Also, don't get the [flagged]. For what it's worth: Rutger Bregman is a historian and best-selling writer from the Netherlands. While you don't have to agree with everything he says most is thought provoking at least.
It's funny how much democracies with free speech are always self critical with rampant doom saying while actual autocracies that crack down on this kind of speech are quiet and content when economic times are good only really cracking at the seams during distress.
I know its a healthy part of democracy but it is very draining.
The parallels to the rise of Nazi Germany are striking. But it can be much worse. Read "February 1933" if you want to get a feel. Pretty much daily reports of people getting killed in clashes between Nazis and Communists. Hitler almost immediately suspends right to assemble, free speech etc, and orders police to kill dissidents on sight. Prominent artists and journalists are getting arrested or are fleeing the country. All of that within a month of Hitler taking power.
There is still hope for the US. The press is still critical, the opposition is not arrested, the courts are still giving push back, and it's not civil war level violence.
The midterms will be a landslide if allowed to run fairly.
Trump’s response to that landslide will tell us whether there’s hope.
I don’t expect Civil War levels of violence because the country is mostly united in its hatred of how the GOP is running it. No large group of people will pick up arms to support Trump’s right to invade countries and ruin the economy.
Another opportunity to recommend "They Thought They Were Free: The Germans 1933-45" by Milton Mayer. The audiobook is great too.
A critical but empathetic look at how fascism rises and spreads through, and alongside, ordinary people in ordinary society. Excellent book, incredibly relevant.
Real fascists like Pinochet and Videla murdered thousands of innocent people.
The USA is not even close to that - massacres in football stadiums, students thrown from helicopters into the ocean, entire villages burned alive in Belarus, etc.
Pinochet didn't start by murdering thousands of people on day one.
It takes time and work to dismantle every part of the system that will stop you from doing that. Less time in weak democracies, more time in stronger ones.
The republican party is currently doing it's traitorous best to turn Trump into an above-the-law-king, and to turn the country into a place where nobody could stop him from doing that. Every one of them is complicit.
With the risk of sounding naive: How come this post is flagged?
Reading the guidelines I can't see how this is off-topic or does _not_ "[gratify] one's intellectual curiosity."
Edit: spelling
Seems like a needed rehash of Eco's article about "ur-fascism" https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1995/06/22/ur-fascism/
Also, don't get the [flagged]. For what it's worth: Rutger Bregman is a historian and best-selling writer from the Netherlands. While you don't have to agree with everything he says most is thought provoking at least.
The Führerkult also has a problematic conclusion: Everything needs to happen during the Führer's lifetime, for only he can restore the nation.
That's obviously a problem when your Führer is 80+ years old and overweight.
It means the Führer will try and fix everything as soon as possible.
It's funny how much democracies with free speech are always self critical with rampant doom saying while actual autocracies that crack down on this kind of speech are quiet and content when economic times are good only really cracking at the seams during distress.
I know its a healthy part of democracy but it is very draining.
The parallels to the rise of Nazi Germany are striking. But it can be much worse. Read "February 1933" if you want to get a feel. Pretty much daily reports of people getting killed in clashes between Nazis and Communists. Hitler almost immediately suspends right to assemble, free speech etc, and orders police to kill dissidents on sight. Prominent artists and journalists are getting arrested or are fleeing the country. All of that within a month of Hitler taking power.
There is still hope for the US. The press is still critical, the opposition is not arrested, the courts are still giving push back, and it's not civil war level violence.
The midterms will be a landslide if allowed to run fairly.
Trump’s response to that landslide will tell us whether there’s hope.
I don’t expect Civil War levels of violence because the country is mostly united in its hatred of how the GOP is running it. No large group of people will pick up arms to support Trump’s right to invade countries and ruin the economy.
The National Guard may end up having a decision of a lifetime
Another opportunity to recommend "They Thought They Were Free: The Germans 1933-45" by Milton Mayer. The audiobook is great too.
A critical but empathetic look at how fascism rises and spreads through, and alongside, ordinary people in ordinary society. Excellent book, incredibly relevant.
An excerpt, if you don't want to commit to the whole thing: https://press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/511928.html
Real fascists like Pinochet and Videla murdered thousands of innocent people.
The USA is not even close to that - massacres in football stadiums, students thrown from helicopters into the ocean, entire villages burned alive in Belarus, etc.
Not all authoritarian regimes are fascist. Pinochet and Videla regimes were more military juntas and bureaucratic-authoritarian states.
Pinochet didn't start by murdering thousands of people on day one.
It takes time and work to dismantle every part of the system that will stop you from doing that. Less time in weak democracies, more time in stronger ones.
The republican party is currently doing it's traitorous best to turn Trump into an above-the-law-king, and to turn the country into a place where nobody could stop him from doing that. Every one of them is complicit.
I wasn’t aware fascism was defined by a body count.
Wonder how many times i saw this article with different countries…
Which countries? Can you be specific about two or three of them?
And what point are you trying to make?
Reddit-style spin posts leaking into HN.
Which ones? Russia and what else?
The fascism is worldwide now.