2/ Here's why Biden/Harris need to be as blunt, forceful, and repetitive about this as possible. Make people hear you, understand to their core.
Via Kurt Andersen:
Just re-read Marie Brenner’s great 1990 vanityfair piece about #Trump. With his admission of keeping a book by #Hitler. And quotes his lawyer saying Trump’s “a believer in the big-lie theory.” The unconnected dots: “big lie” was a concept and term Hitler introduced in Mein Kampf.
“When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross, and the New York Times Opinion section will say we are all overreacting.”
The #NYTimes once published an article saying that #Hitler wasn’t really that bad. He was just using #antisemitism as a way to attract followers & keep them excited about his #political campaign.
The NYTimes more recently published an article saying that #Trump isn’t really that bad. He is just using threats of #violence & #authoritarianism as a way to attract followers & keep them excited about his political campaign.
Lucian K. Truscott says that Trump is openly announcing his plan to build "camps" and round up undesirables to place in this camps if he's elected president, because he thinks this rhetoric will energize voters.
He notes that when Hitler became German chancellor, he began building concentration camps and rounding up the "vermin" who were infesting the clean, healthy German people.
Powerful and Continuing #Nationalism
Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of #patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. #Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.
Disdain for the Recognition of #HumanRights
Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of “need.” The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, and long incarcerations of prisoners.
Supremacy of the #Military
Even when there are widespread #domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.
Rampant #Sexism
The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional #gender roles are made more rigid. Opposition to #abortion is high, as is #homophobia and anti-#gay legislation.
Controlled #MassMedia
Sometimes the media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation or by sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Government #censorship and #secrecy especially in war time, are very common.
Obsession with #NationalSecurity
Fear of hostile foreign powers is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.
#Religion and Government are Intertwined
Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government’s policies or actions.
Protection of #Corporate Power
The #industrial and business #aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.
Suppression of #Labor Power
Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor #unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed.
Disdain for #Intellectuals and the #Arts
Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to #HigherEducation and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other #academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts is openly attacked, and governments often refuse to fund the arts.
Obsession with #Crime and #Punishment
Under fascist regimes, the #police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego #CivilLiberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.
Rampant #Cronyism and #Corruption
Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.
#Fraudulent#Elections
Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by #SmearCampaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control #voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.
This post is a summary of Fascism, Anyone? by Lawrence W. Britt published in 2003 by Free Inquiry magazine."
"We are now dangerously confronted with a movement headed by a man who repeatedly quotes Nazi propaganda, praises dictators, incited and defends violence together with a MAGA base that is 'looking for more blood.' At this point, calling MAGA a modern-day Neo-Nazi movement is no longer hyperbolic. It’s the frightening reality we are faced with in our nation."
"Instead of echoing the appalling rhetoric of fascists, lunching with Neo Nazis, and fanning debunked conspiracy theories that have cost brave police officer their lives, President Biden is bringing the American people together around our shared democratic values and the rule of law — an approach that has delivered the biggest violent crime reduction in 50 years."
New York Times at its typical normalizing of extremism, calling Trump's declaration that he's above the law an "ambitious argument." Journalistic cowardice is the standard...
The New York Times once published an article saying that #Hitler wasn’t really that bad. He was just using #antisemitism as a way to attract followers and keep them excited about his political campaign.
The New York Times has recently published an article saying that #Trump isn’t really that bad. He is just using threats of #violence and #authoritarianism as a way to attract followers and keep them excited about his political campaign.
Millions of Americans are relieved that Trump is, hopefully, on his way to justice.
I tend to imagine that Trump sees his predicament as likely more sanguine than inauspicious.
Hitler attempted a coup, the Beer Hall Putsch, in 1923. He was convicted and imprisoned briefly, during which time he wrote Mein Kampf. The rest is hideously ugly history — history in which an increasingly desperate Trump hears the ring of rhyme. He’s anxiously listening for more. #Trump#Hitler#HistorySometimesRhymes
When I think of the recent Wall Street Journal statement pooh-poohing Trump's promise to rule as a dicator, I think of something Susan Neiman says in her book Learning from the Germans.
She writes that German philosopher Bettina Stangneth is "not convinced that Germans have faced the worst fact about the Nazi period: not the ignorant masses, but the educated elites were the driving forces behind the regime.”
“Hitler had made it to the chancellery in a brokered deal that conservative elites agreed to only because they were convinced they could hold him in check and make use of him for their own political aims. They underestimated his cunning and overestimated his base of support, which had been the very reason they had felt they needed him in the first place."
"At the height of their power at the polls, the Nazis never pulled the majority they coveted and drew only 38 percent in the country's last free and fair elections at the onset of their twelve-year reign. The old guard did not foresee, or chose not to see, that his actual mission was 'to exploit the methods of democracy to destroy democracy.’
By the time they recognized their fatal miscalculation, it was too late."
One of the lessons of Nazi Germany is the extent to which media, universities, religious leaders, economic elites are willing, eyes wide open, to lead a democratic nation to the brink of dictatorship while claiming to champion the highest of ideals.
We cannot expect the media to save us from a Trumpian dictatorship. They've shown us in spades during this period of history that they're just not about saving democracy and combating dictatorship—not at all.
"Hitler had risen as an outside agitator, a cult figure enamored of pageantry and rallies with parades of people carrying torches that an observer said look like ‘rivers of fire.’ Hitler saw himself as the voice of the Volk, of their grievances and fears, especially those in the rural districts, as a god-chosen savior, running on instinct. He had never held elected office before.”
"The use of the word 'vermin' is a surprisingly precise and archaic choice of language for a man with a limited vocabulary. Too much so to be coincidental with the Nazis’ use of the German word for vermin, 'ungeziefer', to describe and dehumanize Jews. Trump clearly understands the power of marginalizing segments of the population by dehumanizing them…."
If a former president, and the current front-runner in the current election cycle quotes Hitler, I feel like the media should maybe say something about that.
"If you ever wondered what it was like to live in early 1930's Germany, we are all getting a sense with Donald Trump and the fascist MAGA movement.
The similarities between Trump’s current tactics and Hitler’s rise to power in 1930’s Germany are no longer being whispered after Trump’s speech Saturday. They are being shouted—and they should be."
"And here we are again, eight decades [after Hitler rose to power], at the precipice of something globally awful. Madmen call the shots in Russia and Iran and North Korea. China is a brutal dictatorship with ambitions of empire."
The New York Times, an absolute tire fire of a newspaper, publishes a guest essay portraying Donald Trump as a moderate, written by a guy who is promoting the essay by saying it would be undemocratic to hold Trump legally accountable for his many crimes.
The New York Times once published an article saying that #Hitler wasn’t really that bad. He was just using #antisemitism as a way to attract followers and keep them excited about his political campaign.
The New York Times has recently published an article saying that #Trump isn’t really that bad. He is just using threats of #violence and #authoritarianism as a way to attract followers and keep them excited about his political campaign.
“He views himself as a big guy,” #JohnBolton, who served as #NationalSecurity adviser under #Trump, told me. “He likes dealing w/other big guys, & big guys like #Erdogan …get to put people in jail & you don’t have to ask anybody’s permission. He kind of likes that.”
“He’s not a tough guy by any means, but in fact quite the opposite,” #JohnKelly said. “But that’s how he envisions himself.”
Trump allegedly reserved some of his most unnerving praise for #Hitler, who led #Nazi Germany during WWII.