Thread of What Is Fascism And Is Donald Trump A Fascist

they've always loathed Trump and they're 100% behind the new guy

exhibit A: Dubya

ie someone the GOP backed to the hilt, broke laws for, violated norms, followed into the abyss of military and economic disaster - then promptly completely disavowed as if it never happened and none of them were complicit

Yeah, that's just it, I think "Trumpism" is just a word for the fully-unveiled Right. Among many other functions, the authoritarian leader serves as a ready-made scapegoat

The Good Germans can let their very intentional ignorance absolve them, and let the face of their party take the blame

The fucker's military chopper escort just flew over my flat. Only time in my life I've regretted not keep an RPG in the spare room...

i think it's likely the key difference with Trump vs virtually anyone else in the GOP who might wind up in the WH is that he feels no shame about his bigotries and revels in them, and his core feeds off it and it encourages them. Even a vile fucker like Pence, for all the damage he'd be capable of politically, would never do the kind of damage DJT has done in that regard. I'm not saying no one else at present it out there who is capable of it, i mean now that they see it works it's entirely possible it would work again, but I think Trump is somewhat singular in that aspect. a combination of his image and his personality and his complete gleeful sociopathy and deep stupidity. i'm not saying the GOP isn't full of people like this, i'm just saying Trump may possibly be the only one for whom completely going all-in on it works for him.

nothing we don't already know but

https://www.nytimes.com/video/opinion/100000006154922/fascism-leaders-america-trump.html

https://www.nytimes.com/video/opin--

nope

it's just a professor talking about how donald trump is a fascist

on a video

sitting on a chair

Yes

TRUMP: "Media and academic institutions push flat-out assaults on our histories, traditions, and values." #wut pic.twitter.com/UCQtkcHgWJ

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 24, 2019

man fuck this guy and fuck all his enablers and toadies. forever.

All his children (and Jared) look kind of low grade horrified/sick of it all, or am I just hopefully projecting?

man it must be super hard to read the teleprompter when you're zonked out of your mind on pills

that is something else

is Miller the only guy from the OG trump team that’s still in the tent?

I mean besides the idiot kids

didn't know they stacked shit that high iirc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKZGIvLQD9I

He does sound completely stoned, doesnt he? WTF is going on?

ivanka’s probably just rethinking the whole nipple thing from yesterday and jared is thinking about playing spies

it's v interesting that he leads with "faceless" as his skin melts over his eyes

I had not been aware of “the trump prophecy.” Thank you i guess xp

Wow, I hadn't seen any of his 'speech' until just now. He looks and sounds genuinely unwell. I think this is the first time I've seriously thought (rather than simply hoped) he might not survive four years as president. If I'd seen that in real time, I might've questioned whether he'd even survive his stint at the podium.

He was up the whole night tweeting and whatever. I don’t think he’s actually sick—just burnt.

This guy sadly seems like he’s got longevity.

stamina, never wasted a single calorie on exercise

honestly, I’d believe that he’s mostly fueled on overcooked steaks and diet cokes

having had an emotional teetotaler grandpa who was always a bit incoherent but prone to rambling, it makes sense

If I'd seen that in real time, I might've questioned whether he'd even survive his stint at the podium.

For a month or so I've been torn bcz I want him to be the nominee, and tank & take the entire alt-right project down in flames, but I don't have confidence he'll be capable / functional through the primaries.

I’d endorse either of those things but I think they’re both too optimistic.

reagan had alzheimer's and his cabinet and personal staff managed to keep it under wraps, even though reagan's public appearances gave everyone some pretty obvious clues that he was losing it. of course, the media dutifully underplayed it.

Trump’s been a regressive caricature of what a cynic thinks a rich man’s internal life looks like for his entire adult life and his public appearances have yet to contradict that impression.

He could just stammer something about a guy, you know, maybe he’s *vague gesture implying racist trope* and *something about a job or money* and maybe glower a few times and still pull off a debate

Hell, I watched all of the Trump/Clinton debates and while he made no actual points or policy rebuttals he definitely won at least one when his entire rejoinder was to point to his planted audience member after being told he was a bad person to say “yeah but your husband too”

i'd rather have another republican candidate in 2020. i think it's hard to oppose someone like this, who has sucked the whole country into his narcissistic vortex.

Reagan's public persona (afai could t) was generally mollifying, so the coverup worked with that. Trump's preferred attitude is to attack and disparage, and he lashes out blindly when he feels threatened; the more he realises he's not capable, the more he tries to compensate through flailing, to less effect.

If there was nothing in his way and his enablers were were in charge, he might possibly make it through the debates. He's driven away dozens of enablers, is flipping out more & more, and is getting so obviously impaired (see how he was barely propping himself up at a twisted angle during the morning's mogadon press conference) that in six months the American news media might be starting to think about tentatively pointing it out.

(Also seems to me that either his compensatory speed-etc regimen isn't working as well, or his drug pipeline has recently been affected by the staff turnover.)

I don’t think most people pay much attention and supporters generally think throwing clouds of flak in the air is his strategy and the apparent pivots and randomness are just how you keep opponents from acting

many xxxps but i know of the trump prophecy only because it is the lowest user-rated film on a site i frequent

i tried to watch the trump prophecy a month ago, but besides being crazy it is also extremely boring.

just learned from the wiki page about that film that trump's evangelical followers are apparently obsessed with comparing him to...cyrus the great? apparently that's a thing.

It's very much a thing in the bible, so it's not that weird. If you're a fanatical christian, that is.

Yeah, they think Trump is a sinner who God has chosen To carry out a holy purpose for mysterious reasons iirc. So that’s how they square up the cruelty, viciousness, venality and arrogance of Donald Trump with Christian morality. A nice sleight of hand.

Or, as has been posited, evangelicals are themselves cruel and vicious and venal and arrogant and so Trump is just naturally their dude.

I mean, sure, but also they do say this about him. That is how they navigate the contradiction.

Yeah, they think Trump is a sinner who God has chosen To carry out a holy purpose for mysterious reasons iirc. So that’s how they square up the cruelty, viciousness, venality and arrogance of Donald Trump with Christian morality

also, Old Lunch v much otm. I’d say a scary number of them actually get off on the cruelty.

Right. The God stuff isn’t necessarily a “good faith” explanation of why they like him.

well have you READ the old testament?

there are just a handful of divinely sanctioned genocides based on whether or not you belong to the correct civilization, nbd

old donny junior trussed on the mount at moriah while papa checks twitter to see if he offs him

Erik Loomis has been good on this front this week (and also since 2016, basically)

http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2020/02/the-governments-official-promotion-of-fascist-histories

What the BLM tweeting does is assure right-wing westerners associated with mining, logging, grazing, and oil and gas that the government is openly on their side, not the tribes, not the environmentalists, not the hikers or rafters, not the residents of Denver or Portland or Seattle who use these lands.

This is culture war, pure and simple. And a history of genocide and exploitation is being used as a weapon by the fascist side of that war.