Fascism has become one step more acceptable because of the current political crisis in the USA. Are there Americans in enough numbers who think like fascists and don’t know it to make fascism generally acceptable on a socio-political level?
Fascism has become one step more acceptable because of the current political crisis in the USA. Are there Americans in enough numbers who think like fascists and don’t know it to make fascism generally acceptable on a socio-political level?
Comments
Only the majority of us.
Yes there are. People that think they should control what you drive, who to vote for, what medical treatments you should or shouldn’t have, what is acceptable to think and say. To many people that feel if you don’t agree with them then you are a threat to them. Twenty years ago they were saying “ live and let live”.
Anyone who sees the punisher and rorschach as heros. They don’t understand the message the creators were trying to make, and very much carry fascist ideas
There are many pipelines to fascism.
One of them is frustration with the system. Our system has been incredibly ineffective at moving. That kinda makes all of us want to just push things forward without due process.
The trouble is that there are so many acting in bad faith.
I am not a political science expert, but what I am is an amateur but dedicated student of World War 2. My overwhelming feeling is that people toss around the Nazi or Fascist epithet too frivolously.
The Nazis were a totalitarian from o f government. There were government programs to eliminate the whole religion/race of Jews in Europe. Concentration camps were established where Jews and undesirables ( gays, intellectuals, etc) were imprisoned and eliminated.
The laws of search and seizure did not exist. Trial by jury did not exist. The government had full control of news, radio and movies. There were government eugenics programs.
I could go on and on, but what Is going on today is not Fascism or Nazism, it is political maneuvering.
We still have a free press. If you don’t believe me, compare CNN or MSNBC to Fox News.
We still have trial by jury. We still have laws of search and seizure. We have a government that is still elected and the opposition party in not imprisoned or being assassinated.
Our populace and government is moving to the right, but is a long way from being a totalitarian regime. Just give it time, it will swing back left before long.
pretty much (90%) everyone from high school that I used to talk to on FB, now unfriended and blocked
Maybe. Maybe not. But I’m sure there are plenty of Americans who mis-use the word “fascism” and don’t even know it, because our educational system has failed them.
I’ve seen polls lately suggesting the number of people who don’t value democracy is rising. But not to numbers that would make any sort of authoritarian government acceptable on any level.
The US has not “gone fascist.”
Trump is a fascist himself, in that bullying people into compliance is the only kind of power he understands. He’s really a very simple person, and everybody obeying a dictator is a simple system. He has always run his own company and lived a privileged life where getting his own way is just the norm, and he could get rid of anyone who criticized him. So that feels normal and right to him. I don’t know if he thinks it’s “fascist,” but philosophy and principles aren’t important to him anyway.
One thing about a dictator is they can get a lot of things done quickly. They dont have to persuade or compromise. This can make the early stages of a dictator kind of nice if you happen to agree with the dictator’s actions. So, for people who want illegal immigrants out of the country ASAP, Trump’s actions feel like finally something is being done.
And there are Trump supporters who truly believe he is really smart and shrewd and has their interests at heart. It feels good to them to have a benevolent powerful Dad in charge. They feel safer. They dont think they are fascists or probably know what that means. They just feel safer knowing Dad is in charge.
Just remember, although Trumpsters are very loud and their leader is doing outrageous things right now, roughly only a third of America of eligible voters voted for him….
I personally attribute those fascist thoughts to only the Trumpsters crowd, so about 1/3 of Americans, but yeah, they are so blinded, they dont know themselves how blind they are…
Lot of folks think that “they” (pick a “they”) don’t deserve or aren’t entitled to due process, or other rights. But they think they are firm believers in freedom, justice, and the Constitution.
They’re not.
If you read “They Thought They Were Free,” published in 1955 with interviews of Germans just 10 years after WW2, it’s both enlightening and frightening. This administration is moving much more quickly than Hitler, Modi, Erdogan or Orban. The unthinkable is now the routine.
A few days after the Nov election, I saw a Philadelphia Inquirer excerpt for an interview with a guy from Pennsylvania who said. And I quote, “I consider him like Hitler….But i voted for the man.”
I think people should not underestimate how many people are very aware of where we headed and are enthusiastic about it.
Ron DeFascist
Yes, definitely. So many people do not recognize fascism when it’s their own party. This is particularly problematic when people don’t know much about history or haven’t traveled much to areas with a history of fascism, including Europe. Negative partisanship and disinformation is such a huge problem that a far too large part of the population believes absolute nonsense about the people they think are their foes.
There are in every country. Most people will pick order over freedom if they feel they can only have one of the two.
People stupid enough to support trump are too stupid to know what fascism is.
Yes , they couch it in nationalist patriotism and religiosity born of fear, and insecurity, and scapegoat.
There are many valid concerns but the solutions are too slow and cumbersome so they are willing to see a violation of rights, and the violation of the constitution as acceptable.