FASCISM'S BAD? WHY?

lolonurse

@wdlindsy
This, this, this!!! We New Yorkers knew this. But anyplace west of the Hudson River and east of the Left Coast didn't want to hear it.

lolonurse

@wdlindsy
I guess confession is good for the soul (?), but a little late for the soul of a nation... (I hope not!)

ponyponypony just cannot

@wdlindsy

I’d like to link to the book he references, which is a very good in-depth look.

How Fascism Works - Wikipedia

(en.m.wikipedia.org)

#politics #fascism

Joanna Bryson, blathering

@wdlindsy @salixsericea Didn't he lose over half his dad's wealth?

Bohemian Peasant

@wdlindsy

“Robert Paxton, in ‘Anatomy of Fascism’, offers this pragmatic definition of fascism: “a form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation, or victimhood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy, and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence …”
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#Fascism

Bohemian Peasant

@wdlindsy

Robert Paxton, in Anatomy of Fascism, offers this pragmatic definition of fascism:

(continued) “ … and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion.”

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#fascism

William Lindsey :toad:

@BohemianPeasant Thank you for these insighful excerpts from Robert Paxton's book. They offer good slants for the current discussion of the term.

William Lindsey :toad:

@j2bryson @salixsericea We're never given a clear picture of his constantly shifting wealth, are we?

William Lindsey :toad:

@ponyponypony Thank you — yes, one of the best books on the topic to be published in recent years. I gave it as a kind of primer to people when it first came out, as Christmas presents.

William Lindsey :toad:

@lolonurse Well-stated.

William Lindsey :toad:

@lolonurse You're right, for sure. And as I read what you wrote, I think of something I read recently — can't remember who said this — which pointed out that more people in New York City voted for Trump in 2020 than in the entire state of West Virginia. Who are those New Yorkers? And what on earth are they thinking?

William Lindsey :toad:

@Okanogen I fear you are right about that.

William Lindsey :toad:

@CatHerder Yes, but as some commentators are noting, not even at his worst did Wallace go the whole-hog fascist route Trump-Vance have taken.

William Lindsey :toad:

@BlueWaver22 I agree.

lolonurse

@wdlindsy
NY City changed quite a bit after 9/11 (imo). The rock solid blue of all the unions began to change as people became suspicious & xenophobic (crazy in NYC, where everyone comes from somewhere). Staten Island, bastion of firefighters, turned bright red. Queens and Long Island went red. And all the smarmy MBAs on Wall St. Anyway... it's sad & stupid.

William Lindsey :toad:

@lolonurse Yes, I've heard interesting conversations at the house of my niece in Connecticut, who moved out of the city during the pandemic (with husband and children), but still has her business there and goes there daily. And at the apartment of my brother in Brooklyn…. My niece describes herself as a "strong Democrat," and my brother would no doubt say the same. But they interact with New Yorkers who, while leaning Democratic, often have surprisingly xenophobic ideas and express them freely.

lolonurse

@wdlindsy
Plus I think that New York has been the repository for the most diverse people, for hundreds of years. They've all had to get used to, and accept, the accents, looks, clothing, foods & smells, religions, holidays and customs of all the people living around them. And being New Yorkers, anything is fair game for a joke or snark. That used to be tolerated, part of the "flavor" of NYC...but now we have come to be more sensitive- & yet, a LOT less tolerant.

William Lindsey :toad:

@lolonurse Yes, that captures the New York I see, and which you know from the inside. It's good to be invited — or forced by proximity and shared space — to rub shoulders with those different from ourselves frequently. This, I think, is the big challenge for too many of us in the heartland: we can't imagine a bigger world because we seldom encounter anyone very different from ourselves culturally, religiously, in terms of thought patterns and background.

lolonurse

@wdlindsy
We were doubly lucky bc my dad was involved with the designing and/or renovation of so many NYC landmarks, from the UN building to the Guggenheim to Lincoln Center to the Museum of Natural History/Haydn Planetarium. His folks were engineers, architects & designers from all over the world, so we were totally used to being surrounded by folks from literally everywhere. I like it that way. Where I am now, the primary diversity is lgbtqia++ against a sea of Falun Gong & MAGA.

William Lindsey :toad:

@lolonurse As ever, when you tell me about your family background and upbringing, I have to say how very fortunate you were.