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workersolidarity · 8 months

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US Elections are a scam. It is managed democracy to support a Totalitarian Capitalist dystopia. I don't even think you can credibly call it a Capitalist system at this point, because a Capitalist system implies an ability for one company to challenge the dominance of another company over a market, and by providing a better or cheaper product or service, can displace or replace the dominant company in a market. But that doesn't happen in many so-called Markets in the US dominated International Capitalist System. Instead, a dominant company remains dominant through the careful manipulation of the political economic system itself through a framework of corruption and legalized bribery built into the US Electoral system. So-called Special Interests, in other words Corporate Interests, dominate the Policy discussion. Historically, challengers to the system are harassed, cajoled, manipulated and bribed, and if still a problem, they are persecuted, imprisoned or assassinated by elements in the Deep State.

Democracy NEVER existed in the United States. From the beginning, Wealthy Aristocracy cemented their place in politics by giving Voting Rights only to White Male Landowners. As that political system became less viable over the years, new and more complex ways for the Ruling Class to control and manipulate those elections were found and added to the system even as the country supposedly "democratized" throughout the Progressive Era and Civil Rights Movement.

Today, the system is so peppered with control mechanisms for the Ruling Class, there is virtually ZERO chance of a true challenger to the Capitalist System to become an elected official to the Federal Government, let alone to become President or to take power in Congress. The maze of regulations and rules, the enormous amounts of money required, the various Party controlled electoral mechanisms all combine to act as a safety valve for the Ruling Class to maintain power in the face of Popular Opposition, regardless how popular it may be.

Elections may be real, but the process of putting your options on the ballot virtually guarantees the Ruling Class has the final say in who gets power and who doesn't.

That's not democracy, that's Fascism.

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whatareyoureallyafraidof · 2 months

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Jack Posobiec advocates treason, and the people at CPAC cheer him! Pay attention, America!

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tomorrowusa · 4 months

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Don't risk a rerun of the 2000 election.

In the first presidential election of the 21st century many deluded progressives voted for Green Party candidate Ralph Nader.

Their foolishness gave us eight years of George W. Bush who plagued the country with two recessions (including the Great Recession) and two wars (one totally unnecessary and one which could have been avoided if he heeded an intelligence brief 5 weeks before 9/11).

Oh yeah, Dubya also appointed one conservative and one batshit crazy reactionary to the US Supreme Court. Roberts and Alito are still there.

Paul Waldman of the Washington Post offers some thoughts.

Why leftists should work their hearts out for Biden in 2024

Ask a Democrat with a long memory what the numbers 97,488 and 537 represent, and their face will twist into a grimace. The first is the number of votes Ralph Nader received in Florida in 2000 as the nominee of the Green Party; the second is the margin by which George W. Bush was eventually certified the winner of the state, handing him the White House. Now, with President Biden gearing up for reelection, talk of a spoiler candidate from the left is again in the air. That’s unfortunate, because here’s the truth: The past 2½ years under Biden have been a triumph for progressivism, even if it’s not in most people’s interest to admit it. This was not what most people expected from Biden, who ran as a relative moderate in the 2020 Democratic primary. His nomination was a victory for pragmatism with its eyes directed toward the center. But today, no one can honestly deny that Biden is the most progressive president since at least Lyndon B. Johnson. His judicial appointments are more diverse than those of any of his predecessors. He has directed more resources to combating climate change than any other president. Notwithstanding the opposition from the Supreme Court, his administration has moved aggressively to forgive and restructure student loans.

Three years ago the economy was in horrible shape because of Trump's mishandling of the pandemic. Now unemployment is steadily below 4%, job creation continues to exceed expectations, and wages are rising as unions gain strength. The post-pandemic, post-Afghan War inflation rate has receded to near normal levels; people in the 1970s would have sold their souls for a 3.2% (and dropping) inflation rate. And many of the effects of "Bidenomics" have yet to kick in.

And in a story that is criminally underappreciated, his administration’s policy reaction to the covid-induced recession of 2020 was revolutionary in precisely the ways any good leftist should favor. It embraced massive government intervention to stave off the worst economic impacts, including handing millions of families monthly checks (by expanding the child tax credit), giving all kids in public schools free meals, boosting unemployment insurance and extending health coverage to millions.

It worked. While inflation rose (as it did worldwide), the economy’s recovery has been blisteringly fast. It took more than six years for employment rates to return to what they were before the Great Recession hit in 2008, but we surpassed January 2020 jobs levels by the spring of 2022 — and have kept adding jobs ever since. To the idealistic leftist, that might feel like both old news and a partial victory at best. What about everything supporters of Bernie Sanders have found so thrilling about the Vermont senator’s vision of the future, from universal health care to free college? It’s true Biden was never going to deliver that, but to be honest, neither would Sanders had he been elected president. And that brings me to the heart of how people on the left ought to think about Biden and his reelection.

Biden has gotten things done. The US economy is doing better than those of almost every other advanced industrialized country.

Our rivals China and Russia are both worse off than they were three years ago. And NATO is not just united, it's growing.

Sadly, we still need to deal with a far right MAGA cult at home who would wreck the country just to get its own way.

Biden may be elderly and unexciting, but that is one of the reasons he won in 2020. Many people just wanted an end to the daily drama of Trump's capricious and incompetent rule by tweet. And a good portion of those people live in places that count greatly in elections – suburbs and exurbs.

Superhero films seem to be slipping in popularity. Hopefully that's a sign that voters are less likely to embrace self-appointed political messiahs to save them from themselves.

Good governance is a steady process – not a collection of magic tricks. Experienced and competent individuals who are not too far removed from the lives of the people they represent are the best people to have in government.

Paul Waldman concludes his column speaking from the heart as a liberal...

I’ve been in and around politics for many years, and even among liberals, I’ve almost always been one of the most liberal people in the room. Yet only since Biden’s election have I realized that I will probably never see a president as liberal as I’d like. It’s not an easy idea to make peace with. But it suggests a different way of thinking about elections — as one necessary step in a long, difficult process. The further you are to the left, the more important Biden’s reelection ought to be to you. It might require emotional (and policy) compromise, but for now, it’s also the most important tool you have to achieve progressive ends.

Exactly. Rightwingers take the long view. It took them 49 years but they eventually got Roe v. Wade overturned. To succeed, we need to look upon politics as an extended marathon rather as one short sprint.

Republicans may currently be bickering, but they will most likely unite behind whichever anti-abortion extremist they nominate.

It's necessary to get the word out now that the only way to defeat climate-denying, abortion-restricting, assault weapon-loving, race-baiting, homophobic Republicans is to vote Democratic.

#paul waldman #liberalism #election 2000 #election 2024 #joe biden #third parties #vote blue no matter who #donald trump #dumpster fire #trumpster fire #fascism vs. democracy #nra republicans #abortion #climate change #lgbtq+ rights #race-baiting #take the political long view #phil hands

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kafkasapartment · 8 days

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“The first step in a fascist movement is the combination under an energetic leader of a number of men who possess more than the average share of leisure, brutality, and stupidity. The next step is to fascinate fools and muzzle the intelligent, by emotional excitement on the one hand and terrorism on the other.”

“Freedom and Government” - Bertrand Russell

#quotes #history #historia #government #fascism #wisdom #democracy #liberalism #philosophy

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beauty-funny-trippy · 17 days

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Trump aspires to be like his idol — Dictator Vladimir Putin

#democracy #fascism #donald trump #Democrats #Republicans #politics #government #us politics #America #trump #maga #vote #election #beauty-funny-trippy #political cartoon #funny #humor

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odinsblog · 19 days

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Musk reactivated the accounts of Brazilian far-right politicians Carla Zambelli, Gustavo Gayer, and Nikolas Ferreira. Ferreira, a Bolsonaro supporter, openly questioned the security of Brazil’s electronic voting machines, even though he won his local legislative race.

“All of these names have been problematic for years on social media,” says Flora Rebello Arduini, campaign director at the nonprofit advocacy organization Ekō. “They've been pushing for the far-right and election misinformation for ages.”

When Musk purchased Twitter in 2022, later renaming it X, many activists in Brazil worried that he would abuse the platform to push his own agenda, Arduini says. “He has unprecedented broadcasting abilities. He is bullying a supreme court justice of a democratic country, and he is showing he will use all the resources he has available to push for whatever favors his personal opinions or his professional ambitions.”

Under Musk, X has become a haven for the far right and disinformation. After taking over, Musk offered amnesty to users who had been banned from the platform, including right-wing influencer Andrew Tate, who, along with his brother, was indicted in Romania on several charges including with rape and human trafficking in June 2023 (he has denied the allegations). Last month, one of Tate's representatives told the BBC that "they categorically reject all charges."

A 2023 study found that hate speech has increased on the platform under Musk’s leadership. The situation in Brazil is just the latest instance of Musk aligning himself with and platforming dangerous, far-right movements around the world, experts tell WIRED. "It's not about Twitter or Brazil. It's about a strategy from the global far right to overcome democracies and democratic institutions around the world," says Nina Santos, a digital democracy researcher at the Brazilian National Institute of Science & Technology who researches the Brazilian far right. “An opinion from an American billionaire should not count more than a democratic institution.”

This also comes as Brazil has continued working to understand and investigate the lead-up to January 8, 2023, when election-denying insurrectionists who refused to accept right-wing president Jair Bolsonaro’s defeat stormed Brazil’s legislature. The TSE, the country’s election court, is a special judicial body that investigates electoral crimes and is part of the mechanism for overseeing the country’s electoral processes overall. The court has been investigating the dissemination of fake news and disinformation that cast doubt on the country’s elections in the months and years leading up to the storming of the legislature on January 8, 2023. Both Arduini and Santos believe that the accounts Musk is refusing to remove are likely connected to the court’s inquiry.

“A life-and-death struggle recently took place in Brazil for the democratic rule of law and against a coup d'état, which is under investigation by this court in compliance with due legal process,” Luís Roberto Barroso, the president of the federal supreme court, said in a statement about Musk’s comments. “Nonconformity against the prevalence of democracy continues to manifest itself in the criminal exploitation of social networks.”

Santos also worries that Musk is setting a precedent that the far right will be protected and promoted on his platform, regardless of local laws or public opinion. “They are trying to use Brazil as a laboratory on how to interfere in local politics and local businesses,” she says. “They are making the case that their decision is more important than the national decision from a state democratic institution.”

Though Musk has claimed to be a free-speech advocate, and X’s public statement on the takedowns asserts that Brazilians are entitled to free speech, the platform’s application of these principles has been uneven at best. In February, on order of the Indian government, X blocked the accounts Hindutva Watch and the India Hate Lab in India, two US-based nonprofits that track incidents of religiously motivated violence perpetrated by supporters of the country’s right-wing government. A 2023 study from the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard found that X complied with more government takedown requests under Musk’s leadership than it had previously.

In March, X blocked the accounts of several prominent researchers and journalists after they identified a well-known neo-Nazi cartoonist, later changing its own terms of service to justify the decision.

—Elon Musk Is Platforming Far-Right Activists in Brazil

#politics #brazil #elon musk #disinformation #twitter #nikolas ferreira #misinformation #libertarians #fascists #fascism #elon musk is an enemy of democracy #democracy #eugenics musk #apartheid clyde #crypro grifters #techno grifters #crypto bros #election interference #electioneering

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sapphixxx · 3 months

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Signalis, Authority, and History

There's a level of nuance to how Signalis presents the violence of the authority of the nation that doesn't call attention to itself but which I really appreciate. Which is basically just, all the officers and cops and spies who make life hell for people like the Gestalt mine workers, Ariane, and the Itou family--we get little glimpses into who they are in Adler and Kolibri's diaries and despite the propaganda and the authoritative tone they take in official communications, for the most part they don't seem to actually be particularly invested in the hard line of national ideology. They uphold it though, viciously, both because things were worse under imperial rule (we don't get hard details on what it was like but it's mentioned in passing enough that I believe it) and because they're scared that if they don't they will be decommissioned and easily replaced. They are literally stamped out of a production line after all. There's a subtext of well, if I don't do it my replacement will anyway and I'm not trying to die so what's the point of rocking the boat?

I think Kolibri stands out to me most clearly on this because in communications from the block warden regarding Ariane there is emphasis put on how it is unacceptable and suspicious that she should be so interested and invested in art and literature that does not serve the purpose of furthering the goals of the nation. But we know that Kolibris themselves are bookworms, Adlers are fiends for stimulating experiences, and both get miserable FAST when deprived of art and puzzles and entertainment and hobbies. Y'know, just like anyone. Far be it from being a paragon of The Nation only interested in productive labor, we are reminded that the block warden, too, hates this shitty town and wants to transfer but is denied. They're hypocrites, but not monsters, nor brainwashed puppets of the state.

The monstrousness at play is not contained within any particular subset of evil individuals, or even an inherent universal force of evil contained in the broad notion of The Nation. There is no cosmic evil force that makes them all do these things to each other. The monstrousness is within the social systems, the mechanisms of how authority perpetuates on a structural procedural level, held in place by fear and tangible threats of violence, each link in the chain restraining the next through those threats out of fear that if they don't, then they'll be next. Regardless how many, if any, of those people in this chain are true dogmatic hardliners, they must act as such because failing to do so opens them up to danger.

Here then I think of the quote that is so prominent, "Great holes secretly are digged where earth’s pores ought to suffice, and things have learnt to walk that ought to crawl", from Lovecraft's The Festival. This is not just a chilling abstract visual that conveniently evokes a mineshaft-- in Lovecraft's story, this line refers to worms which ate the decomposing bodies of wizards whose wretched souls had remained after death, complete with the terrible powers they gained through contracts with demons. Those worms inherited both their power, and also the evil. The Nation, despite having overthrown the Empire, is built on imperial technology, in particular Replikas and bioresonance. So too, then, we can imply that The Nation inherited with those things some of the monstrousness of The Empire as well. There is no end of history, nor clean break with the past, no matter how violently it may seem to be rejected. That which remains from the past--and something inevitably always does--creates the present.

This is a game that is not shy about evoking East Germany. And I think all of this provides a sophisticated picture of repressive authority that we rarely see in fiction of the English speaking world, especially in games. The year the S23 incident takes place is notably 84, but, frankly, I find this to be more compelling and illustrative than 1984 (and I'm a librarian and have taught English classes so I get to say that). Orwell, let's be honest, presents a fairly one dimensional picture of authority, where people seize power and wield it against others out of seeming mustache twirling evil or malice.

Here though we get a more humanistic view. Authority did not come from nowhere and is not wielded arbitrarily out of gleeful cruelty or mindless brainwashed allegiance. People aren't "just following orders". Individuals have rich inner lives. They make decisions, and those decisions are based in the context they're in. Even the decision to carry repressive tools of the past into the present is a decision that was made strategically with the big picture in mind. Nobody woke up and decided to be evil that day. Everyone operates on self interest, and, we must assume, an earnest desire for things to get better. Even the [spoiler] program which served as an inspirational demonstration of The Nation's power, you can imagine the chain of officers and bureaucrats who genuinely wanted the people of the nation to believe in the future, to confidently trust that everyone was working together towards something great and beautiful. And, through a long chain of those people who couldn't say "No" without being decommissioned, we ended up with something unbelievably cruel.

We get to know Adler and Kolibri and the other officers not to say well they're human too, maybe it wasn't so bad that they condemned all those people to agonizing suffering, but to remember that if we keep looking for true monsters we will not find them. There are no monsters and there are no demons. There are only people making decisions. A better world is possible. A better world, where Adler is just a paper pusher who does puzzles after work instead of signing papers to authorize torture, where Kolibris are librarians instead of spies and cops, where EULEs can gossip and play piano and ARARs can do maintenance on facilities that don't contain torture rooms, is one that would not have led to the Ariane and Elster's tragic cycle and ultimate end.

Authority and its attendant cruelty is not contained, radiating forth from The Great Revolutionary and Her Daughter, it is within the social systems of control. When those two women die, that cruelty will continue so long as those social systems continue. Like Lovecraft's worms, no matter how long dead the evil of the past is, so long as it continues to be fed upon, that evil will not only remain, but evolve into something new in the present. A better world can't be achieved through the death of the old world alone, even if violent overthrow is warranted. There is no end of history. There is no clean break from the past.

"Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past. The tradition of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living."

Karl Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte

#Signalis #Didn't include everything because this is already very long #But there's a lot to add to this kind of reading from other former Eastern Bloc states that go beyond a kind of braindead #Simplistic Authoritarianism bad communism bad freedom good type of view common in the English speaking world #That go more into well what is authority and how does it work and how has it remained durable and violent before during and after the cold #The Romanian movie Bad Luck Banging is very good for this in expressing how things have been more similar than different #Under monarchy fascism communism and liberal democracy over the last 150 years there #replika joker voice maybe the real monster is SOCIETY #op #quality content

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atsualek · 2 months

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i know this probably isnt very relevant to most tumblr users, but if could take a bit of time to read this, id really appreciate it... i know portugal is a very small country in europe, but i just wanted to call awareness to the fact that two days ago, fifty fascists were elected to represent us in the parlament.

They belong to a party led by an openly transphobic, racist, xenophobic and misogynist guy. this on the 50th anniversary of our revolution agaisnt a fascist dictatorship, more than one milion people voted for the same thing again. the lider of the party (CHEGA) literally reused the motto of the old fascist leader, just added the word "work" to it. (its god, homeland, family and work) they want to "erase woke ideology from schools" they want to review our abortion laws, the laws in support of the queer community, review immigration laws, and are openly xenophobic and racist. they have stated they want to "fight" gender ideology, and are vehemently agaisnt trans people using the right bathrooms. there are multiple videos of them doing the nazi salute. its true, portugal is in very bad political state rn and the people want extreme changes, and thats why we now have a rightwing majority on our parlament. but its fucking terrifying. most CHEGA voters dont even know what they are voting for, but we still need to hold them accountable for this.

most of my friends are queer. its so deeply disheartening to watch your own country vote against you, against your right to exist. we dont feel safe anymore, and we know that in the next few years we will watch the already short list of laws that protected us be erased. they claim to want to build a "better future" for the young generations, but if we are queer, it seems that we dont belong in it.

#politics #awareness #chega #portugal #fascism #voting #democracy

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robertreich · 1 year

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How Republicans Are Stepping Closer to Fascism

The modern Republican Party doesn’t give a damn about democracy – it is rapidly becoming the American fascist party.

This party is devoted to three ideas: that power is only legitimate if Republicans wield it, power must be acquired by any means necessary, and the party is accountable to no one once it has it.

Are Democrats protesting your inaction on gun violence? Expel them!

Does the public want to speak against your extremist proposals? They’ve got 30 seconds each – if you let them speak at all.

At risk of losing your supermajority due to changing demographics? Bypass your own state constitution and redraw legislative districts early to keep it!

Lose the election? Deny the outcome!

And what if one of your own is charged with a crime? Reject it all as a witch hunt, and undermine the justice system to protect them.

My friends, the Republican Party is only committed to maintaining its own power. Nothing more, nothing less.

We must continue to protest this radicalism in the streets, and punish it at the ballot box.

Authoritarianism is not just an external threat. It's right here in America.

#youtube #Politics #Republicans #Fascism #Democracy #Video #Videos

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profeminist · 2 years

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READ THIS THREAD AND SHARE - I EXCERPTED THE KEY POINTS ABOVE

#fascism #us fascism #fascism rising #anti fascist #antifa #democracy #fall of democracy #u.s. coup #politics #right wing #scotus

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ceruleanmindpalace · 3 months

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I am anti-Fascism.

I live in the country that allowed a fascist to rise to power and kill millions. After this Germany made sure to teach every child what fascism looks like (and what dead bodies of Jews, political opponents and gay people piled up in concentration camps) look like, so this never happens again.

Hitler rose to power because he was able to inspire the masses. And people fell for his lies and hate speech. Additionally, people didn't bother or dare to stand up to his shit - or because their friends/families where fascists and they didn't want to step on their toes.

If I stumble into a blog that supports fascism (by spreading pro-MAGA, pro-Trump, pro-racism, anti-LGBTQ+, or anti-democracy stuff) I will block that blog.

I don't want my art to be reblogged in between their pro-fascism shit.

#sorry to get political here #but this has given me sleepless nights recently #if you don't know what fascism means #read the definition on wikipedia #lgbtq+#fascism #us politics #hate speech #propaganda #democracy

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racefortheironthrone · 4 months

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Do you think that fascism arises from economic crises?

It's a bit more complicated than a unicausal explanation, but I would argue that they are a necessary but not sufficient factor.

There is an old phrase on the Left that "anti-semitism is the socialism of fools;" which sometimes results in a kind of vulgar Marxist variety of conspiracy theory in which all forms of hatred and bigotry are the result of malign forces in the ruling class trying to distract and divide and inclulcate false consciousness among the masses.

According to this train of thought, all forms of discrimination and oppression are the result of capitalism, and once the Revolution comes, then racism and sexism and homophobia, etc. will all come tumbling down and we will all live in unity and equality and harmony. I think this particular school of thought is badly misguided and has been responsible for quite a bit of the Left's historical weaknesses and blindspots.

However, I think there is something to the idea of the original saying, in that I think a lot of the impetus for reactionary movements comes from an inchoate feeling that something is wrong with society and culture, that is turned into not just incorrect but malicious explanations of what the problems are and what the causes of those problems are, in order to radicalize people into joining hateful movements. It's not that different from how ideological frameworks function normally in a Geertzian sense, just done for darker and more violent purposes.

Here's where I think the economy comes in. It is true that there are always going to be some people with extreme reactionary beliefs, but how welcoming society is to their recruitment and other activities does I think depend on how many people are feeling desperate and let down by traditional sources of authority and willing to give "alternative" voices a hearing. Often but not always, the state and direction of the economy has a lot to do with this feeling of desperation - it's not an accident that in recent decades, we've seen the flourishing of reactionary politics following major recessions or in places that have been on the economic decline.

Again, this isn't a 1:1 thing, nor are a lot of the converts among the poorest and most desperate in society, but I do think that general impressions about the state of the economy are a major component of the motivating sense of desperation, alienation, and a breakdown of trust in institutions.

#political theory #political ideology #fascism #marxist theory #anti-semitism #social democracy

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potuzzz · 10 months

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This is an excellent question!

This is going to be an incredibly long answer!

On the surface, yes, it would appear that way. After all, nothing can beat the original Nazis at fascism, right?

However, upon closer inspection, we can see that the United States is not only a fascist country, but the most successful iteration of fascism to exist in human history. The Nazis are more overtly fascistic, but the true genius of U.S. fascism is how it has doled out more death and destruction but can avoid the Obvious Bad Guy reputation the Nazis quickly accumulated.

- - -

So fascism as we all know is tricky because 100 people will give 100 different definitions of it. I myself started off loving Umberto Eco's "Ur-Fascism," and eventually added more excellent breakdowns by people like Lenin, Parenti, etc.

Personally, my favorite way to simply define fascism is "imperialism, turned inwards," with imperialism of course being "the highest stage of capitalism," or "capitalism in decay." I myself do not really see fascism or imperialism as separate from each other in the same way that a highly abusive person is not fundamentally operating differently when they are abusing themselves versus abusing others; both are symptoms of a highly damaged person, whether they internalize it or externalize it, because in truth the two go hand-in-hand and reinforce each other. I also see fascism/imperialism as the logical development of capitalism, capitalism is meant to either evolve into socialism or stagnate and fester into fascism, capitalism cannot truly stay still. This becomes more evident when one sees Western-style social democracy as the prettiest face of fascism--and once one understands the true nature of social democracy as this, it will become quickly clear why the U.S. is so wholly and dangerously fascist.

For starters, let's go back to the whole internal vs. external abuse example.

If we look at the internal, domestic policy of the United States, no country has so wholly abused their subjects such as us. This country immediately began with the incredible genocide of an entire continent of the Native people, then was built on the backs of the most extensive slaving operation in human history. Alone what we did and continue to do to the Natives and to Black Africans cannot be matched. We have abused the Black American to the point that they are firmly relegated to a terrible second-class citizenship that is largely invisible to the average person--even American progressives tend to fail to truly understand how fundamentally different and crueler the role of the Black American is. This is of course to say nothing of the long tradition of the poor whites, the yeomen relegated to the same squalor and suffering who are pitted against their Black brethren while often enduring the same spit and whips.

Sex and gender here are so distorted that we are stuck with a choice between dangerously inhuman violent Puritan prudishness that seeks to burn all sexuality out of human beings with a red hot fire poker, or the debilitatingly depraved, violently hyper pornographic commodified oversexualization of anything and everything. Here, people may fuck with desperation or abstain with desperation, but rarely do people experience genuine connection, love, sensuality or eroticism.

Our incredible rates of suicide and mass shootings are a feature, not a bug. The depths of mental illness affecting all Americans is truly unique, and the cultural differences between us and other countries while not always able to be easily articulated neither by USians nor non-USians, is stark. Nowhere else is advertising so omnipresent, aggressive, relentless. Nowhere else is fear and misanthropy so cleverly interwoven into every facet of society. Nowhere else has the very existence and concept of community be so thoroughly devastated and perverted. Nowhere else does every single political faction--from fascists to conservatives to liberals to "leftists" to the "apolitical"--think they are truly anti-status quo and yet, without fail, wholly and happily adhere and advocate for the Empire's will at every turn.

It is genius because it is so completely unremarkable; people do not even register how evil the commercials on the TV or on their phones are. People don't get exposed to enough people outside of their bubble to truly appreciate how unnatural and fucked up their every interaction and supposed relationship with others is. It is so unceasing, people barely have a moment with their heads above water to have something decent to compare it to.

This is to say absolutely nothing about the state of our healthcare and education, which regularly and reliably gets worse results than some of the poorest countries in the world and yet with 100x the cost. We have the greatest homeless population in the world by several magnitudes.

This is to say nothing about the absolutely despicable state of every artistic medium of entertainment that is produced here or influenced by here, from our music to our movies to our shows, games, books, and all else. Dishonesty is so deeply ingrained in our way of life that I hardly see someone smile and mean it.

This is to say nothing of this being THE highest concentration of corporate power in the world--one of the most essential hallmarks of fascism. This is THE homebase of capitalism. We have a completely, openly non-existent democracy and yet, with fascistic Newspeak, we dare to chant about how free and democratic we are and how we must violently spread our freedom and democracy to the entire world.

Ah, yes, the entire world.

Another powerful hallmark of a true fascist entity is how they react to their foil, to their mortal enemy, to the opposite end of the dichotomy: socialism.

Every single even remotely leftward movement, individual, or country in the last 100 years has, at the very least, endured an attempted murder (or hundreds of attempts) by the U.S. government. The entire continents worth of people in Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia were all steadily becoming more and more progressive, many interested in outright socialism, in the 1900s. And time after time, we violently invaded, couped, bombed, assassinated, sieged, embargoed, and starved them. We have installed fascist dictators and fermented fascist movements in every nook and cranny of the world--even our lily white European counterparts we keep as pets in the garden were not safe from this. Our war doctrine has not just the precedence by the outright encouragement to target water treatement facilities, hospitals, schools, churches, playgrounds, factories, power plants, libraries. We kill children for sport and then post-humously label them "combatants." When people flee our flood of death, we will napalm entire ecosystems just to ensure that no man, woman, or child can live on this land if we can't own them and use them as slaves. Hundreds of millions of civilians ALONE have died by our hands, and that's just going off of what we openly admit to doing. Democracy, prosperity, and peace by foreign people in foreign lands is treated like a cancer by the U.S., to be eradicated with extreme impunity.

When we are not exporting raw death and destruction, we export racism, lies, anti-intellectualism, psychologically manipulative advertising, destability, insecurity, queerphobia...

We are literally destroying the world as the single greatest contributor to climate change, both by lifetime pollution and per-capita contributions. And this DOESN’T include the U.S. military, the true single greatest polluter on the planet, who gets a pass from being counted. Because, oh yeah, we have complete control of the Western institutions that define the rules for our world. We completely control the academia, the media, the sciences, and the rules for trade, diplomacy, war, and all else--none of which we follow--and those who dare to make their own rules, we seek their death.

Some of the worst empires in recent history were some of our greatest inspirations. When we inherited the British Empire, we didn't criticize them for their genocides of the Indians or the Irish, or carving up the world to plunder and sparking endless needless conflicts, we said, "Wow, cool. We can do that, but more subtly and effectively!" Our form of evangelical fascist Christianity is an evolution of the European conquistadors and missionaries that preceded us. America LOVED fascist Germany until our interests in domination eventually pitted us against each other; we ignored the Soviet stories of the Holocaust for as long as we could, we could not send American soldiers to undo this damage because they were too sympathetic to the Nazis over the Jews and Slavs and gays and Blacks and disabled, and after firebombing Dresden and Tokyo for fun, after nuking Japan twice despite their defeat and surrender being well-known to be immediately imminent, after all of this what did we do? We fought against the other Allied Powers, who had suffered actual invasion and destruction and death, to preserve the lives of as many Nazis as we could. Why? To integrate them. We brought powerful Nazis into the US as scientists, think tankers, sociologists, legislators, generals, and said, "Hey! We really liked what you were doing, but it was a little sloppy. We like your spunk, kid, you just need to buff the rougher edges. Let's build something together!"

Whether we are talking raw body count, destroyed cultures, destroyed countries, destroyed ecosystems, or more abstract things like the damage to people's psyches and sensibilities, there is no contest. The United States beats all other fascist empires put together. The British, Japanese, Germans, Romans, and Israelis combined don't do a dent compared to the stain United States of America has left on the human race.

- - -

Fascism to me is ultimately a spiritual addiction to fear that operates on the bleakest possibly understanding of reality, with everything else being a symptom of this core disease. And if there is one thing I see when I look on the face of an American? It's fear, and an unrealistically pessimistic understanding of how life is and how reality operates.

We are the singularly most brainwashed population in the world. Our values are so horrifically butchered and removed from normal human experience, our worldviews so radically corrupt, I daresay it would take the most extensive, intensive and resource-heavy re-education campaign in human history to undo the damage the system has inflicted upon, unfortunately, not just US citizens but on hundreds of minds across the world we have polluted through our influence.

- - -

I want to be clear that, obviously, other countries and peoples throughout history of all colors have done terrible things. Part of that is just the human experience. However, the internal logic of capitalism necessarily and invariably results in the highest echelons of power being occupied by deeply insecure misanthropic psychopaths who have the most potent and insatiable hunger of any human being, increasingly, slowly over time. A wide array of factors all played into the U.S. becoming the focal point of evil, and if just one variable had shifted it might have been somebody different. But it is us, and the world is a brighter place every day deeper we go into the 2020s and this bastard beast dies slowly by no hand other than its own.

- - -

This honestly could no joke be a 400 page book so I am heavily generalizing, glossing over entire insane tangents, reducing incredibly depraved events into vague gestures. This shit goes as deep as you like.

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republicansaredomesticterrorists · 2 months

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youtube

Jack Posobiec tells CPAC they’re here to “overthrow democracy.”

Republicans are nazis.

#republican assholes #traitor #republican values #Jack Posobiec #Republicans want to overthrow democracy #treasonous republicans #Republican fascism #traitor trump #crooked donald #resist #maga morons #Youtube

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emperornorton47 · 5 months

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#donald trump #trump indictment #trump is a threat to democracy #Woman president #Gay president #Fascism #election 2024

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kp777 · 1 year

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By Robert Reich

Common Dreams

April 11, 2023

I hate to say this, but America no longer has two parties devoted to a democratic system of self-government. We have a Democratic Party, which — notwithstanding a few glaring counter-examples such as what the Democratic National Committee did to Bernie in 2016 — is still largely committed to democracy. And we have a Republican Party, which is careening at high-velocity toward authoritarianism. Okay, fascism.

What occurred in Nashville last week is a frightening reminder of the fragility of American democracy when Republicans obtain supermajorities and no longer need to work with Democratic lawmakers.

The two Tennessee Democrats expelled from the Tennessee House were not accused of criminal wrongdoing or even immoral conduct. Their putative offense was to protest Tennessee’s failure to enact stronger gun controls after a shooting at a Christian school in Nashville left three 9-year-old students and three adults dead.

They were technically in violation of House rules, but the state legislature has never before imposed so severe a penalty for rules violations. In fact, over the past few years, a number of Tennessee legislators have kept their posts even after being charged with serious sexual misconduct. And the two who were expelled last week are Black people, while a third legislator who demonstrated in the same manner but was not expelled is white.

***

We are witnessing the logical culmination of win-at-any-cost Trump Republican politics — scorched-earth tactics used by Republicans to entrench their power, with no justification other than that they can.

Democracy is about means. Under it, citizens don’t have to agree on ends (abortion, health care, guns, or whatever else we disagree about) as long as we agree on democratic means for handling our disagreements.

But for Trump Republicans, the ends justify whatever means they choose —including expelling lawmakers, rigging elections through gerrymandering, refusing to raise the debt ceiling, and denying the outcome of a legitimate presidential election.

My friends, the Republican Party is no longer committed to democracy. It is rapidly becoming the American fascist party.

***

Wisconsin may soon offer an even more chilling example. While liberals celebrated the election on Tuesday of Janet Protasiewicz to the Wisconsin Supreme Court because she’ll tip the court against the state’s extreme gerrymandering (the most extreme in the nation) and its fierce laws against abortion (among the most stringent in America), something else occurred in Wisconsin on election day that may well negate Protasiewicz’s victory. Voters in Wisconsin’s 8th senatorial district decided (by a small margin) to send Republican Dan Knodl to the state Senate.

This gives the Wisconsin Republican Party a supermajority — and with it, the power to remove key state officials, including judges, through impeachment. Several weeks ago, Knodl said he would “certainly consider” impeaching Protasiewicz. Although he was then talking about her role as a county judge, his interest in impeaching her presumably has increased now that she’s able to tip the state’s highest court.

As in Tennessee, this could be done without any necessity for a public justification. Under Republican authoritarianism, power is its own justification. Recall that in 2018, after Wisconsin voters elected a Democratic governor and attorney general, the Republican legislature and the lame duck Republican governor responded by significantly cutting back the power of both offices.

North Carolina is another state where a supermajority of GOP legislators has cut deeply into the power of the executive branch, after Democrats won those posts. The GOP now has veto-proof majorities in both of the state’s legislative chambers, which enable Republicans to enact conservative policies over the opposition of Gov. Roy Cooper, including even more extreme gerrymandered districts. Although North Carolina’s constitution bans mid-decade legislative redistricting absent a court order, Republicans just announced they plan to do it anyway.

Meanwhile, a newly installed Republican supermajority in Florida has given Ron DeSantis unbridled control over the state — granting him total authority of the board governing Disney, the theme park giant he has fought over his anti-LGBTQ+ “don’t say gay” law; permission to fly migrants from anywhere in the U.S. to destinations of his own choosing, for political purposes, and then send the bill to Florida’s taxpayers; and unprecedented prosecutorial power in the form of his newly created, hand-picked office of election “integrity,” pursuing supposed cases of voter fraud.Florida has now effectively silenced even Florida residents from speaking out in opposition to Republican proposals. A new rule prohibits rallies at the state house. Those testifying against Republican bills are often allowed to speak for no more than 30 seconds.

***

Without two parties committed to democratic means to resolve differences in ends, the one remaining (small-d) democratic party is at a disadvantage in seeking ends it deems worthy. The inevitable result: Eventually it, too, sacrifices democratic means to its own ends.

When a political party sacrifices democratic means to its own ends, partisanship turns to enmity, and political divisions morph into hatred. In warfare there are no principles, only wins and losses. One hundred sixty years ago, our system of self-government fell apart because Southern states refused to recognize the inherent equality of Black people. What occurred in Tennessee last week is a throwback to that shameful era. I don’t believe Trump alone is responsible for the birth of modern Republican fascism, but he has legitimized and encouraged the vicious rancor that has led much of the GOP into election-denying authoritarianism.

#republicans #american fascism #fascism #democracy #voter suppression #authoritarianism #gerrymandering #rigging elections

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