Is Donald Trump a fascist? A historian of fascism weighs in
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Re: Is Donald Trump a fascist? A historian of fascism weighs in
#2There's a famous joke that "fascist" in politics just means "I don't like you"
It's just an ill-defined insult at this point. George Orwell had interesting things to say.
Re: Is Donald Trump a fascist? A historian of fascism weighs in
#3He says that he thinks trump never read a book on Hitler, but he at least owned a book of his speeches, according to his ex wife.
Re: Is Donald Trump a fascist? A historian of fascism weighs in
#4He looks like the bad guy in Dead Zone:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dead_Zone_%28film%29
But he is more a populist than a facist.
Re: Is Donald Trump a fascist? A historian of fascism weighs in
#5Setting aside Mr. Trump...
"The trends are not downward unless you were offended by the presence of a black man in the White House."[3]
Except we are still expected to live in a 'post-911'[1] state[2] of fear.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQu_mYI3Vxs
[2] https://cryptome.org/2015/09/potus-15-0911.pdf
[3] Wow. Talk about painting the people you disagree with.
Re: Is Donald Trump a fascist? A historian of fascism weighs in
#6The things Donald Trump says (such as "stop Mexicans from coming into our country illegally" or "ban Muslims from immigrating to our country until we're confident in our terrorist screening process") offend a LOT of people. People who don't believe such things should be said, or even talked about. People who, when someone says these things, viciously attack them, saying they are morally wrong for thinking those things. People that band together as a group to silence those who dare utter what they deem "inappropriate" or "politically incorrect" or "shouldn't be said, it's racist!"
In other words, I'd argue that Donald Trump, rather than being a fascist, is a reaction against fascists. Liberal fascists who squash the dissent against their group think with social media lynch mobbing.
Re: Is Donald Trump a fascist? A historian of fascism weighs in
#7The things Donald Trump says (such as "stop Mexicans from coming into our country illegally" or "ban Muslims from immigrating to our country until we're confident in our terrorist screening process") offend a LOT of people. People who don't believe such things should be said, or even talked about. People who, when someone says these things, viciously attack them, saying they are morally wrong for thinking those thing…
Its not the racism, the misogynistic comments or the xenophobia.
Its the power trip. Its how he treats people directly.
For example: http://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-protester-roughe...
Re: Is Donald Trump a fascist? A historian of fascism weighs in
#8The things Donald Trump says (such as "stop Mexicans from coming into our country illegally" or "ban Muslims from immigrating to our country until we're confident in our terrorist screening process") offend a LOT of people. People who don't believe such things should be said, or even talked about. People who, when someone says these things, viciously attack them, saying they are morally wrong for thinking those thing…
You're misusing the word fascist. You probably mean something more like 'hard-liners' or 'extremist'.
Re: Is Donald Trump a fascist? A historian of fascism weighs in
#9The things Donald Trump says (such as "stop Mexicans from coming into our country illegally" or "ban Muslims from immigrating to our country until we're confident in our terrorist screening process") offend a LOT of people. People who don't believe such things should be said, or even talked about. People who, when someone says these things, viciously attack them, saying they are morally wrong for thinking those thing…
This is just the Tolerance Paradox.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_tolerance
Except not really. There's no movement on the left to outlaw what trump is saying. Pointing out something is racist on twitter is not "squashing dissent".
Re: Is Donald Trump a fascist? A historian of fascism weighs in
#10There's a famous joke that "fascist" in politics just means "I don't like you" It's just an ill-defined insult at this point. George Orwell had interesting things to say. http://orwell.ru/library/articles/As_I_Please/english/efasc
I've seen more than a handful of presumably right-wing commentators on Reddit of late arguing that the Nazis were actually socialists or 'communists' rather than a right-wing group. The ensuing (typically unresolved) argument comes down to how fascism is defined for each person. Fascism is clearly in the eye of the beholder.