"Right-wing strategist Steve Bannon, who once pledged to make the world 'as exciting as the 1930s,' promotes the ideas of the Italian Traditionalist Julius Evola, who wrote: 'We would like a more radical, more intrepid Fascism, a really absolute Fascis...

[dingsextrem@mas.to]

@wdlindsy i mean, tbf, how could the people back in the time know what Hitler planned? It's not like he'd written a book about his plans and spread it all over Germany...

[jon_kramer@mastodon.social]

@wdlindsy I feel that number is closer to 95%. Maybe 5% of us support democracy and draw a line in concrete over the concept. Maybe 5%. MAYBE.

[donwatkins@fosstodon.org]

@wdlindsy His supporters are in a cult. Many are on some form of government handout, yet they're against the government.

[xinit@mastodon.coffee]

@wdlindsy "besides, if he did, I'm not one of the group that would be affected, so no problem."

[politicalfinger@universeodon.com]

@wdlindsy It’s close, because our legislative and judicial branches of government have been infiltrated by corrupt, fascist supporting, Trump loyalists, who have manipulated our laws, and the first amendment, to support lies over truth.

The safeguards that protect our democracy have been removed by Trump loyalists, otherwise, he would have already been stopped. Even the DOJ is powerless.

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

@politicalfinger That's right. And I'd throw corporate leaders and the mainstream media into the mix here. They, too, are responsible for what's happening now — big-time responsible.

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

@xinit That's right. This is so central to the thinking of elites — like the folks who own, manage, and write for the New York Times. We won't be affected, after all, they tell themselves. Only they will.

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

@donwatkins Yes.

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

@Jon_Kramer It seems that way. But the popular vote election after election tells us that a majority of Americans do not buy the MAGA agenda. The problem is that, with lavish help from the Republican party and the Supreme Court, a minority has gamed the system in order to exert minoritarian control over the majority.

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

@Dingsextrem Irony detected here — good irony. Yes, how, indeed, could they have possibly known?

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

@Laloofah A good question. I think at the very least that we have to increase our determination, the rest of us, to stand as a bloc of resistance to them. We have to keep doing all in our power to refuse to let them seize control of the reins of government. We have to challenge and confront them as they lie and distort our history. We have to commit ourselves to a very long struggle, since this will not go away easily and soon.

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

@Flowermob No, they don't care. I don't think those speaking out are speaking out because they imagine that Trump's cult follows care. I think they're speaking out because they know it's the right thing to do.

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

@hakona Thank you for the link. I'll watch with interest.

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

@Myerman I absolutely agree.

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

@Kraemer_HB 10% sounds like a very low calculation to me.

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

@Dave_Goldsmith "Trump has only one principle: The whole world is a con and only suckers play by the rules."

That's exactly it. That's very well-stated.

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

@Laloofah Well-stated. I agree, though I wonder how many of us actually would be decent, kind, and law-abiding if push came to shove. The results of the Milgram experiment, which has repeated a number of times at different points in time and in different cultural settings, always with the same results, give me pause to think.

[dave_goldsmith@mastodon.scot]

@wdlindsy

He learned that lesson from his dad and Roy Cohn.

[kraemer_hb@mastodon.social]

@wdlindsy That's what a cult wants. I don't remember who said things like 10 devout followers are better than 50 normal people. It might have been some Nazi.
Trump selected his followers for devoutness, that's the function of him requesting them to repeat any of his lies. This way they always have to avow to him being their saviour. (What I can't wrap my head around is religious Christians doing such oplenly blasphemous things.)

[thebratdragon@mastodon.scot]

@wdlindsy @Dave_Goldsmith even more succinctly, everybody is a sucker except him.....