Amanda Marcotte writes—Eddie Gallagher isn't a "lifestyle brand" story: It's a story about the rise of American fascism. The right's worship of an accused war criminal is a fascist fable about the redemptive power of violence:
[Eddie] Gallagher has also become a hero on the right, so much so that he's cashing in by launching a clothing line — called "Salty Frog," after the slang term for retired SEALs — profiting off people who think murder is cool, as long as it's done in the name of right-wing politics and the victims are people of color.
On New Year's Eve, Dave Phillips of the New York Times published an article about Gallagher's attempt to profiting from being accused of a stunning array of violent crimes while serving overseas. Phillips' piece, unfortunately, also ended up illustrating how traditional mainstream media reporting methods fail to capture the true seriousness of the current moment.
The story isn't bad, to be clear. Phillips does what he can to contrast the gory details of Gallagher's alleged crimes with the incongruous world of a social media influencer who is "modeling his own lifestyle clothing brand" and "endorsing nutrition supplements."
But still, the piece has an arch, bemused tone that ends up downplaying the ugliness on display here and, worse yet, fails to tell the bigger story of what it means that the American right — following Trump, who reversed Gallagher's conviction last year — now sees an accused war criminal as a hero to their cause. This is not the story of American conservatives being a bit kooky in their understanding of patriotism. This is a story of how right-wing propaganda is converting American conservatism into a fascist movement.
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QUOTATION
“Have we raised the threshold of horror so high that nothing short of a nuclear strike qualifies as a 'real' war? Are we to spend the rest of our lives in this state of high alert with guns pointed at each other's heads and fingers trembling on the trigger?”
~~Arundhati Roy
TWEET OF THE DAY
BLAST FROM THE PAST
At Daily Kos on this date in 2003—Is Bush planning multiple wars:
Taegan Goddard of the Political Wire makes an astute observation:
No one seems to have caught this remark by President Bush, but it's taken right from the transcript of his press conference yesterday:
QUESTION: If we do have to go to war...
BUSH: With which country?
Yeah, it's tough to keep up with all the wars that Dick and Rummy are planning, what with Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, North Korea, and Syria.
On today’s Kagro in the Morning show: It's Friday, so it's time to sort out a targeted assassination. One Eric Trump probably didn’t know about, actually. In other news, the email trail shows the DoD repeatedly warned the WH & OMB their Ukraine aid scheme was illegal. So the DOJ redacted them.
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