Mark Lawrence Schrad writes that Republicans have abandoned policy to promote the public good, including assistance following natural disasters.
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Philip Cardellareplied to Philip Cardella last edited by
@wdlindsy I mean, the author is basically saying what's going on now is a return to pre enlightenment thinking, which is contrary to what fascism is. The problem is that's definitionally what fascism is.
I'm not trying to make an academic argument or gatekeeping so much as saying that if you're describing a game that involves a bouncing ball, baskets and the NBA rule book you can't just decide that game is called something other than basketball.
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William Lindsey :toad:replied to Philip Cardella last edited by
@philip_cardella My perspective is to ask repeatedly, Why is so much of American political commentary (and media commentary) so averse to using the term "fascism" and to comparing Trump to Hitler even when Trump parrots Hitler's exact words as he talks about racial purity or the bloodstream of the nation being infected by the impure?
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William Lindsey :toad:replied to Philip Cardella last edited by
@philip_cardella I suspect you're reading the article more carefully with a certain trained historical eye than many of us will do so — more carefully than I did when it comes to making those connections. Which is to say, the word "fascism" worked for me when I read it….
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William Lindsey :toad:replied to Phiend last edited by
@Phiend Yes.
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Phiendreplied to William Lindsey :toad: last edited by
@wdlindsy I think it’s time we call them what they are to their faces. I’m not afraid.
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Philip Cardellareplied to William Lindsey :toad: last edited by
@wdlindsy totally agree.
I do think the term is watered down the way Orwell described in 1944. There was a generation of scholarship that worked hard to remedy that but it's efforts and work are watered down today.
I think the media needs to do a better job, even in the headlines, of connecting the dots.
Trump is openly channeling Hitler. Repeatedly. The press needs to identify this AND why it's so dangerous *in headlines*.
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Philip Cardellareplied to William Lindsey :toad: last edited by
@wdlindsy We don't want to minimize that the Holocaust targeted people who are Jewish, which is a common Holocaust denial adjacent tactic.
But the reality is, the mass killings in the fascist regimes killed hundreds of thousands of people who were not Jewish and it would have continued killing after all the people who were Jewish were gone.
The press needs to highlight this reality.
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@wdlindsy @philip_cardella All this bossiness from the republicans being described reminds me of H. L. Mencken's snarky "Puritanism—the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy". Just switch out Puritanism for any of the autocratic descriptors. The conservative SCOTUS members have implied they don't care what the people want, they are the deciders. No happiness for the people! Which is contrary to the mission statement of the USA: 'Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness'
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Peter Butlerreplied to William Lindsey :toad: last edited by
@wdlindsy Fascism is based on impotence politics. The government cannot accomplish anything. "Everything is *their* fault" and the government's only purpose becomes mass deportation and border policing
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Philip Cardellareplied to William Lindsey :toad: last edited by
@wdlindsy thanks for the discussion today, William. I have the utmost respect for your opinion and value the articles you share on here.
They're always worth a read, even if I disagree with something here and there in them.
I know it takes a lot of time to curate those and I appreciate it.
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Steve Woodsreplied to William Lindsey :toad: last edited by
@wdlindsy @philip_cardella Hey, Donald!
The 1930s just called. They want their politics back.
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Danny the Wearyreplied to William Lindsey :toad: last edited by
@wdlindsy I been sayin'
Danny the Weary (@[email protected])
A movement hostile to the idea of public goods and socially valuable institutions of the democratic West. Is it the Kremlin or the GOP....? whynotboth.gif
Free Radical (freeradical.zone)
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Possumanthareplied to William Lindsey :toad: last edited by
@wdlindsy @philip_cardella I think everyone who knows what the term fascism means already knows trumpism is horrible and is working against it or thinks they will benefit from it. People who don't know by now don't want to know so they can't be told.
It's not a problem of linking hitler and fascism. That's been going on loudly since '16. -
William Lindsey :toad:replied to Possumantha last edited by
@kastope @philip_cardella This is how I see it, too.
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William Lindsey :toad:replied to Danny the Weary last edited by
@pinsk Thank you for the link. Good comments.
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William Lindsey :toad:replied to Steve Woods last edited by
@wood5y @philip_cardella Touché. Who'd have thought we'd have to relive that grim period, when so many of us claimed we'd learned the lesson it taught us? But here we are.
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William Lindsey :toad:replied to Philip Cardella last edited by
@philip_cardella Thank you for finding the piddling efforts I make to share what I'm reading worthwhile. I keep trying!
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William Lindsey :toad:replied to Peter Butler last edited by
@peterbutler Yes, and yet, ironically, it's all about asserting stongman, macho dominance and power in a very strutty performative way.
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@timo21 @philip_cardella Yes, Mencken captured something core to a formative strand of American culture — which remains active and alive in American culture down the centuries — with that observation.