There is a simple formula for descriptions of Donald Trump: add together a qualification, a hyphen, and the word “fascist.” The sum may be crypto-fascist, neo-fascist, latent fascist, proto-fascist, or American-variety fascist—one of that kind, all the same. Future political scientists will analyze (let us hope in amused retrospect, rather than in exile in New Zealand or Alberta) the precise elements of Poujadisme, Peronism, and Huck Finn’s Pap that compound in Trump’s “ideology.” But his personality and his program belong exclusively to the same dark strain of modern politics: an incoherent program of national revenge led by a strongman; a contempt for parliamentary government and procedures; an insistence that the existing, democratically elected government, whether Léon Blum’s or Barack Obama’s, is in league with evil outsiders and has been secretly trying to undermine the nation; a hysterical militarism designed to no particular end than the sheer spectacle of strength; an equally hysterical sense of beleaguerment and victimization; and a supposed suspicion of big capitalism entirely reconciled to the worship of wealth and “success.” It is always alike, and always leads inexorably to the same place: failure, met not by self-correction but by an inflation of the original program of grievances, and so then on to catastrophe. The idea that it can be bounded in by honest conservatives in a Cabinet or restrained by normal constitutional limits is, to put it mildly, unsupported by history.
I claim no gift for prescience—I am one who insisted that Mark Sanchez’s talents only had to be unleashed to begin a dynasty for the Jets, and tipped America to the likelihood of Michael Ignatieff becoming Prime Minister of Canada—but I do claim a modest sum here, precisely because anyone who had read some history could see what Trumpism was. At the time, the media was more inclined to “analyze” appeal and motives (“Why’d he takes those documents?”) than to outline potential crimes. It’s part of the fascist inheritance to create such a fire-hose blast of corruption and lies that trying to focus on any one drop becomes impossible—that blast has the uncanny effect not of washing away the truth but of drowning your attention. You just want to get out of its way. Who now recalls that Trump was found to have confessed, in the testimony of his chief of staff, as reported by Susan B. Glasser and Peter Baker, how much, if how ignorantly, he admired Hitler’s dictation to his generals? That news appeared in this magazine’s pages four weeks ago, and it already seems part of the distant past.
The point to be made, then and now, is that fascism is a specific style and practice of authoritarian politics, which Trump then, and Trumpism now, re-creates—one that has specific character traits without having any axiomatic ideology, taking on new aspects in each new nation that it afflicts. Fascism is, by its nature, chaotic and incoherent and chameleonic—that’s why it needs a strongman to organize around. The confusion and the lack of ideological rigor in Trumpism, which some point to as proof of its ultimate impotence, is part of fascism’s nature.
www.newyorker.com/...
President Donald Trump was more than halfway through his speech at a rally in Milwaukee when one of his hand gestures caught the eye of a supporter standing in the packed arena.
The 51-year-old woman believed the president had traced the shape of the letter “Q” with his fingers as a covert signal to followers of QAnon, a right-wing, pro-Trump conspiracy theory. She turned to the couple on her right and excitedly asked, “Did you see the ‘Q’?”
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QAnon has been creeping into the mainstream political arena for more than a year. The trend shows no sign of abating as Trump fires up his re-election campaign operation, attracting a loyal audience of conspiracy theorists and other fringe groups to his raucous rallies.
Trump has retweeted QAnon-promoting accounts. Followers flock to Trump’s rallies wearing clothes and hats with QAnon symbols and slogans.
au.news.yahoo.com/...
Trump’s supporters don’t go to his rallies to be lied to; they go to participate in the process of co-creating a false reality that relies on social proof to survive. It’s a performance in which they must all take part — a collective reshaping of reality. A partnership. 2/
The purpose of Trump’s style of authoritarian propaganda is not just to deceive people — it’s to articulate and reinforce what the crowd already believes to be true, and to encourage individuals to unify around this false reality and make it their own. 3/
The finger-raising thing? I don’t know what it means, and honestly they might not know either. The point is the spectacle — the quasi-religious experience of a mass public ritual that, above all, serves as a public demonstration of their commitment to the shared delusion. 4/
Last night’s rally ticked a lot of boxes on the fascism checklist:
-Talk of an “invasion” of foreigners
-Warning that “sicko leftists” are “indoctrinating” and “destroying our youth”
-Fear-mongering about “skyrocketing” crime
-Denying the legitimacy of political opponents
5/
#TrumpRally fascism checklist, continued:
-Turning political rivals into enemies and existential threats to be destroyed
-Seizing upon the collective fears & anxieties of the crowd, then transforming them into mass disdain for immigrants, trans folks, leftists, & others.
6/
#TrumpRally fascism checklist, continued:
-Denying the legitimacy of elections
-Portraying the US as a crime-ridden, immoral nation in decline — and offering himself as the only one who can save it.
-Attacking the press as the “enemy of the people”
7/
#TrumpRally fascism checklist, continued:
-Attacking the FBI, the DOJ, the J6 Committee, and other institutions designed to hold power accountable.
-Attacking our public education system
-Claiming that Democrats “hate America” and want to “destroy it”
8/
The propaganda at last night’s
#TrumpRally wasn’t new. We’ve heard it many times before — often, verbatim. Here’s just one example.
The repetition is purposeful. Both for cognitive effects & cultural meaning — like the retelling of ancient myths about 5-headed monsters. 9/
The repetition of these myths is aided by the well-oiled machinery of the right-wing media ecosystem, which functions like a hall of mirrors and helps legitimize the false reality. This is key to keeping people constantly engaged, mobilized, & immersed in the false reality. 10/
But that’s not all. While Trump is mobilizing the mob at rallies and the media is feeding them constant content to help shape & define their shared false reality, Trump’s allies & loyalists are also hard at work, each with a unique role to play in this assault on democracy. 11/
Gen. Michael Flynn is really commanding the show. With his “ReAwaken America Tour”, he’s creating a movement that is nothing short of QAnon 2.0, except with more Christian nationalism and a lot more money behind it. It’s an influence machine, and he knows how to drive it. 12/
Steve Bannon and Roger Stone are two other major figures involved in the ReAwaken America Tour. Along w/ Flynn, they’re weaponizing sociocultural issues to craft a conspiratorial, apocalyptic narrative that wraps right-wing ideology in biblical language & imagery. 13/
There’s much more to say about this, and I’ll get to it soon, but the tldr is that these rallies are part of a sophisticated, multi-pronged attack on democracy that combines elements of Cambridge Analytica-style targeting with QAnon-style participatory disinformation... 14/
…plus Christian nationalism and authoritarian fear-mongering & scapegoating. This is a huge coalition involving militias, churches, media, think tanks, nonprofits, celebrities, influencers, elected officials, local political parties, Trump loyalists, & more.
It’s a machine. 15/
They’re trying to sell fascism to America by inviting supporters to take part in the creation of a new national fiction. This isn’t just politicians lying to citizens — it’s an entire movement focused on shattering our shared reality & replacing it with their ideology. 16/
This is, in many ways, a high-stakes battle of narratives — and unfortunately, fascists are great storytellers. 17/
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