Thread of What Is Fascism And Is Donald Trump A Fascist

Trump proves how useless Language is.

it's a virus i hear

I appreciate the sentiment, but Trump's single example cannot prove such a generality.

idk man I don't think proof matters very much when language is useless

especially sentences

trump never forms recognizable sentences, which right there tends to reduce the usefulness of his Language imo

Nothing is real, everything is permitted, man

I abide by the laws of physics.

Sure, the ones you know about

Trump is perfectly fluent in the contemporary language of images, which matters to a certain number of likely voters, though I guess we'll have to wait until after the first debate to see exactly how much it matters to how many

every day since reading it over the summer, I feel more deeply the truth of Vilem Flusser's pessimistic 1987 work, Does Writing Have A Future?

btw you heard it here first: Trump will resoundingly lose the debate among people who actually watch it, but will eke out a narrow victory in the polls overall once the shitty memes and lies start circulating (and really, any sign of life from the candidate or his campaign will suffice to meet the historically low expectations they face coming in to the event)

MIchiko Kakutani found a loophole in godwin's law: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/28/books/hitler-ascent-volker-ullrich.html

Donald Trump is not a Fascist, a truth so obvious as to be worth the clusterfuck that's about to ensue
― Coombesbat 18 (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, December 23, 2015 1:42 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

not over yet of course but idk if it was worth it

i thought that hitler book review was hysterical and pretty blatant

yeah it's pretty on the nose

just gon' leave this here

http://gothamist.com/2016/10/11/talking_trump_zoltar_machine.php#photo-1

http://www.esquire.com/spy/

Spy returns, sort of.

Spy is owned by Hearst Corporation. A Part of Hearst Digital Media. I say fuck 'em.

Gopnik: http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/why-trump-is-different-and-must-be-repelled

His is the ideology not of democratic patriotism but of a narrow nationalism alone—the glorification of the nation, and the exaggeration of its humiliations, with violence promised to its enemies, at home and abroad; and a promise of vengeance for those who feel themselves disempowered by history. He will “level the playing field” with the terrorist spectre of isis by forcing soldiers to commit war crimes; he will not merely kill our enemies but annihilate their families. His platform is resentment and his program is revenge, and that is an ideology with many faces and one name. This is fascism with an American face.

got to admit it's scary to think the US would ever commit war crimes in the name of vengeance

What, like bush jr invading iraq because they were rude to his dad?

oof you missed that's adam's default mode of discourse is obvious trenchant sarcasm

"violence promised to its enemies" oh well come on now, this will not stand! that's not like the US at all!

worse yere getting folks

i ran the movie do not resist last night (for an audience of ~4 people, doesn't get the blood up like GMOs i guess) and tho there wasn't a single mention of trump (was prob all shot before he declared) watching it this weekend made it clear what the bloc of law enforcement that's for fascism in the ferguson era looks+thinks like -- lots of talk of delusional cop-haters who don't understand that the only thing that keeps them alive in a howling void of evil and violence is law enforcement, and specifically law enforcement's capacity to inflict violence -- and then all of a sudden james comey showed up and said every night he lied to his little girl, because his little girl thought there were monsters under her bed, and he lied, and he told her monsters aren't real

good luck us!

the monsters aren't hiding under the bed, they're kissing her goodnight :/ </trenchant>

national trenchant week

ran the above movie again tonight to another small and radically quiet audience, F5ing the returns in the booth alone. so these guys have the executive, the legislature, and the security services, huh.

this is extremely good imo

https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-supermanagerial-reich/#!

pretty good read, thanks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Yh0jAxOxGE

pretty good read, thanks

― El Tomboto, Friday, November 18, 2016 2:22 AM (seven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the lovely latebloomer linked it on fb fwiw

tombot, can i ask for your thoughts on the vibe in dc right now

revived DC thread to answer since I don't know what anybody else is vibing

cool, thx

Reading the thread title, my first thought was: I guess we're going to find out.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/donald-trump-is-actually-a-fascist/2016/12/09/e193a2b6-bd77-11e6-94ac-3d324840106c_story.html

Nevertheless, the bourgeoisie does not like the 'plebian' method of resolving its tasks. It was always hostile of Jacobinism, which cleared the road for the development of bourgeois society with its blood. The fascists are immeasurably closer to the decadent bourgeoisie than the Jacobins were to the rising bourgeoisie. Nevertheless, the sober bourgeoisie does not look very favorably even upon the fascist mode of resolving its tasks, for the concussions, although they are brought forth in the interests of bourgeois society, are linked up with dangers to it. Therefore, the opposition between fascism and the bourgeois parties.

The big bourgeoisie likes fascism as little as a man with aching molars likes to have his teeth pulled. The sober circles of bourgeois society have followed with misgivings the work of the dentist Pilsudski, but in the last analysis they have become reconciled to the inevitable, though with threats, with horse-trades and all sorts of bargaining. Thus the petty bourgeoisie's idol of yesterday becomes transformed into the gendarme of capital.

Economist writing of risks re: Trump's policies raises the dread F word:

https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/trump-corporatism-innovation-economic-growth-by-edmund-s--phelps-2017-01

Finally, and worst of all, Trump thinks that bullying corporations, such as Ford and Carrier, and aiding others, such as Google, will boost output and employment. This is an expansion of corporatist policy the likes of which have not been seen since the fascist German and Italian economies of the 1930s. If this thinking persists, there will be more interference in the business sector to protect incumbents and block newcomers. This will clog the economy’s arteries, most likely preventing far more innovation than it stimulates among the established insiders.

I don't know enough about economics to know if this dude's focus on innovation is right-on or not, just saw it and thought of this thread

that "red blood of patriotism" line was legit terrifying

(in the inauguration speech)

a truly hitlerian speech all around

emboldened mods starting already imo

under the guise of "discriminatory speech"

what freedom of speech i say to ye brothers and sisters

let us stand together and in unison let our voices pound against the drum of fascism

http://harpers.org/archive/1941/08/who-goes-nazi/

this comment of mine has aged "well"

TLDR: he's a fascist

― wizzz! (amateurist), Tuesday, June 14, 2016 9:02 PM (seven months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Corey Robin:

Before I wrote my book on conservatism, I was a student of the politics of fear. My first book, which was based on more than a decade of research, was an analysis of how political theorists since Hobbes have understood the politics of fear. In the second part of the book, I offered my own counter-analysis of the politics of fear in the United States. Fear, American Style, I called it.

Here’s what I learned about it: the worst, most terrible things that the United States has done have almost never happened through an assault on American institutions; they’ve always happened through American institutions and practices.

These are the elements of the American polity that have offered especially potent tools and instruments of intimidation and coercion: federalism, the separation of powers, social pluralism and the rule of law.

All the elements of the American experience that liberals and conservatives have so cherished as bulwarks of American freedom have also been sources and instruments of political fear. In all the cases I looked at, coercion, intimidation, repression and violence were leveraged through these mechanisms, not in spite of them....

The truth of the matter is that Trump and Bannon could get most if not all of what they want – in terms of the revanchism of race, gender and class, the white Christian nation that they seem to wish for – without strongman politics.

American institutions offer more than enough resources for revanchism. That Trump and Bannon seem not to know this – that they are willing to make opponents of the military and the security establishment, that they are willing to arouse into opposition and conjure enemies out of potential friends – may be their biggest weakness of all. And if they do know this, but seek strongman politics anyway, then they’re willing to put strongman politics above and beyond the project of social revanchism that their base seeks. Which may be their second biggest weakness of all.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/feb/02/american-institutions-wont-keep-you-safe-trumps-excesses

xxp I got eight paragraphs into that before thinking to check the date.

this comment of mine has aged "well"

TLDR: he's a fascist
― wizzz! (amateurist), Tuesday, June 14, 2016 9:02 PM (seven months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

― wizzz! (amateurist), Thursday, February 2, 2017 1:04 PM (seventeen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yep

Actually Donald Trump isn't a fascist, he is a dumb whiny man-baby with freedom fries where his testicles should be

I'd like to amend my previous post:

Actually Donald Trump isn't just a fascist, he is also a dumb whiny man-baby with freedom fries where his testicles should be