Fascism. They keep dancing around it, but what they want is fascism.
This isn’t politics. They want to remake US politics into a fascist state, and they’re not even that shy about it.
Thankfully only about 30% of US adults are falling for this grift. Unfortunately about the same percentage of Germans fell for it in the late 1920s. It seems really low, but it’s enough if the rest of us are complacent.
So let’s not be complacent.
I can’t afford to be complacent, I’m not white. I’d rather die with a gun in hand than in a camp. Some things are worse than death.
As someone queer. Yep, you’ve summed up how I feel as well.
As a white person, I’ll die next to you if necessary. I hope it won’t be necessary – I’ll do everything I can to stop it getting to that point, but I see where this is headed. (e: we’ve seen this before.)
We cannot let this happen again. We cannot let the bigots twist society like that so that people die for stupid arbitrary reasons like skin colour or religion, orientation, ancestry or disability.
We should be past all that, and we can’t allow people who aren’t to gain power again. I’ll do all I can to stop it, and I hope enough others will, too.
Buy guns.
If they want to fight, don’t make it easy for them
The time is now.
Buy a gun or two (a short one and a long one) and learn how to use them; learn some first aid, field medics really just need to know how to stabilize someone. Meet others in your area who are like you and share your beliefs, start building networks who can help each other because the police will not. This is real, the right is marching towards a blend of Christofascism/Corporatocracy that I’m not sure the world has seen and just winning a presidential race in 2024 isn’t going to cut it.
We need long term solutions, consistent, focused work so actual progress can be made again. Organization is so incredibly important and is why the rightwing has been so successful over the last half-century. We don’t have shady PACs funded by billionaires behind us, we’ll have to organize and DIY.
https://www.dsausa.org/
https://theliberalgunclub.com/
https://www.counterextremism.com/supremacy/john-brown-gun-club
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I’ve got guns but if I’m gonna have to deal with a civil war I’m leaving to the freaking wilderness and suicide last resort. I’m not going to kill people. Once you cross that line you’re never the same. The problem with humanity is that we never manage to make positive change without constant bloodshed. Fuck that. We obviously are a doomed species.
How do you explain people who kill in self-defense? They’re not usually damaged or changed by what they had to do to live.
I don’t think you’re giving yourself or your fellow man enough credit.
I am right there with ya.
Yeah, there are lot of groups that would be targeted if these clowns get their way. Hopefully this fight won’t get physical.
I’m a white disabled combat veteran who had hoped to be done fighting, but this is not the America I fought for. I will gladly take up arms again to defend our democracy from those who wish to destroy it. You will not be alone on that field if the day ever comes.
Fortunately, there are more decent people in this country then those fascists.
it’s actually the vision Stephen A. Douglas had for America when he ran against Lincoln… only Lincoln could head it off then…
This is the kind of thing I’d read as alarmist and extremely suspect.
Except it’s very real. Coupled with their “Mandate for Leadership” (PDF), they will fuck shit up.
Here’s a quote from The Heritage Foundation, who created helped put it all together:
In November 2016, American conservatives stood on the verge of greatness. The election of Donald Trump to the presidency was a triumph that offered the best chance to reverse the left’s incessant march of progress for its own sake. Many of the best accomplishments, though, happened only in the last year of the Trump administration, after our political appointees had finally figured out the policies and process of different agencies, and after the right personnel were finally in place.
They have been moving on this path since Regan, they just have the court and the rigged voting maps now they feel comfortable being open about thier intentions. While people like me was derided as alarmists they were building the engine that got us here
Really they’ve been on this trajectory since Nixon. They were talking about playing the long game to get right-wing media established back then. I imagine they also wanted to take other steps to make sure no other Republican went through the humiliation of having to pay for their crimes. Like rigging the judicial system, and everything else we’ve seen the past 50 years.
That’s scary as hell, they sound like the Hydra from Marvel Comics. I know the country is at a breaking point but they can’t get their way.
Dude, they fucking are Hydra. Post Red Skull the aim of the organization was “humanity cannot be trusted with its own freedom” if you add “except for me” to the end of that it’s effectively the entire conservative platform
Welcome to the decade(s) before the second American Civil War…
I started, mostly jokingly, predicting a schism/Balkanization in 2011 on acid with some friends. But the whole thing can be traced back as far back as the 30s depending on which thread you decide to follow
Same old bullshit as usual.
The “promise” is basically:
- Marginalize gay people, women, and racial minority groups
- Fuck over the environment
- Let corporations do whatever they want
- Make education worse so people don’t question radical right wing policies
The crazy thing to me is that they said their goal is to stop progress. Sure, they tacked on “for its own sake” to give the base something to latch on to, but if you ask any person impacted by LACK of progress it’s for very real sakes and stakes for very real people. Fuck these assholes.
reverse the left’s incessant march of progress for its own sake. Many of the best accomplishments, though, happened only in the last year of the Trump administration
This has got to be a troll, George Lucas had better dialogue in the prequels.
The last year of the Trump administration also happened to be where he started a violent insurrection against democracy.
To them that’s a great thing, though.
Jesus fuck that Mandate for Leadership is an interesting read. Uncomfortable but it really gives you specific examples of what they plan on doing. 900 pages worth. Wish I had time to read it all as I bet it would help to understand what this fight is all about
I think it’s safe to boil it all down to modern capitalist dictatorial fascism.
I also thought it was hyperbolic until I saw the source. Apnews, along with Reuters, are my gold standards for news. If they are reporting it then I believe it is very real and very serious.
I would love to see Democrats acknowledge this and take some action to fight against this.
Has anyone done so yet or are we peons pretty much on our own as usual?
We need more normal progressives to run for local offices. I would run … but I have the charisma of cow dung and the schmoozing ability of a turnip.
And I would probably want to harm myself dealing with politicians who don’t prioritize solving problems over money, power, and other useless bullshit.
But I see an awful lot of selling out to corporate interests and not much of a call to fight against rising fascism … except as a tool in spam emails and texts to get more donations. I volunteer where I can because I genuinely give a shit. And then I get bombarded with two dozen spam bullshit fundraiser emails a day from this, that, or the other democratic PAC. Certainly doesn’t give me much hope that there’s any authenticity behind any of it.
Meanwhile, we’re an election away from a full takeover that puts the lives of my friends and family and co-workers in jeopardy.
It worries the shit out of us peons but nobody at the top of the Dems is concerned enough, if you ask me.
But I guess that’s how the story played out for Mussolini, Hitler, and other fascists so why not repeat history: the pro corporate, center right portion of the Democratic party (ie the vast majority) sits on their thumbs because what have they got to lose when they have power and money?
The Republicans are going to keep chipping away at democracy like they have since Nixon (50 years ago) until they make the country into their own sick image.
Idk what the fuck needs to happen exactly but fucking somebody do something. Lead the charge. Idk?
I still can’t get my head around the fact that anyone could sincerely mention Trump and greatness in the same sentence.
the Heritage project leans into what legal scholars refer to as a unitary view of executive power that suggests the president has broad authority to act alone.
Did the fascists not just come for student loan forgiveness on the bullshit claim that Biden didn’t have the executive power to do something like that?
Fuck these traitorous pieces of shit. If this shit doesn’t stop we’re about to be living in the fucking Pinochet regime (which was the brainchild of American conservatives, because of course it fucking was) and academics and musicians and authors are going to start getting disappeared along with our LGBTQ family, friends and neighbors. What a fucking shit show. And apparently there’s not much we can do about it, except vote. As though that’s ever done a fucking thing with an absolute anachronism of an electoral system.
I can’t help the nihilism sometimes, jfc.
Yeah this article is terrifying.
If it makes you feel any better, voting doesn’t help either.
It’s fairly well understood at this point that US policymaking has nothing to do with the will of the people.
I feel like I need to step in and personally rebuke this shit. Voting absolutely does work. Showing up to vote once isn’t going to magically fix everything - it’s going to take many election cycles to reverse course. US policy doesn’t reflect the will of the people because we’ve been apathetic for so long. Saying “voting doesn’t help” implies there’s no point in voting, and not voting guarantees that we will lose our democracy. I’m sympathetic to those who have been hurt by the conservative and capitalist agenda in this country who are losing hope, but making claims like this essentially makes you an ally to the corpofascist machine.
Please vote.
Sure man.
If you were paying attention, you’d notice that manipulating the government has been a fine craft for the ruling class.
As in, they’ve carefully calculated how much they need to spend in order to influence public opinion. It isn’t much. They have way, way more to spend.
What we’ve seen is only the bare minimum they’re willing to put out to maintain control. It really is that simple.
I’ll gladly vote for the iron boot grinding me into the dirt that still allows me to breathe instead of the one that is going to drown my face in the mud. If I have a choice, I’ll take the best available option.
Yeah, we keep getting punished because we can’t work together against the common enemy.
We’d rather step on each other than build ourselves up.
Nothing says “conservative” quite like destroying the thing you were supposed to conserve.
Someone promised them that they could preserve their perceived power. And return the world to a time that never existed. If you understand that conservatives have no ideology Beyond coveting power and wealth and purely reactionary behaviors. This is all very logical and understandable unfortunately.
What book was it???.. “The Party seeks power entirely for it’s own sake. We’re not interested in the good of others”
something, something, boot, face.
You forgot the end of the quote:
“we are interested solely in power.”
Honestly most would be doing good to read a comic book. Though it might be an outlet that’s a modern day Der Stürmer published by today’s Julius Streicher
The only thing they want to conserve is their foot on our neck.
Only confused or disingenuous conservatives claim to want to conserve the government. That’s why you have conservative puppet masters encouraging celebrating Constitution Day; it helps their useful idiot non-fascists sell the ruse.
Actual conservatives, the ones in power, see the government either as an impediment to their agenda or a tool they can misuse to implement said agenda.
They’re called conservative but they’re actually regressive.
They want to conserve hierarchies, but only certain ones, and will work to create them if they do not already exist.
And the AP’s reference to them as “Conservative” in the headline doesn’t help. They should know better.
Yeah it should say Republican
Well tbf, democracy is sometimes inconvenient.
Straight out of the Nazi handbook
I hope they call the new country Gilead
“The best a man can get” Gilead?
You’re thinking of Gillette. Gilead is a 3D modeling API that came before Direct3D.
You’re thinking of Glide. Gilead is a genus of sun spiders
It’s what the ultra conservative state calls themselves when they broke off from the USA in the handmaid’s tale
I feel physically ill… I went to school from 96 to 2010… I remember social studies and American history… The Holocaust being taught… I remember asking my teachers… What would happen if people tried to change our country to dictatorships… Every teacher was emphatic that it would never happen… one, because both parties love the country and two this is why we learn about Hitler and Stalin…
Wtf happened?!
The answer to this is usually Reagan, runaway capitalism and the mega rich.
As someone born in 98, it’s been sad and frightening to have grown up watching so many of my peers fall down the alt-right pipeline and pop out as fully radicalized fighting-age fascists.
It’s the ‘loving the country’ that suckered you all.
“When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross”
Who said that? It’s bang on.
When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross
It’s been attributed to both Sinclair Lewis and Upton Sinclair, but it’s real origin is unclear.
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It Happened Here. An unfortunate result of believing in American exceptionalism and not being vigilant.
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Tell everyone you know that is not a trumpet to vote blue. We have to take the country back by winning the trifecta. The presidency, the House, and the Senate. That will allow Congress to actually function for the first time in years. We can get new judges in, actually hold the current ones accountable, and pass legislature that prevents a lot of the bs we are seeing now. We cannot stay home this election cycle.
I would love to see that happen, but it’s not going to. They’ve split the country very effectively. We might get a substantial majority in the House, but the Senate is doomed to be deadlocked unless we flip at least 13 states, without them gaining a single seat.
It definitely won’t with that attitude 😔
How do we even go about organizing ourselves in a way that doesn’t get us put on some watchlist. Which I’m probably on now for even asking.
It honestly feels like its time to take the gloves off. This only ends in violence. They don’t understand anything else.
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With ai there is no need for a list.
If republicans get into office, it’s time for civil disobedience.
Don’t make me laugh. The time for civil disobedience was five years ago. If Trump wins (or loses) this next election, it’s time to tighten your belt, learn to shoot, and prepare for life in a balkanized North America.
The time for civil disobedience was Bush v Gore. We failed then and now our votes matter even less.
The best time for civil disobedience was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.
“We need to flood the zone with conservatives,” how about I flood your mouth with my balls
I don’t see this being any problem as long as young people vote.
Wait.
Conservatives? Exactly what are they conserving? They are #fascists, plain & simple. We must stomp them out.
Here’s a taste of their plan.
“Unaccountable federal spending is the secret lifeblood of the Great Awokening. Nearly every power center held by the Left is funded or supported, one way or another, through the bureaucracy by Congress. Colleges and school districts are funded by tax dollars. The Administrative State holds 100 percent of its power at the sufferance of Congress, and its insulation from presidential discipline is an unconstitutional fairy tale spun by the Washington Establishment to protect its turf. Members of Congress shield themselves from constitutional accountability often when the White House allows them to get away with it. Cultural institutions like public libraries and public health agencies are only as “independent” from public accountability as elected officials and voters permit.”
"Pornography, manifested today in the omnipresent propagation of transgender ideology and sexualization of children, for instance, is not apolitical Gordian knot inextricably binding up disparate claims about free speech, property rights, sexual liberation, and child welfare. It has no claim to First Amendment protection. Its purveyors are child predators and misogynistic exploiters ofwomen. Their product is as addictive as any illicit drug and as psychologically destructive as any crime. Pornography should be outlawed. The people who produce and distribute it should be imprisoned. Educators and public librarians who purvey it should be classed as registered sex offenders.
And telecommunications and technology firms that facilitate its spread should be shuttered. In our schools, the question of parental authority over their children’s education is a simple one: Schools serve parents, not the other way around. That is, of course, the best argument for universal school choice-a goal all conservatives and con- servative Presidents must pursue. But even before we achieve that long-term goal, parents’ rights as their children’s primary educators should be non-negotiable in American schools. States, cities and counties, school boards, union bosses, princi- pals, and teachers who disagree should be immediately cut off from federal funds.
The noxious tenets of “critical race theory” and “gender ideology" should be excised from curricula in every public school in the country. These theories poison our children, who are being taught on the one hand to affirm that the color of their skin fundamentally determines their identity and even their moral status while on the other they are taught to deny the very creatureliness that inheres in being human and consists in accepting the givenness of our nature as men or women.
Allowing parents or physicians to “reassign” the sex of a minor is child abuse and must end. For public institutions to use taxpayer dollars to declare the superiority or inferiority of certain races, sexes, and religions is a violation of the Constitu- tion and civil rights law and cannot be tolerated by any government anywhere in the country."
“…they are taught to deny the very creatureliness that inheres in being human and consists in accepting the givenness of our nature as men or women.”.
What in the great gobbledygook fever-dream ramblings is this shit?
It is a cryptic way of saying they want us all to get back in the roles that benefit them…
The word salad is designed to evoke emotion, not to be understood. The faithful already know the rules, plans, and ideals.
Religion. Creatureliness and givenness is a direct reference to creationism and is meant to be a conversation ender. No matter what it is you want, they can say God didn’t intend it and that’s the end of the conversation unless you want to discuss your hatred of God instead.
Of course it’s only certain people who only speak from self serving intuitions who get to decide what is natural and what is the creators will. Somehow it’s always something that serves their own ego, imagine that… almost like God is some bullshit they made up to distract from their lack of good arguments.
Half of that shit doesn’t many any sense. These people are straight up just saying a bunch of bullshit that sounds fancy, but is still bullshit.
The Administrative State holds 100 percent of its power at the sufferance of Congress, and its insulation from presidential discipline is an unconstitutional fairy tale spun by the Washington Establishment to protect its turf.
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wtf is “the Administrative State”?
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“Sufferance of Congress” what?? That’s what Congress decides. Additionally, Republicans currently hold the power of the purse. They also held both chambers in Obama’s last years and for Trump’s first two years. They didn’t do shit about whatever the hell “the Administrative State” is.
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“its insulation from presidential discipline” What are they even talking about‽‽ What the hell is presidential discipline?
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“is an unconstitutional fairy tale spun by the Washington Establishment to protect its turf.” The Constitution clearly states the structure of our government and the responsibilities of each branch. Also, wtf is “the Washington Establishment”??
I can’t even get through the first paragraph. This is complete non-sense.
wtf is “the Administrative State”
It’s the part of the government that regulates things like business that used to be regulated by private entities like trade associations and guilds. When congress established regulators for banks and for food and drugs and environmental policy, the private associations that used to regulate those things didn’t like it much- they saw it as a usurping of their domains. When today’s right talk mad about the ‘administrative state’, they’re telling you they want to hand regulatory authority over banking right back to the banks, environmental decision-making to the people who will save money by dumping pollution in the drinking water, etc.
This is a long and well-sourced primer on the history of the democratizing of regulatory authority in the modern democratic state, one that also discusses the rapid reversal of that trend we’re seeing today
Thanks for sharing that prospect.org link, I wish this could be turned into a made for TV series on YouTube, presented by Mr. Beast, Mark Rober en Tyler Hoover.
I would pay money to see that done! The subject is really not talked about in our schooling well enough; we hear a lot about how throwing off a monarchy meant we now have a legislature and a president, but the transition from colony-under-king to republic carried the judiciary forward as a largely feudal institution.
Under feudal/colonial rule, it used to be trade associations or guilds that would write rules to govern business conduct, but those typically required signoff from the local Lord/Governor’s son (or deputy) to be enforceable- the switch to a republic meant there really wasn’t an analogous executive signoff so it’s not surprising that American corporate power would eventually forge private administrative authority into a sort of sovereign/antidemocratic right to rule their spheres… right up to the point that state and federal governments decided to impose regulation on them.
This conflict, between advocates of private vs public administrative rule, is one of the central threads of the conflict between today’s oligarchy and American democracy and it gets far less attention than it deserves.
Thanks! It sounds like they’re coming up with stupid terms to create boogeymen and scapegoats so that their gullible followers would start hating them.
These developments have been described in mainstream policy discourse as “deregulation” and “privatization,” but those terms are misleading. The term “deregulation” suggests a reversion to a pre-existing system of nonregulation, a realm in which state authority is absent. But this is a fantasy. There is no pre-legal, law-free realm. There is always regulation, albeit sometimes invisible and private, and hence unaccountable.
I really liked this part of the article you shared because it points out their strategy of coming up with euphemisms that are straight lies. They’re not de-regulating. They’re changing authority over regulation from somewhat democratic bodies to privates ones.
It sounds like they’re coming up with stupid terms to create boogeymen and scapegoats
That’s exactly what they’re doing. It amounts to putting a misleading label on the thing and telling people what the label means instead of what the underlying substance is. Rhetorically speaking, it’s 3-card monte and it annoys me so much
What the hell is presidential discipline?
They want a dictator. But only if it’s their dictator.
Same, but not in the White House :3
What the hell is presidential discipline?
It’s the spanking they think daddies are supposed to give their misbehaving children to straighten them out. Yes, it’s stupid as hell and it tips their hand to clearly show they are already in the mindset of resorting to punishment vs. reason and thinking of the president in the mold of a king vs. a public servant with deliberately limited powers.
Someone’s woke!
/s
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Literally want to throw up after reading this
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they are taught to deny the very creatureliness that inheres in being human and consists in accepting the givenness of our nature as men or women
They are really trying to make it sound like there’s intelligence that went into this
Seriously. The sad thing is that it works (see: Jordan Peterson). Stupid person’s idea of how a smart person speaks.
Yep. That’s all about individual freedom. Get rid of the oppressive police state instituted by the left, yeah!
These people are serious, folks. Unless sane people wake up, pay attention, and act, we are screwed!
Lock them all up.
We’re at the point where the words- “conservative” and “traitor” are synonymous.
They’re openly and actively trying to dismantle the United States.
18 USC 2383: Rebellion or insurrection
Text contains those laws in effect on August 30, 2023
From Title 18-CRIMES AND CRIMINAL PROCEDURE
PART I-CRIMES
CHAPTER 115-TREASON, SEDITION, AND SUBVERSIVE ACTIVITIES
§2383. Rebellion or insurrection
Whoever incites, sets on foot, assists, or engages in any rebellion or insurrection against the authority of the United States or the laws thereof, or gives aid or comfort thereto, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.
An entire group of people making more more than doctors sitting on think tanks writing plans how they can make everything go to shit. Also tax-free status.
“Trump’s vision”? He has no vision outside of self-gratification or people just giving him literal and figurative fellatio at all hours of the day. We’re talking about the most easily manipulated person on the planet who will literally just go with the last thing that was said to him, no matter how fucking stupid it is.
