost impossible to detect as they slowly metastasize in one brain cell at a time, usually over a period of years.
Paul Pelosi's attacker, a wannabe Trump "brownshirt" in all but name, was slowly groomed over time by the ubiquitous enablers and influencers flooding the wingnut zone. Obviously, his personal descent into right-wing madness infected his mind at an imperceptible level until the statements he made to police revealed just how normalized a terrorist attack can seem to the perpetrator, even to the point that such pointless violence can be so easily misconstrued as acts of patriotism and, in way too many cases, as religious acts ordained by "God."
More important than weapons and uniforms and the tools of government, the essence of fascism first requires a credulous mind free of self-doubt.
I suggest for further understanding of How Fascism Work, reading Jason Stanley's 2018 book by that title:
HOW FASCISM WORKS
Fascist politics are running rampant in America today—and spreading around the world. A Yale philosopher identifies the ten pillars of fascist politics, and charts their horrifying rise and deep history.
https://jason-stanley.com/book/how-fascism-works/
Fascism in the US takes on many forms. The Republican form is the most exploitable for those making a living off of it, but other forms are just as harmful and dangerous primarily to those who are not in the beltway so to speak. The addition of 100,000 police to a militarized force that brutalizes its people without reproach on a daily basis is certainly a form of fascism. The response to any suggestion of peace or diplomacy in regards to the war in Ukraine, from the granular in your own response to callers who suggest Biden is remiss in his blind escalation towards World War III to the systemic in the Democratic Party response to a benign letter suggesting diplomacy be used in addition to military aid, is a stifling form of fascism that sees history repeating itself. The Affordable Care Act has seen the government subsidizing for-profit companies through the exchanges and Medicare Advantage, an ominous merging of private equity investment with government that Democrats have pushed through. So even if we vote for Democrats in our extremely limited democracy, and even if we could stop the Republican conspiracy to take over the electoral process, the fascism liberals are supporting and enabling results in a slower death perhaps (apart from the prospect of nuclear war which you so glibly dismiss and our wholly inadequate and performative response to climate change) but unless one is wealthy the democracy you are defending is largely illusory.
How strange, how ironic, how almost funny if it wasn't so deadly serious and tragic, that the taunt of the far right fifty years ago has now come back on them, when I can almost find myself willing to say, "Better dead than red (Republican)."
The inoculation against this creeping malice and vice is self-awareness, self-disclosure, and self-honesty and a level of education which permits and promotes an understanding of real events and policies that reflects the reality and allows one to forecast potential future events and policies. “How is this to be avoided, among ordinary men, even highly educated ordinary men?” Mayer’s friend asked rhetorically. That is a misleading question. It does not happen among highly educated men. It happens to highly schooled men, because school is the precursor and the training ground for sleep-walking, apathy, distraction, bias, and cynicism. It doesn't have to be. It is, only because the state has inserted itself via the laws and by deceiving the people intentionally or inadvertently with the false promise of education, which they cannot deliver and which is substituted for with behavioral modification, obedience training, internalized guilt and inadequacy, and chronic dependence on authority. There, I've said it again.
I applaud your belief that voting will change, or even defend, anything. I voted, but my future is determined by idiots in Arizona, Georgia, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania ... I long for the day that my vote in Oregon will have meaning in the Western American States.
Can a candidate outdo Trump in the fascistic arena? I think so. Tim Michels running for governor in Wisconsin said, if elected, his Republican Party “will never lose another election”. He is a Big Lie, Trump endorsed FASCIST. Oh by the way, the small group he was addressing whooped it up about that statement. Democracy really is on the ballot there.
If you want a glimmer of hope, watch the interview Stephen Colbert just did with Bono. He has been everywhere and fought inequality anywhere he could. He's been quite the student and is now an expert. Bono believes America will fulfill its promise.
Diversity, democracy, and free and fair elections is the future we deserve, not the likes of that fascist Tim Michels!
Hum, great post. Here are some corroborating facts, which I got by interviewing several dozen normal people, multiple ages, skin tones, etc..
I found that about 20% WANT a "daddy". They are perfectly happy being ordered around. I think back to a relative who insisted she could never work without a boss. The truth is, I hired her and made her a boss and she was great, but she'd had a boss all her life and preferred what she knew.
About 20% were thinkers, workers, entrepreneurs. Several are successful business owners or consultants. More or less like most of the people you see here on Thom's site.
60% were pretty much ambivalent. They said quite honestly that they never vote because neither wing of the political machine represents them or America or Americans. Recently, we have all been SHOCKED to see congress and the Democrats actually doing something. None of us believe it will continue. I sure don't. I'm 69 and haven't seen government do ANYTHING for America or Americans since the 1960s, until last year. Maybe it will continue, but I dunno, it sure looks like what they did was done out of desperation.
I'll tell you what I expect. The Democrats, handed hundreds of slam dunk convictions by Mueller, impeached the Kremlin's Actor Asset on two charges nobody would convict on. A Kremlin funded and NaziRepublican Party organized attack on our capitol WOULD HAVE KILLED THEM ALL, yet for the last two years, nothing has been done except slap a few of the brownshirts while allowing them to go on Kremlin Media and make piles of Rubles. Hey, I'll volunteer to be tossed in the hoosegow for 90 days for a million bucks.
By not holding US politicians to US laws, two things have been achieved. First, the brownshirts noticed that essentially nobody is held responsible, so why not attack and kill Dems? Second, American voters don't believe anything the Dems say or do. All the good laws they pushed through were saving America from total collapse. We don't want politicians waiting until the last breath of America to act, we want to return to a growing middle class and thriving economy. We aren't seeing that, and sorry, I don't buy the excuses. I worked all over the planet for outrageous wages fixing failures costing $400 a minute - and never once thought of blaming the people who caused the failure, hell no, I enlisted their help to fix it and trained them to avoid future problems. The Dems need to prosecute the seditious criminal Kremlin agents in congress and they need to do it NOW, not keep making excuses why they have to delay. They have delayed TWO YEARS, we no longer believe anything they say.
Right now, the main reason I'll vote for the Dems is Trump and the American Fascist Party, but the Democratic Party is trying to convince me to vote fascist. Anyone but me notice this?
John Dean made extensive use of Professor Robert Altemeyer's decades of work to better understand why and how Nazi Germany happened. Altemeyer coined the phrase right-wing authoritarian, developed a psychological test for identifying this auhoritarian personality and surveyed Americans to establish that RWAs exist at all levels of the GQP.
Someone else who has studied the right-wing in America is Professor Lawrence Rosenthal who established the one-and-only Berkley Center for Right-Wing Studies in 2009. Here is an interview of Professor Rosenthal on understanding the threat of the right-wing in America:
https://bioneers.org/fascism-in-the-usa-could-it-happen-and-how-can-we-avoid-it-ztvz2210/
Scared all the time. If we lose Congress, my middle aged children and teen grandkids will have to live with fascism for decades. And I will be glad I am 80 and won’t have too many years left to witness what would come. And so many just want to live their lives and not worry. I am told to cheer up. Stop watching the news. I was born with a red pill in my mouth. It’s still there. 😢
To me, this is very easily solved. Economic sector by economic sector, the US Congress could do their job and make sure no company has more than 5% of the sector. Second, call "Move to Amend" and get the last few states to sign the proposed new amendment, which says "Money is not speech and corporations are not people". Succinct, and needed, though we also need to add "and by universal congressional agreement, the Supreme Court may not rule in any matter related to this law".
I'm sure everyone on this website knows, but some of you may have forgotten that fascism loves Oligarchy, but it cannot exist without Oligopoly. You don't see stock clerks and truckers buying judges or other politicians, they are only affordable to a huge entity because once the bribery exchange is agreed, it's permanent while they are in office. Most judges and other politicians have multiple owners, which must be interesting when two bribe in opposition. That's probably when the majority leader quietly never brings up the bill for a vote. They know they can do nothing at all and most Americans will still vote for them, so they ignore us.