RAW STORY: Fascism will soon be on our doorstep if you dont act immediately: Yale historian

[bdamomma]

snip of article. This interview/article is what we are all suspecting.

How close is President Donald Trump to following the path blazed by last century’s tyrants? Could American democracy be replaced with totalitarian rule? There’s enough resemblance that Yale historian Timothy Snyder, who studies fascist and communist regime change and totalitarian rule, has written a book warning about the threat and offering lessons for resistance and survival. The author of On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century talked to AlterNet’s Steven Rosenfeld.





http://www.rawstory.com/2017/03/fascism-will-soon-be-on-our-doorstep-if-you-dont-act-immediately-yale-historian/

[ck4829]

1. I would say it's creeping up from our basements rather than being on our doorsteps.

[Blue_Tires]

2. "soon"?? I'd say it's already here...

[Eliot Rosewater]

26. The reason we wont stop it is half of us want it.

I mean I hope people grow the fuck up, and I am including 3rd party voters by the way, them and non voters.

I hope they learn and grow up very fast but wont count on it.

[matt819]

29. Already here

And other commenters are right - half the population is all for it. The republicans' 30-year campaign has worked.

[2naSalit]

30. Yup....nt

[sinkingfeeling]

3. It's coming in the door.

[Juliusseizure]

4. We'll see

Just an opinion, but Republicans have corrupted the government to the extent we're looking like Brazil. If the 2018 elections are rigged and/or we have Russia hacking again with no repercussions, we've basically become a fascist state/shill democracy. The constitution is failing. Two branches will take over the 3rd. This is the Republicans goal. They've become a fascist party.

There would be mass protests and maybe violent opposition. I hope I'm wrong.

[bdamomma]

6. Welcome to DU

the republican party sold their souls to the devil.

[defacto7]

24. The only way there won't be blood shed at this point

is if we acquiesce to the fascists. If we win elections legally and rightfully, the crazy right wing nuts will start a guerilla style civil war with their decades of stashed weaponry; this has already been threatened. Otherwise we better prepare to fight the big fight and it won't be pretty. The anschluss has already happened. I've written warnings about this for over 3 years using that very word. Oh what a conspiracy nut I must have sounded like then. Well, here we are.
Act now with the best of human expectations and honor, hope for the best but prepare for anything...

[Juliusseizure]

25. Violence would lead to "forced acquiescence"

If there's planning in place to rig the 2018 elections, there's also planning to address the reaction.

The only legal basis for Trump to use military power to silence protests is if they turn violent, using emergency war powers. There have been a lot of articles on that topic, and organized protests have been careful to instruct non-violence.

A guerilla civil war is the least of my worries. Its a lot of social media bluster. You can't conduct a war if you're a disorganized band of NRA rednecks with "Semper Fi" tatoos.

[defacto7]

36. I agree for the most part

You can't conduct a war if you're a disorganized band of NRA rednecks with "Semper Fi" tatoos.

True, but they can make major damage and even bring on those military war powers that the RW will be so eager to enact.

Peaceful protest is the only way to go... but prepare to stand firm no matter what happens because peace is not the authoritarian way.

[Achilleaze]

5. republicans are eager to stick government into our lives bigly

pay no attention to the "conservative" whining about Big Government. That's bullshit. They love it.

Latter Day republicans are totally about Big Government and tight control of the citizens. They run on fear and hate, and they are going to cram their Republican-Russian Brand, Inc. of FASCISM up America's keister.

[DK504]

17. While they are "drowning the bathroom"

they will be placing cameras in our homes and having neighbors spy on each other.

[gordianot]

7. Everyone needs to clean their own house I cleaned mine.

As to the rest what amounts to enemy fascist occupiers you will need to be vocal and set up a defensive posture. I have a renewed sense what it must have been like to be occupied and live with collaborators.

[secondwind]

8. We really are in the fight of our lives here, this is scary shit. n/t

[BSdetect]

9. K&R

[Johnny2X2X]

10. We've seen nothing

The chaos of the first couple months is nothing. This group will go full fascist as soon as a suitable crisis happens or is manufactured.

[LuckyLib]

13. Yes. We are waiting for something to happen. Only a matter of time. And the T administration will

have no idea what to do.

[First Speaker]

14. Oh, they'll know exactly what to do...

...they'll get out the Reichstag Fire playbook. I think Bannon has it all planned down to the last detail...

[defacto7]

21. Manufactured act of terrorism equals

martial law. They know exactly what to do.

[Eliot Rosewater]

27. Yep, stay tuned, you aint seen nothing yet.

[Diclotican]

11. bdamomma

bdamomma

I have said for the last 2 years, that Trump invoice Fascism flat out, that be under his primaries, or under the election, he used a script who Hitler created 90 years ago - and made it the whole way to the White House, using the same script Hitler used...

And I was told I was stupid, ignorant, and a lot of other words to inform me how stupid I was

And now, starts people to wake up to what really is going on in the US - FASCISM in the halls of government - and where many regress ives are just to happy making my points stick about fascism

It is good that I start getting historians on my side - even if I understood this faster than most did, as "Little hand" as I call him, did exactly as Hitler did 90 years ago

Diclotcian

[Enoki33]

22. Those of us who were telling friends and relatives that Trump

was using Hitler's playbook early on were met with outright skepticism. Some of those people - at least those who took the time to do the research- are not so sure now. We have to use that very fear as a means to enlightenment.

[Diclotican]

31. Enoki33

Enoki33

I was flat out told I was nuts.... Well not of my family, but others who I debated, that I was stupid, because "little hand" as I call him, was a fascist, and was using the same script as Hitler did 90 years ago.... And still, with all the warnings, managed enough americans to not just get him into the nomination - but even to VOTE HIM INTO OFFICE. Where he the last mounts have made a rambling mess out of everything....

Diclotican

[Eyeball_Kid]

12. So... We're anticipating Santa's gifts on December 26th?

Snyder is a day late and a dollar short.

Fascism is here, Timothy. We're eating it for breakfast. While you were proofing your manuscript, Trumpy was consolidating his fascist base.

[First Speaker]

15. If this is literally true, then talk of "waiting for the 2018 elections" is absurdly inadequate...

...there is no real response to a full-blown Fascist takeover. In 1933, the Social Democrats--the only group in Germany who really believed in democracy--fell without a real fight. People forget that they, too, had a paramilitary force, as did the Communists, and--of course--the Nazis. They never used it. If we're really facing a dictatorship, they're not going to permit any real free elections. What then? Do we try to start our own paramilitary force? The time for that may have already passed. The "Second Amendment" isn't going to apply to the Left, or to non-whites. We may be facing the possibility of a military coup, and a caretaker regime...and that might be our *best* option...

[Diclotican]

32. First Speaker

First Speaker

I have read about that possibility too - that it might end in a military option, if the regime of "Little hand" manage to get the military pissed of.. Or it could end as it did in Germany, that Hitler managed to get control over the military, first by giving them favors, one was to crush the danger from SA - and to promise that only the Reichwher, later Whermact was the ones who was to held military power in Germany.... And from 1935, a personal oath of alliance, not to him as Chancellor or Fuhrer - but to him, Hitler.. A oath few wanted to change, even when it become clear that Hitler was made, and would tear Germany apart

Diclotican

[Wounded Bear]

16. Fascism just blew in the door...

we're trying to put up a fight in the foyer to try and prevent it from spreading too far.

[Texin]

18. No. It just kicked the door down with its jackboots.

[bucolic_frolic]

19. Complexity overload in media and ideologies are destabilizing people's minds

I am convinced they have poor, illogical, inconsistent thinking patterns

I have met people who are not troubled at all by Trump. They were raised in and
hold views completely inconsistent with important parts of his programs, but tell
themselves that is not a problem, that everything will be ok.

This citizenry and electorate is what is paving the road to fascism. No one has any
guidelines, moral compasses, rules for thinking and living. The media, particularly
right wing media, blurs and mixes and blends everything into a hodgepodge that
people cannot sort into consistent beliefs.

[Cosmocat]

34. This citizenry and electorate is what is paving the road to fascism.

I keep posting and telling people this and they look at me likes I am speaking Chinese.

It really isn't Trump's fault. He was VERY CLEARLY what he is, long before election day. But, 1/3 of the country voted for him and 1/3 of the country decided not to vote and enabled him getting elected.

And, it didn't start on November 8th. This country has been electing asshat fascist jackasses to congress my entire adult life - Gingrich, Delay, Santorum ... Increasingly over time.

It is getting tiresome - our 1/3 TRYING to do the heavy lifting in a tug of war with their 1/3 fighting against it like their lives depend on it, and the other 1/3 standing off to the side sneering at us.

[Paladin]

20. All due respect to Timothy Snyder......

but no Democrat should require a Yale historian to point out how close we are to a fascist state. Everybody needs to wake the hell up and recognize just how fast things are deteriorating---we have a group of right-wing madmen in control, with a sizeable chunk of the public supporting them. And the leadership of the Democratic Party seems to be falling father and father behind in putting up an organized fight against the rapidly devolving situation.

Based on my own circumstances, I'm already formulating what steps I'm willing to take, if and when everything collapses and we're left to our own devices. I suggest the rest of you do the same.

[DemocraticSocialist8]

23. The fascism is already here and has been here for decades underneath the surface

if we're being honest.

[Cosmocat]

35. Yep

since the early 90s when Gingrich gained power ... Those assholes and their jihad against Clinton was the starting point for me - though Reagan set the foundation by normalizing it in a softer manner.

[DemocraticSocialist8]

37. Well honestly Black people have been living under de facto fascism and ethnic tyranny

since we've been in this country. Racism is one of the main reasons the concepts of American freedom, justice and liberty have always been bullshit propaganda. You can really only believe that if you ignore Black history in America.

[Cosmocat]

39. Well, yeah

If your going to be out and Blount about it.

I guess what I thought I was referring to was the spread of fascism to the country at large.

[DemocraticSocialist8]

40. I understand your point and I do agree that fascism has spread

and isn't just isolated to the Black community anymore. I'd say things started going off the rails in the 60's after King and the Kennedy Brothers were assassinated. There was a right-wing, authoritarian backlash to the gains of the Civil Rights movement.

[0rganism]

28. doorstep? i wish

seems to me more like it moved its ass into the family room, took up a prime spot on the couch, and is now hogging the TV remote while demanding snacks.

[klook]

33. The LIHOP attack that's coming

will give them the excuse they need to clamp down. I have no evidence of this, of course -- but it would fit with the fascist playbook.

...my own intuition would be the emergency situation arises because going along isn’t going to be enough. Paradoxically, Congress is going along and is going to pass a bunch of stuff, which is not actually very popular. Right? It’s not going to be so popular to have millions of people lose health insurance, which is what’s going to happen. The ironic things about the Republican Congress is now it has the ability to do everything it wants to do, but none of what it wants to do is that popular. Except with the few big lobbies, of course. The freedom the Republicans have is the freedom to impose their agenda on down.
The same thing goes with Mr. Trump. The things that he might do that some people would like, like building a wall or driving all the immigrants out, those things are going to be difficult or slow. In the case of the wall, I personally don’t believe it will ever happen. It’s going to be very slow. So my suspicion is that it is much easier to have a dramatic negative event, than have a dramatic positive event. That is one of the reasons I am concerned about the Reichstag fire scenario. (Quoting from the Rawstory article)

[roamer65]

38. The disintegration of the United States is what is coming.

There are States that won't tolerate the fascist bullshit and will leave the Union.

It's either going to be peaceable or outright rebellion.