It Can't Happen Here

[lostnfound]

Elected to the presidency after fomenting fear and promising drastic economic and social reforms while promoting a return to patriotism and "traditional" values...Windrip's administration, known as the "Corpo" government, curtails women's and minority rights, and eliminates individual states by subdividing the country into administrative sectors...
Windrip is less a Nazi than a con-man-plus-Rotarian, a manipulator who knows how to appeal to people's desperation...

Watching trumps speech yesterday, he was talking about hating the media at a post-election political rally.

It's arrived,and it's wrapped in a flag.

Time to re-read the warnings. I think we need a special forum for the new fascist government. And now that Obama managed to nurse the economy back from the brink of disaster, another Republican is coming in to drive up massive federal debt to fund corporate handouts (and possibly new military adventures).

[annabanana]

1. And the courting begins. .

Have you seen the ads about what a "great and wise choice he will make" for SCOTUS? Pro-Originalist propaganda with only one intended audience member, the flattery hungry boy-king . . .

[Javaman]

2. Great book.

and yes, all it took was a grifter conartist to feed the american public the right kind of patented bullshit to become our first true fascist leader.

the time was ripe and he saw the opportunity (as most opportunists do) to pray upon the ignorant right. the same right who blames all their problems of within on the everyone else.

snuffles gave them a false scapegoat to "solve" all their personal problems. which won't be solved and will result in one hell of a hang over when they realize they have been duped by a conman.

[alarimer]

3. It can; Americans are not better than Germans in this regard.

A sizable number of people are authoritarian followers, no matter how much they may blather about freedom. Logic and reason fly out the window when propaganda is in play. I don't know how we address it. Facts don't seem to matter.

It is also interesting to note that the horrible conditions following WWI and the extremely destructive treaty created the nightmare scenario for a strongman, who then scapegoats other people and the majority fall for it. This is not an exact parallel to us, now, because the economy is by all accounts in pretty good shape. But convince enough people that it isn't (and economic recovery hasn't reached enough people in any case), and you get the strongman elected.

But for people who have been left behind, whose communities are hollowed out by industries leaving, it is easy to make them turn on "the other." This happens time and again throughout history, yet we fail to recognize how much calculated effort the Republicans have made to turn groups of people against each other. We blame the people themselves, forgetting that "you have to be carefully taught" to hate. Social issues like abortion are used to distract and divide people so they don't notice their pockets are being picked.

Those of us who consider ourselves critical thinkers do see the parallels between now and then, between Trump and the rise of fascism. Blaming immigrants for job losses is a deflection. The REAL villains are corporations and capitalism as it is currently constituted here.

[heaven05]

4. yep

[Faux pas]

5. Kickin' for the truth!