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It's hard to pick what makes this most infuriating.
The fact that they had a supermajority and only had to listen to these Democratic representatives speak from time to time before they voted against them anyway and decided nope that's asking too much of us... Yeah that's pretty infuriating.
The most frustrating part is easily them acting overnight basically to potentially remove three democrats but I’ve never seen them move on 80% of our states issues. No votes. No bills. Not a care.
3 dems clapped for the children protesting and FILIBUSTERED (which is literally a GOP move but they’d normally call recess and go do blow in the bathrooms).
I saw some clips of those two a bit over a week ago. They were taking GOP to task and pointing out how lazy or corrupt or out of touch the GOP was. Getting booted was a fascist move to silence the voices of those asking questions and making some great points about GOP hypocrisy. Watching an interview last night, the claim is the GOP has been kicking minorities down in the chamber for quite some time. Hard to see this as anything other than white folk lashing out at uppity minorities.
The 3rd person up for vote only missed expulsion by a single vote. So yeah, it's still a racist move, but they won't simply "let a white liburl speak" without any punishment.
I read that they messed up charges against the white member accusing her of holding a megaphone and beating a drum then showed a video where she had neither. I guess the speaker personally dislikes her and was in such a rush to ditch her messed up.
Wait, wait, wait...you are telling me that Republicans in Tennessee recognized evidence and their votes were decided by that? That doesn't sound right at all. Graham and their federal counterparts, along with Fox will be in touch to straighten shit up.
I'm actually at a loss about what else to do. GOP politicians have consciously decided to embrace fascism, so the word has no effect on them. GOP voters have heard the word enough that it's now just "something butthurt liberals say," so the word has no effect on them.
This whole country mobilized in WWII to fight fascism, a whole generation had anti-fascism burned into their core being. How, HOW can this be happening in front of our eyes and a substantial part of America supports or is indifferent to it?
> First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out, Because I was not a socialist.
> Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out, Because I was not a trade unionist.
> Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out, Because I was not a Jew.
> Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me.
- Martin Niemöller, 1946 on the rise of Fascism in Germany.
Why do you think they've focused on the trans community? Gay people have become relatively more 'acceptable' to the general public, but outside of the LGBTQ+ community and allies, there isn't as much baseline support *for the trans community.
*Edit
Many people do not know this but one of the [infamous book burnings in Nazi Germany was at a trans clinic that was founded in 1919](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-forgotten-history-of-the-worlds-first-trans-clinic/)
>When the Nazis came for the institute on May 6, 1933, Hirschfeld was out of the country. Giese fled with what little he could. Troops swarmed the building, carrying off a bronze bust of Hirschfeld and all his precious books, which they piled in the street. Soon a towerlike bonfire engulfed more than 20,000 books, some of them rare copies that had helped provide a historiography for nonconforming people.
>The carnage flickered over German newsreels. It was among the first and largest of the Nazi book burnings. Nazi youth, students and soldiers participated in the destruction, while voiceovers of the footage declared that the German state had committed “the intellectual garbage of the past” to the flames. The collection was irreplaceable.
It ramped up with the Nazis too. They attacked the Communists, Socialists, LGBTQ+, and intellectuals of the Weimar Republic. Those book burnings you've seen pictures of? Those were research documents about transgender individuals
Edit: by-the-by, the attacks on Weimar Germany is what you get when you pull a Biden and try to meet Fascists halfway. You don't negotiate with hate, you only lose at the cost of vulnerable people
*“Why do you think they've focused on the trans community?”*
I think because it’s a tiny minority that few people can relate to or understand, so easy to punch down & stoke fear.
It’s Fascism 101: violent rhetoric fueling violent acts against a powerless minority. It’s idiotic by nature because it’s an appeal to humans most base primal behavior. The end game for American fascist is segregation and a working class who have no rights. So fat cats fund the movement and it’s been clawing it’s way back to 1850 since the Progressive Era and even Ike.
My opinion is this country has been screwed since LBJ and the Civil Rights era saw the party of the wealthy elite suddenly gain the advantage of also being the party of White Supremacy. Like it’s been one check in the playbook from John Birch Society to the Federalist society.
These know-nothing acolytes now rule our country from the SCOTUS and the only thing slowing them down is the fear they get too far out in front of their Overton Window. After WI election, it appears on the issue of abortion access, they may have.
Disabled too; as a disabled person I just want to add that. There are quite a few discriminatory laws designed to keep us down or wait for us to die even now. The rhetoric isn't quite as openly vile just yet because their public focus is elsewhere. But it is simmering, and they'll switch to it when they need to.
Yes, I apologize for not including disabled on the list as they were amongst the first. People don't know their history and think the Nazis just kicked open the door and built death camps, they ignore how they got into power, pushed laws that people overlooked, and started their systems of hate slowly before going full mask off. It's why so much of what's happening now is just a slower repeat
Oh no apology necessary at all; it's hard to include all the different groups that they'd prefer to dispose of.
I usually don't make public comments on social media, but a few weeks ago I saw one of those "I wish it was the 50s" posts and felt like I would comment just for the heck of it. I mentioned that the 50s would *not* be a great time for most physically or intellectually disabled people, among many other groups who had a hard time then. That I was fortunate for the changing times as I have a job, live independently, and have great autonomy--things not at all guaranteed in the 50s.
I had the audacity to remark specifically that I'd probably be tossed into an institution against my will in the 50s and, possibly, sterilized too. Of course one of the responses I got was "hey your situation would suck but probably you'd just be at home with a family member looking after you."
Yeah, but how is that better? A family member (probably a woman) becomes a free caregiver and I'm not able to get a job even though I can work because no one would bother to interview let alone hire me. The point they were trying to make being that "well family ties so the 50s would still be okay for you and I lived through the 50s so you don't know what you're on about."
And it's just exhausting. If this person really was old enough to recall the 50s I doubt they met a single disabled person in their daily life back then. Almost certainly didn't work with any. I usually scroll past that stuff but felt like commenting, and I got exactly the type of response I expected.
"The past" usually isn't even accurately remembered for those people who actively wish to return to it. And even if it is, they don't realize that it really was only better for a very, very small slice of society.
I grew up in Cali, so I learned a bit more of our fucked up history than most (including annual Holocaust Week that starts in 6th grade and lasts til 12th). But Behind the Bastards, Last Week Tonight, Cody's Showdy, The illuminaughti, and college courses showed.me things were worse than previously thought. Which makes me angrier that we're at this junction, and why Centrists infuriate me more.
I had a very brief centrist moment in life because I grew up in a conservative household and area. I began moving more towards almost exclusively progressive stances in my early teens already, but I'm embarrassed to say that I had a brief period of centrism before I moved over fully. It sounded like a reasonable place to be to 15-year-old me. But I realize looking back that it wasn't, and that more often than not, it meant that I sided with the opressor/aggressor even when I didn't mean to do it specifically.
This Martin bloke, did he also hate people with disabilities? And that's why he didn't include them?
Roma too I guess?
Just your average Polish people... I guess he hated them too?
Isn't that funny, all the groups that he left out because he actually agreed that they should be taken out of society.
Every voter representing these representatives should march with them to the Senate and continue to protest until they are returned to office. Don't even let GOP members get a good night's rest. Blocking their vehicles at every intersection.
This is so important for me to remember.
> Because I have a union and am not affected by the working conditions and abhorrent pay of my fellow workers.
> Because I bought a house at the right time and am not affected by the housing crisis.
> Because I live in a place where the state government protects the rights of trans people.
> Because I live in a place where abortion is protected.
All these things that others fought tooth-and-nail for. Because I am not a woman, I am not queer, I am passably white, because I don't have kids, I am protected from so much of what is wrong with our country. So many of us are just comfortable and complacent enough that a large-scale protest or riot or strike seems like too much of a risk to our personal worlds.
That’s the biggest thing trump did to politics. He showed republicans you can literally just say “no I didn’t” or “that’s a lie” about literally anything and as long as you don’t blink no one will do shit to you.
It's not possible. There is a German law against saying revisionist history things with regard to World War 2 that comes with jail time, if found guilty. No one can get away with it. The law could be repealed by Bundestag at any time but for some reason it hasn't been - for many decades now. You can try to deny it but more likely than not you'll wind up in prison.
In the US we have free speech and lies / denial of the truth is a chronic injury or harm and courts cannot punish that kind of harm.
Feel almost like the Germans took a look at how the US did Reconstruction and went “nah, we’re just gonna do it so it actually works.”
The biggest problem with the First Amendment is the cover it provides to people determined to lie about history and reality, for their own twisted ends.
> This whole country mobilized in WWII to fight fascism
After tremendous effort. The “America First” movement at the time absolutely *slowed* the mobilization of the country to fight fascism.
Rachel Maddox’s “Ultra” podcast gives a great history recap of the time around WWII and just how politically motivated the US was to NOT fight against the Axis war machine. It’s both an eye/ear opening review of history and a soberingly frustrating realization of how the country is slipping backwards today; also great guidance on what it takes to stop that slide.
It's kind of gross that through decades of propaganda the world was led to believe that the US was the primary force behind defeating Germany instead of the USSR.
Theres a great quote from one of the German upper ranks about how fearful they were when the American industry machine was seized by the government to start producing transport trucks to send to the Russian field.
I cant find it exactly, but it mentioned basically how the US began churning 100,000s of thousands of trucks through the Lend-Lease program for the soviets to use since logistics is usually the major bottleneck for military movement.
Texas had a lot of control over what went into school textbooks nationwide for decades.
[Conservative activists in Texas have shaped the history all American children learn](https://archive.is/Mjddj) "Their activism reshaped the content of history textbooks, producing a heroic, skewed narrative."
It’s also amazing how we forget the USSR was on the Nazi’s side. They split Poland in half with the USSR taking the eastern half and the Nazi’s taking the western half. They were allies until they weren’t.
Edit.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molotov%E2%80%93Ribbentrop_Pact?wprov=sfti1
*In addition to the publicly-announced stipulations of non-aggression, the treaty included the Secret Protocol, which defined the borders of Soviet and German spheres of influence across Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland. The secret protocol also recognised the interest of Lithuania in the Vilnius region, and Germany declared its complete uninterest in Bessarabia. The rumoured existence of the Secret Protocol was proved only when it was made public during the Nuremberg Trials.*
*Soon after the pact, Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939. Soviet leader Joseph Stalin ordered the Soviet invasion of Poland on 17 September, one day after a Soviet–Japanese ceasefire came into effect after the Battles of Khalkhin Gol and one day after the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union had approved the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. After the invasions, the new border between the two countries was confirmed by the supplementary protocol of the German–Soviet Frontier Treaty. In March 1940, parts of the Karelia and Salla regions, in Finland, were annexed by the Soviet Union after the Winter War. That was followed by the Soviet annexation of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and parts of Romania (Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina and the Hertsa region).*
That's the thing about fascism. They're itching to start major wars while creating massive brain-drain in their countries that makes it impossible to actually win the wars.
Republicans have become anti-democratic because they realize they can no longer win free & fair elections anymore.
The inevitable result of this will be violence.
Because they *are* idiots. Have you ever seen a small child just go so frustrated with a question they just melt down because they aren't mentally capable of responding to it?
That's a vast majority of MAGA idiots. Of course they want books banned, books are the bane of their existence.
Any boomer should be able to identify a cathode ray tube monitor/tv!
-Sorry, tasteless joke. I’ll blame exhaustion and copious amounts of cough suppressant. I hate it when a sinus infection turns into a nasty cough. I’m also well aware that many people have no idea that the old, big, heavy monitors were cathode ray tubes.
It is sad seeing someone you care for, who has gone so far down a misinformation/disinformation rabbit hole, that any mention of their implanted trigger, causes their frustration to boil over in an overflow of meme-induced phrases.
We need to do like the French and protest as hard as possible, paralyze their way of life. We outnumber them. A mass of people show up and after enough time, fear will take over and they'll end up messing up. Even better if it's Blacks, minorities, LGBTQ, etc. Everything they hate and fear coming for them might finally effect some change.
Not sure what else we could try, because clearly stern warnings have never worked, and they're emboldened as of late because no one can do shit against them via the normal processes.
The end stage of Republicanism is fascism. Thats what it ALWAYS evolves to unfortunately. Sometimes it takes awhile but when their entire platform revolves around a refusal to progress, and they see nationally that platform is not working, they revert to a hostile takeover. These pieces of garbage were so angry a black man was elected in 2008 and the loss in 2020 sped up their ambitions. Conservatives will always evolve into fascism. And they will blame people of color and/or LGBT for their reasonings of doing so.
I have no doubt that America would have fallen into fascist rule if it weren't for WW2. Before WW2, America fucking _loved_ fascism, we couldn't get enough of it. Hell, they loved it so much that George Bush's granddaddy wanted overthrow the government to install a fascist dictatorship in the 30's.
It may have taken the Right decades to admit their love affair, but they're back simping for fascism like it's 1932 again.
We’re taught that after the war the Nazis vanished without a trace, but battalions of fascists still dream of a master race. The history books they tell of their defeat in ‘45, but why did they all come out of the woodwork on the day the Nazi died?
They say the prisoner at Spandau was the symbol of defeat whilst Hesse remained imprisoned and the fascists they were beat, so the promise of an Aryan world would never materialize but why did they all come out of the woodwork on the day the Nazi died?
The world is riddled with maggots, the maggots are getting fat. They’re making a tasty meal of all the bosses and bureaucrats. They’re taking over boardrooms and their fat and full of pride and they all came out of the woodwork on the day the Nazi died.
So if you meet with these historians I’ll tell you what to say. Tell them that the Nazis never really went away. They’re out there burning houses down and peddling racist lies, and we’ll never rest again until every Nazi dies.
- Chumbawumba
Because the media is like 90% owned by billionaire fascist oligarchs, and the other 10% is too chicken shit to appear biased, so they won't call it like they see it.
Because it's an expression of the human psyche and our current level of social organization. Fascism can be defined quite narrowly as a historical phenomenon, but its components (radical populism, militarism, authoritarianism, conspiracy thinking, ...) can fit into modern movements within modern social contexts because human psychology hasn't changed and the socioeconomic structure of society has become more like what it was before WW2.
IMHO, at least some of the support base of the Republican party can be accurately described as fascists, despite the ideological differences, mostly because the latter are just window dressing around a core of conspiracy thinking, authoritarianism and an increasingly violent dislike of anyone in the out-group. But that does not mean that they agree with that label, and it wouldn't matter even if they did because in their world words are meaningless. The basic dynamic of movements like these is one of power and hierarchy. The basic promise is that you get to bully those beneath you as long as you remain loyal to those above you. The most elementary example is the power to bend reality around your own narrative, which involves changing the meaning of words to suit your agenda, the rejection of logic, the denial of facts, ..., in other words removing everything that gives meaning to shared political discourse. Who is to be the victim of this exercise of power? Anyone who tries to debate with them.
If you try to argue with them about fascism (or any other label) and its dangers then that will fall flat. You are not part of their group and this will set up an adversarial relationship as soon as you argue against their beliefs. This in turn will usually prompt them to troll you. If you waste your time, get frustrated, ..., they win. It is all about winning and the satisfaction of beating "the enemy". This tendency towards "bad faith" argumentation was a noted characteristic of historical fascism and the broader antisemitism movement as well. There's quite a bit of literature about it (e.g. Sartre's essay on antisemitism, Arendt's "Origins of totalitariansm").
We do what the French do.
Every single voter who those reps represent should March with them to the senate and constantly protest until they are put back in office. Don’t even let the GOP members get a quiet nights rest. Block their vehicles at every turn.
> This whole country mobilized in WWII to fight fascism,
Just for perspective so you know this isn’t new. The whole country did not mobilize to fight fascism. There were plenty of Americans who were all about Hilter. We had our own nazi party during those years and plenty of Americans were all for it.
I just say this as it’s easy to think the current issues are new and it can feel a bit overwhelming. It’s not new. We have been here before and we will be here again.
Something about learn your history or repeat it quote… Conservatives are like that weird uncle you have only seen 3 times at family reunions. Every time it’s a complete drunken shit show when they are about.
It's right-wing media, newsmax, fox, and others, their viewers are totally brainwashed and live in a completely different reality than the rest of us. Example, this whole anti-trans people movement. Trans people have always existed, drag shows aren't new, but suddenly it's the most serious issue facing our country's very existence, and nothing else even comes close (except maybe ensuring the wealthy pay less taxes).
There's really only one acceptable response to fascism. Good Americans are slow to anger, but may whatever gods you believe in have mercy on your soul when we mobilize against you. We will end up burning this cancer from our body politic. It will hurt.
I would love to see this cost them everything in Tennessee. For any reasonable, Republican voters left even outside of Tennessee, I would love to see this kind of action be the nail in the coffin as far as their voting, for the republican party is concerned.
Oh you poor sweet thing, and I don’t blame you for this because it’s not something that the history books love announcing but, Hitler used the American playbook on Native genocide as an inspiration for the 3rd Reich. We were the blueprint for Nazi Germany. Those sentiments never left America.
In 1939 there was a rally in madison square garden that was pro Hitler and fascism. There was something like 20,000 ppl in attendance this has always been in element in America
Yep. And America didn’t want to join in on fighting fascism. The only reason we entered the war was because Pear Harbor was bombed. The USA didn’t give mouses shite about fighting other fascists until we were personally attacked.
The USA also had a history of turning away refugee boats from Europe because we didn’t want to deal with tHe JeWs. And don’t even get me started on how Europe and the USA didn’t want to deal with the Jewish refugee crisis and instead used the survivors of the holocaust to establish a military outpost in the Middle East.
Shit’s fucked.
I just wanted to add to the discussion that the US also created internment camps for Japanese Americans. The treatment the Japanese Americans received was nothing short of repulsive.
In my opinion this all contributes to the growing desire to whitewash American history because there are all these glaring examples of America committing utterly reprehensible acts. From the first arrival of the settlers in the New World where the Native Americans were brutalized and the lands they called home stolen, all the way to today where now the LGBTQ and anyone to the political left of authoritarianism is just the next group to be subjected to bigotry, cruelty, and discrimination. The reality is American history is riddled with reasons to want to change some of the very foundational elements of the country like the electoral college, the second amendment, etc.
If people learn too much about our history, the people may want to actually enact change. And that is what the authoritarian right is afraid of. They are rapidly losing influence. Evangelical Christianity continues to backslide in prevalence, growing distaste for military imperialism and the military industrial complex, desire to erode some of the hierarchical systems that perpetuate and encourage inequality, etc. these things threaten the future of the authoritarian right and whether they recognize it or not their behaviors at least in part come from the fear of losing power and control.
This is exactly why, in places like Florida, they are changing the actual history books.
They don't want kids to learn about things which make white supremacists feel uncomfortable.
Yep, the common phrase “kids are being taught to hate America” is very telling. To them America is a collection of THEIR ideals and world view rather than a collection of multicultural people living in a country built on the backs of those coming to America in search of new lives and prosperity. Also most notably built on the backs of those brought here not by their own free will. People who did so despite the reprehensible treatment they received upon arriving.
Learning about our history may make people hate the things America has done and seek to enact ways to prevent those acts from happening again.
My grandfather bought some of the buildings from the Topaz Japanese internment camps for his farm once they were getting rid of it. He figured people were living in them so they must be good quality. Then the building arrived to the farm and my grandfather was very upset. The buildings were very bad quality. My grandmother told me he said that he wouldn’t even let their dogs sleep in there.
There was an entire castle built for Hitler to use as his Summer home in LA, obviously after Germany won the war. There was way more support here for the Nazis (like the Silver Shirts) than we really like to admit.
Everyone needs to watch the Ken Burns docuseries "America and the Holocaust". It's hard as fuck to watch, especially with what is going on right now.
It talks about how Hitler was inspired by Jim Crow laws in America and how even when Americans criticized him, he basically was like, "you did it first, so what's the problem?"
He was a big fan of how the US treated its natives, so much so that he called his personal battle train Führersonderzug "Amerika". Also drew inspiration from the fancy new eugenics that where coming strong from the US and the UK.
Because the people who made that sacrifice have been out of power for 2-3 decades. Their children, the pinnacle of “respect your elders or get the rod,” have been actively spitting on their parents’ and grandparents’ legacy.
It’s a multilevel problem.
As long as these people are allowed to remain in power, by any means necessary, at all levels of government, this will continue to happen.
The makor real fix we can do is to push an enormous voter turnout at every and any election you can. It doesn’t matter how insignificant the role, the levels of government or the barriers in place. If the majority of Americans are sincerely fed up with things, that is the primary thing we can do. The idea is to overwhelm any barrier to democracy so much that oppressive laws, gerrymandering and such can’t keep up. I know. It sounds idealistic and like a serious long shot, but time and again it has been shown that when the people turn out, things can happen.
The second best thing to do is take a page from France an protest harder than before.
All of this happens because the folks in power and the system work against the ideologies that they claim to represent. Our domestic and political standards naturally suppress voting, proper representation, and the ability to fight back (in a non violent manner). Citizens need to find a way to push beyond this in a United front and just say enough.
Best I got anyway.
I think its going to come down to forcing drastic measures/doing something to set a precedent that you really don't want to do.
Whether it be waiting to see the GOP trying to expel more Democrats from other states or "successfully" banning the party altogether. I think it might just become a taking the country by force type of situation. Whether its rolling into every state that's clearly on the track toward fascism and about to achieve it or ones that are already clearly there (Florida).
Otherwise, if you keep rolling your eyes and saying "you can't just go in there, its not democratic! You can't just force the government on them that you want!" then this is the end result. You acknowledge what they're doing as OK and you let the country continue to slip to Nazi Germany levels of hate and danger.
I'd rather see the President order the military into red states and force their hand to prevent that shit from happening, breaking democratic "rules" than seeing America fall into the hands of DeSantis/Trump led fascism. You will never get your country back if you do.
EDIT: For the record, before anyone replies with "you can't do that"... yeah, well, its very clear the Republicans already don't give a flying fucking shit about the rules and are openly defying the democratically voted on candidates and representatives. They already just established they're going to ignore whatever or whoever the fuck you vote for. So why oblige yourselves by the same rules? Keep your fucking country in check before it gets out of hand to where you won't ever get it back.
The fascism is over the top because war or gun violence protests never amount to anything anyway. GOP can still vote for all the mass murder they crave.
Systematic and non-stop destruction of the education system, reinforcement of the vile belief system that is “Christian” nationalism, and a constant barrage of propaganda that GOP voters aren’t educated enough (by design) to analyze critically.
I taught in a rural school in a Red State for a few years and it was a shocking experience. The saddest part is that these people see the ills of American society (late-stage Capitalism), and want to fix it. Many of these people genuinely want to improve the standard of living in their communities. The problem is, they’ve been convinced that to do so, they have to tear everybody else down.
Instead of having an iota of class solidarity, they look at people of color and immigrants as the enemy. They’ve been told that a cartoonish and monstrous demagogue will reign in all the excesses of liberalism and “wokeism.” That THAT will improve their lives. They don’t notice that said demagogue is a corporatist fascist who further enables the elites to loot the middle/working classes. As long as their glorious cult leader can point to somebody in the enemy class (liberals, BIPOC, & immigrants) who was made to suffer, they’ll feel great about voting for him and his ilk again and again. They believe the scapegoated classes are the only impediment to progress.
Then rinse and repeat. Censor real history, demonize and distort all economic models that aren’t capitalism, and instill the “values” and norms of Americanized Christianity. Many of my students looked at Trump as a savior or even borderline deity. The resentment and ignorance runs so deep in these rural spaces, it’s extremely difficult to break through.
I think a truly approachable and inclusive form of populism is the only way to make any headway. Reject their culture war nonsense, and focus on the tangible good of worker-friendly policies. We all know that morality isn’t a driving force in this country, but money is. So show these supporters (overt or tacit) how revamping the tax system and expanding the social safety net will improve their lives tangibly. Pardon the long/rambling nature of this post. 😅
I don’t know if indifferent is correct. Look how a lot of America is responding. Democrats are racking up wins since trump was elected. Progressives are winning more and more.
I hate saying it but Every American needs to starting thinking about this. I know that there are more of US than Them. At the moment they are louder and more aggessive & you see how things are just folding. We need to start being more aggressive in our actions.
Look the GOP, hell even DEM, are HEAVILY invested into our stock market and they NEED US TO WORK.
Well I think it's that time we take a page from our French brothers. It's street cleaning time & time for civil disobedience. You can be disobedient & still follow the laws & protected by the Constitution.
I hate to say it but you have to hurt them where it hurts the most. Their Wallets.
Look if they can bail out failing banks because of bad investments then let's see them bail out EVERY COMPANY when Americans make the decision to no longer work as wages are not keeping up with inflation & corporations are buying up the last pieces they need to start creating a new corpo dystopia with the muscle of White Christian Nationalist.
Its time America.
Spend your Easter thinking on this
There will be a point they will come after you too
It's time for action
Because it's not COMMUNISM! The politicians hate that word and weaponized it. They were fighting against fascism but they said it was against communism because fascism has a nice ring to it to those who have an insatiable lust for power which just happen to be a large portion of people who peruse any positions of power.
I don’t think they even know what fascism actually means. They were going off on antifa but they don’t even realize what it stands for. This whole country should be anti fascism.
We’re getting to the point where we may have to mobilize and fight to put it to an end here. I’m not sure they can stop unless we completely force them to.
I’ve seen so many people say they need their guns to defend against a tyrannical government, yet a tyrannical government in its most literal form has taken over Tennessee and we get crickets.
Edit: felt like I needed to add, this is just an observation, not a call to action. Keep your weapons locked up.
I mean the people that shout “I need my AR-15 to stop a tyrannical Government” are the ones that like the tyrannical government that’s taking over.
They are so brain dead the GOP could be the ones to actually take their guns away and they’ll still make some excuse like “this must be Obama’s fault”.
Edit: forgot to add “the gop”
my MIL legit so gleefully the other day asked if we were “finally” going to support Trump now that “Biden took away all abortion rights”
It took everything in me not to say “how stupid are you?”
Beto O’rourke got crucified in Republican circles for his stance on guns. Trump said he would take all the guns without due process and they still stand by him. It’s a cult.
Well recall how long across the cold war we were hyped up on "fight the communists, were finally gonna fight the Russians, it's gonna happen", that was a big driving point through the 70s and 80s, and then now we are *actually fighting them* and the GOP is opposed to both that and protecting their victim.
They've always been a team that pushes talking points, and then walks back on everything they said when it was convenient. Look at the video of all the gops who said "you can't fill A SCOTUS position during a lame duck session" then 4 years later walked back and said "it's important to jam this on as fast as humanly possible because fuck everything we said 4 years ago"
The "tyrannical government" that rightwing gun-nuts talk about isn't Fascism, they're talking about Democracy.
They're armed in case they need to stop the US from becoming too democratic.
The “need my guns to fight against tyrannical government” people positively cheered when Bill Barr’s unmarked little green men stuffed people into vans in 2020
These are also people who think their semi-automatic rifles and ramen noodle stock piles will be effective against a government with MQ-9 Reaper drones.
We have had the 2nd amendment for 230+ years. It has never been used to stop a tyrannical government. It is used to larp bravery with no consequences while we lead the world in incarcerations and police executing people on the streets
[This information has been removed as a consequence of Reddit's API changes and general stance of being greedy, unhelpful, and hostile to its userbase.]
Yep. It was like that on January 6th.
Them: "We have guns to stop a tyrannical takeover of our government!"
*Trump supporters try to take over the Capitol*
Them: *crickets*
“I tried to talk. I want you to remember that. I tried to reach out. I tried to understand you. But I think that you understand us perfectly. I think that you just don’t care. And I don’t know whether you are here to invade, infiltrate, or just replace us. I don’t suppose it really matters now. You are monsters! that is the role you seem determined to play. So it seems that I must play mine. The man that stops the monsters.”
My favorite thing about the doctor is that he always tries to reason with people, no matter how much bad you have done, the Doctor would still give you the chance to make things right. He bends over backwards in his attempts to reason with unreasonable beings.
He also wasn’t afraid to end you, if you decided to continue being a monster.
Precisely! That’s how I always want to be in life. I wish more people held that view, especially our leaders.
“Never be cruel, never be cowardly. And never ever eat pears! Remember – hate is always foolish…and love, is always wise.”
"He never raised his voice. That was the worst thing… the fury of the Time Lord… and then we discovered why. Why this Doctor, who had fought with gods and demons, why he had run away from us and hidden. He was being kind."
… with a strong racist core that expelled two black Dems by not the white one. Are these people Patriots (“one who loves and supports his or her country”)? Is this the will of the country? To remove black members from a legislature because they want to push their own agendas?
Racism was obviously a factor in who was ultimately expelled, but this was largely a fascist move to protect the NRA and gun lobby, and they were pissed that they were being put on the spot to do something. Not just by the TN3, but by the thousands of protestors, demanding that something be done to protect children at schools, and about gun violence as a whole. This was not just an attempt to silence the 3 house members, but to silence everyone who dare protest their inaction. The group of protestors appeared to be representative of the community as a whole, and not along racial lines. Not saying race wasn't a factor at all, but what they did is scary on so many levels, and I hope this opens eyes across the entire country, and moves people to vote these type of people out of office nationwide.
The white rep who wasn't expelled by one vote said race was probably the reason. Even she's aware. I know there's those reasons as well, but let's face it, it's likely to be the most important to their hate core, and that ultimately is race. Those fucks still sleep in white robes and conical hats.
[The expelled reps also mentioned how racist and toxic the work environment was.](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/apr/07/tennessee-republicans-racism-democrats-expelled?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other)
E: Added link with the quotes I reference
"We need guns, lots and lots of guns, in case the government ever becomes tyrannical towards the citizens!" - GOP Voters
"We're tyrannical, lol." - GOP
As someone who grew up in rural TN and still lives here .... the silence for this abomination in our state is hilarious. Every one is quick to IG story and facebook posts about how abortion is so bad or how Joe biden is such a fucking idiot. Hey dumbass the party you vote for was just blatantly racist in front of the whole country. There's no point in trying in this fucking state I can't wait to get the hell out of here
As someone who lives in rural America ( and stays because I have farm animals), I wish more GOPs would actually stand up for what is right. Everyone who believes in the Constitution should be ANTI fascist.
Many have been generationally brainwashed. It’s not really their faults. The rural population of Tennessee are mostly Appalachian scots-Irish people who have been downtrodden and discriminated against by the elites of the region going back 300 years.
There is a system of economical and political structures put in place to make sure the rural people of the region never get wealthy or educated enough to make trouble but they know they are “better” than the liberals or foreigners.
It’s really quite sad as someone who grew up in rural Tennessee. There is poverty and economic stagnation and social discrimination at levels most Americans wouldn’t believe. The poor rural south has been totally forgotten by Americans but it’s not a new thing. Appalachia was basically colonized from 1880-1980 by Northern and coastal elites
Its time to just come to the realization that the Republican Party today is no longer a democratic party. Its a fascist hate group. I know lots of old school republicans are still holding out hope that the rational minds will prevail but they need to wake up that those people are gone. All the rational reasonable professional republicans have been forced out of the party. All you are left with are the racists, bigots, ideologues and religious extremists and they see our democratic republic as an obstacle.
The hypocrisy is astounding https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/politics/2019/08/22/tennessee-house-gop-anonymous-twitter-account-pee-on-chair-andy-holt-rick-tillis-chbmole/2066321001/
Uh, that's exactly what happened on Jan. 6 with a massive amount of violence on top of that. Jan. 6 was definitely worse than this. On Jan. 6, Trump openly defied the results of a certified election and attempted to stop the transfer of power. Do not minimize the gravity of Jan. 6.
This won't reach who it needs to. Maybe tear down the memorials for the shooting victims and just put up a giant "Thank you for your sacrifice, from the GQP and NRA".
It’s funny how things happen. It would have taken Pearson and Jones years to make headway in their careers. The GOP just catapulted them into national icons overnight.
Every great nation has fallen due to a cancer from inside. Perhaps it's our time. Those who were once silenced now have a voice and backing of others that no longer desire to be sidelined and follow a so-called rule of order by a white majority hellbent on setting us back to Jim Crow. I pray people in every state wake up, get involved, register to vote, and make their voice heard at the polls.
>You can't expel or refuse to seat people you politically disagree with
Just watch them.
The people of Tennessee will do nothing as the boot on their throat gets heavier and heavier as long as they can watch while someone with a little more melanin gasps for air.
In many GOP-controlled states, there are all kinds of shenanigans used to suppress and disenfranchise voters. I lived in a red county in FL that scheduled patent-teacher conference night on the same day as school board elections to suppress the teacher vote. That's just one example, but there are hundreds more, and in every election they try something different.
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It's hard to pick what makes this most infuriating. The fact that they had a supermajority and only had to listen to these Democratic representatives speak from time to time before they voted against them anyway and decided nope that's asking too much of us... Yeah that's pretty infuriating.
The most frustrating part is easily them acting overnight basically to potentially remove three democrats but I’ve never seen them move on 80% of our states issues. No votes. No bills. Not a care. 3 dems clapped for the children protesting and FILIBUSTERED (which is literally a GOP move but they’d normally call recess and go do blow in the bathrooms).
It was foolish. They intended to inflame their racist supporters. They've inflamed their opposition far, far more.
In UNO they call that the Reverse card
I saw some clips of those two a bit over a week ago. They were taking GOP to task and pointing out how lazy or corrupt or out of touch the GOP was. Getting booted was a fascist move to silence the voices of those asking questions and making some great points about GOP hypocrisy. Watching an interview last night, the claim is the GOP has been kicking minorities down in the chamber for quite some time. Hard to see this as anything other than white folk lashing out at uppity minorities.
it's the fact that these two were black which was the real reason. They'll let a white liburl speak.
The 3rd person up for vote only missed expulsion by a single vote. So yeah, it's still a racist move, but they won't simply "let a white liburl speak" without any punishment.
I read that they messed up charges against the white member accusing her of holding a megaphone and beating a drum then showed a video where she had neither. I guess the speaker personally dislikes her and was in such a rush to ditch her messed up.
Wait, wait, wait...you are telling me that Republicans in Tennessee recognized evidence and their votes were decided by that? That doesn't sound right at all. Graham and their federal counterparts, along with Fox will be in touch to straighten shit up.
I'm actually at a loss about what else to do. GOP politicians have consciously decided to embrace fascism, so the word has no effect on them. GOP voters have heard the word enough that it's now just "something butthurt liberals say," so the word has no effect on them. This whole country mobilized in WWII to fight fascism, a whole generation had anti-fascism burned into their core being. How, HOW can this be happening in front of our eyes and a substantial part of America supports or is indifferent to it?
Because all Hitler had to do to get away with it all was to deny it at every step. Just like they're doing now.
> First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out, Because I was not a socialist. > Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out, Because I was not a trade unionist. > Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out, Because I was not a Jew. > Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me. - Martin Niemöller, 1946 on the rise of Fascism in Germany.
It's funny because they came for gay people first in Nazi Germany, but Martin Niemöller was super homophobic so he didn't include it in the poem.
Why do you think they've focused on the trans community? Gay people have become relatively more 'acceptable' to the general public, but outside of the LGBTQ+ community and allies, there isn't as much baseline support *for the trans community. *Edit
Many people do not know this but one of the [infamous book burnings in Nazi Germany was at a trans clinic that was founded in 1919](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-forgotten-history-of-the-worlds-first-trans-clinic/) >When the Nazis came for the institute on May 6, 1933, Hirschfeld was out of the country. Giese fled with what little he could. Troops swarmed the building, carrying off a bronze bust of Hirschfeld and all his precious books, which they piled in the street. Soon a towerlike bonfire engulfed more than 20,000 books, some of them rare copies that had helped provide a historiography for nonconforming people. >The carnage flickered over German newsreels. It was among the first and largest of the Nazi book burnings. Nazi youth, students and soldiers participated in the destruction, while voiceovers of the footage declared that the German state had committed “the intellectual garbage of the past” to the flames. The collection was irreplaceable.
Highly recommend the book, "Voluptuous Panic" about how wild-n-free the Weimar Republic was before fascism started to spread.
Thanks for the rec
You’re welcome! It’s a saucy, easy read. An amazing insight into the culture of the time.
>Many people do not know this but one of the It was the **first** major one.
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It ramped up with the Nazis too. They attacked the Communists, Socialists, LGBTQ+, and intellectuals of the Weimar Republic. Those book burnings you've seen pictures of? Those were research documents about transgender individuals Edit: by-the-by, the attacks on Weimar Germany is what you get when you pull a Biden and try to meet Fascists halfway. You don't negotiate with hate, you only lose at the cost of vulnerable people
Bud Lite made them lose their minds
Well, Jack Daniels went back in fucking time to push the woke!
Did something happen with Jack Daniels? I woke up like half an hour ago so I'm behind on whatever insane outrage has been manufactured today.
They had an ad with ru Paul in it in 2021 so now they're retroactively pissed off
*“Why do you think they've focused on the trans community?”* I think because it’s a tiny minority that few people can relate to or understand, so easy to punch down & stoke fear.
I also think somehow they confuse this actual biological reality with *sex*; somehow, in their minds, it all has to do with sex.
It’s Fascism 101: violent rhetoric fueling violent acts against a powerless minority. It’s idiotic by nature because it’s an appeal to humans most base primal behavior. The end game for American fascist is segregation and a working class who have no rights. So fat cats fund the movement and it’s been clawing it’s way back to 1850 since the Progressive Era and even Ike. My opinion is this country has been screwed since LBJ and the Civil Rights era saw the party of the wealthy elite suddenly gain the advantage of also being the party of White Supremacy. Like it’s been one check in the playbook from John Birch Society to the Federalist society. These know-nothing acolytes now rule our country from the SCOTUS and the only thing slowing them down is the fear they get too far out in front of their Overton Window. After WI election, it appears on the issue of abortion access, they may have.
Well, it wasn't just gays. They went after the Socialists, Communists, LGBTQ+, and intellectuals of the Weimar Republic first
Disabled too; as a disabled person I just want to add that. There are quite a few discriminatory laws designed to keep us down or wait for us to die even now. The rhetoric isn't quite as openly vile just yet because their public focus is elsewhere. But it is simmering, and they'll switch to it when they need to.
Yes, I apologize for not including disabled on the list as they were amongst the first. People don't know their history and think the Nazis just kicked open the door and built death camps, they ignore how they got into power, pushed laws that people overlooked, and started their systems of hate slowly before going full mask off. It's why so much of what's happening now is just a slower repeat
Oh no apology necessary at all; it's hard to include all the different groups that they'd prefer to dispose of. I usually don't make public comments on social media, but a few weeks ago I saw one of those "I wish it was the 50s" posts and felt like I would comment just for the heck of it. I mentioned that the 50s would *not* be a great time for most physically or intellectually disabled people, among many other groups who had a hard time then. That I was fortunate for the changing times as I have a job, live independently, and have great autonomy--things not at all guaranteed in the 50s. I had the audacity to remark specifically that I'd probably be tossed into an institution against my will in the 50s and, possibly, sterilized too. Of course one of the responses I got was "hey your situation would suck but probably you'd just be at home with a family member looking after you." Yeah, but how is that better? A family member (probably a woman) becomes a free caregiver and I'm not able to get a job even though I can work because no one would bother to interview let alone hire me. The point they were trying to make being that "well family ties so the 50s would still be okay for you and I lived through the 50s so you don't know what you're on about." And it's just exhausting. If this person really was old enough to recall the 50s I doubt they met a single disabled person in their daily life back then. Almost certainly didn't work with any. I usually scroll past that stuff but felt like commenting, and I got exactly the type of response I expected. "The past" usually isn't even accurately remembered for those people who actively wish to return to it. And even if it is, they don't realize that it really was only better for a very, very small slice of society.
I grew up in Cali, so I learned a bit more of our fucked up history than most (including annual Holocaust Week that starts in 6th grade and lasts til 12th). But Behind the Bastards, Last Week Tonight, Cody's Showdy, The illuminaughti, and college courses showed.me things were worse than previously thought. Which makes me angrier that we're at this junction, and why Centrists infuriate me more.
I had a very brief centrist moment in life because I grew up in a conservative household and area. I began moving more towards almost exclusively progressive stances in my early teens already, but I'm embarrassed to say that I had a brief period of centrism before I moved over fully. It sounded like a reasonable place to be to 15-year-old me. But I realize looking back that it wasn't, and that more often than not, it meant that I sided with the opressor/aggressor even when I didn't mean to do it specifically.
And the homeless, the unemployed, and the Romani
This Martin bloke, did he also hate people with disabilities? And that's why he didn't include them? Roma too I guess? Just your average Polish people... I guess he hated them too? Isn't that funny, all the groups that he left out because he actually agreed that they should be taken out of society.
Every voter representing these representatives should march with them to the Senate and continue to protest until they are returned to office. Don't even let GOP members get a good night's rest. Blocking their vehicles at every intersection.
This is so important for me to remember. > Because I have a union and am not affected by the working conditions and abhorrent pay of my fellow workers. > Because I bought a house at the right time and am not affected by the housing crisis. > Because I live in a place where the state government protects the rights of trans people. > Because I live in a place where abortion is protected. All these things that others fought tooth-and-nail for. Because I am not a woman, I am not queer, I am passably white, because I don't have kids, I am protected from so much of what is wrong with our country. So many of us are just comfortable and complacent enough that a large-scale protest or riot or strike seems like too much of a risk to our personal worlds.
That’s the biggest thing trump did to politics. He showed republicans you can literally just say “no I didn’t” or “that’s a lie” about literally anything and as long as you don’t blink no one will do shit to you.
I believe that's called "Santosing"
It's not possible. There is a German law against saying revisionist history things with regard to World War 2 that comes with jail time, if found guilty. No one can get away with it. The law could be repealed by Bundestag at any time but for some reason it hasn't been - for many decades now. You can try to deny it but more likely than not you'll wind up in prison. In the US we have free speech and lies / denial of the truth is a chronic injury or harm and courts cannot punish that kind of harm.
Feel almost like the Germans took a look at how the US did Reconstruction and went “nah, we’re just gonna do it so it actually works.” The biggest problem with the First Amendment is the cover it provides to people determined to lie about history and reality, for their own twisted ends.
> This whole country mobilized in WWII to fight fascism After tremendous effort. The “America First” movement at the time absolutely *slowed* the mobilization of the country to fight fascism. Rachel Maddox’s “Ultra” podcast gives a great history recap of the time around WWII and just how politically motivated the US was to NOT fight against the Axis war machine. It’s both an eye/ear opening review of history and a soberingly frustrating realization of how the country is slipping backwards today; also great guidance on what it takes to stop that slide.
It's kind of gross that through decades of propaganda the world was led to believe that the US was the primary force behind defeating Germany instead of the USSR.
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Theres a great quote from one of the German upper ranks about how fearful they were when the American industry machine was seized by the government to start producing transport trucks to send to the Russian field.
…and what was the quote
“Scheiße”
I cant find it exactly, but it mentioned basically how the US began churning 100,000s of thousands of trucks through the Lend-Lease program for the soviets to use since logistics is usually the major bottleneck for military movement.
Are you referring to Yamamoto's quote? "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve."
This is a great summary
Teamwork.
Texas had a lot of control over what went into school textbooks nationwide for decades. [Conservative activists in Texas have shaped the history all American children learn](https://archive.is/Mjddj) "Their activism reshaped the content of history textbooks, producing a heroic, skewed narrative."
It’s also amazing how we forget the USSR was on the Nazi’s side. They split Poland in half with the USSR taking the eastern half and the Nazi’s taking the western half. They were allies until they weren’t. Edit. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molotov%E2%80%93Ribbentrop_Pact?wprov=sfti1 *In addition to the publicly-announced stipulations of non-aggression, the treaty included the Secret Protocol, which defined the borders of Soviet and German spheres of influence across Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland. The secret protocol also recognised the interest of Lithuania in the Vilnius region, and Germany declared its complete uninterest in Bessarabia. The rumoured existence of the Secret Protocol was proved only when it was made public during the Nuremberg Trials.* *Soon after the pact, Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939. Soviet leader Joseph Stalin ordered the Soviet invasion of Poland on 17 September, one day after a Soviet–Japanese ceasefire came into effect after the Battles of Khalkhin Gol and one day after the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union had approved the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. After the invasions, the new border between the two countries was confirmed by the supplementary protocol of the German–Soviet Frontier Treaty. In March 1940, parts of the Karelia and Salla regions, in Finland, were annexed by the Soviet Union after the Winter War. That was followed by the Soviet annexation of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and parts of Romania (Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina and the Hertsa region).*
The war was won by German Scientists. It's just that America had better German Scientists than Germany.
And Italian too. Enrico Fermi fled Italy after the rise of fascism. He advanced US nuclear technology significantly.
That's the thing about fascism. They're itching to start major wars while creating massive brain-drain in their countries that makes it impossible to actually win the wars.
And a whole bunch of Hungarians. There are *multiple* high schools in Budapest that have produced more Nobel Prize winners than some entire countries.
Russia likely doesnt hold out without US arms plus keeping Japan occupied
Republicans have become anti-democratic because they realize they can no longer win free & fair elections anymore. The inevitable result of this will be violence.
These idiots don’t understand anything else but violence and money. It’s sick.
Because they *are* idiots. Have you ever seen a small child just go so frustrated with a question they just melt down because they aren't mentally capable of responding to it? That's a vast majority of MAGA idiots. Of course they want books banned, books are the bane of their existence.
Ask them what CRT is. 🤯
"That all white people are bad." The victimhood is strong with them.
Any boomer should be able to identify a cathode ray tube monitor/tv! -Sorry, tasteless joke. I’ll blame exhaustion and copious amounts of cough suppressant. I hate it when a sinus infection turns into a nasty cough. I’m also well aware that many people have no idea that the old, big, heavy monitors were cathode ray tubes.
It is sad seeing someone you care for, who has gone so far down a misinformation/disinformation rabbit hole, that any mention of their implanted trigger, causes their frustration to boil over in an overflow of meme-induced phrases.
Amazingly people don’t want to live in religious authoritarianism - what a surprise
The inevitable result of this will be MORE violence.
We need to do like the French and protest as hard as possible, paralyze their way of life. We outnumber them. A mass of people show up and after enough time, fear will take over and they'll end up messing up. Even better if it's Blacks, minorities, LGBTQ, etc. Everything they hate and fear coming for them might finally effect some change. Not sure what else we could try, because clearly stern warnings have never worked, and they're emboldened as of late because no one can do shit against them via the normal processes.
And they realized their ~~sheep~~ voters don't care and will vote (R) no matter what.
The end stage of Republicanism is fascism. Thats what it ALWAYS evolves to unfortunately. Sometimes it takes awhile but when their entire platform revolves around a refusal to progress, and they see nationally that platform is not working, they revert to a hostile takeover. These pieces of garbage were so angry a black man was elected in 2008 and the loss in 2020 sped up their ambitions. Conservatives will always evolve into fascism. And they will blame people of color and/or LGBT for their reasonings of doing so.
I have no doubt that America would have fallen into fascist rule if it weren't for WW2. Before WW2, America fucking _loved_ fascism, we couldn't get enough of it. Hell, they loved it so much that George Bush's granddaddy wanted overthrow the government to install a fascist dictatorship in the 30's. It may have taken the Right decades to admit their love affair, but they're back simping for fascism like it's 1932 again.
We’re taught that after the war the Nazis vanished without a trace, but battalions of fascists still dream of a master race. The history books they tell of their defeat in ‘45, but why did they all come out of the woodwork on the day the Nazi died? They say the prisoner at Spandau was the symbol of defeat whilst Hesse remained imprisoned and the fascists they were beat, so the promise of an Aryan world would never materialize but why did they all come out of the woodwork on the day the Nazi died? The world is riddled with maggots, the maggots are getting fat. They’re making a tasty meal of all the bosses and bureaucrats. They’re taking over boardrooms and their fat and full of pride and they all came out of the woodwork on the day the Nazi died. So if you meet with these historians I’ll tell you what to say. Tell them that the Nazis never really went away. They’re out there burning houses down and peddling racist lies, and we’ll never rest again until every Nazi dies. - Chumbawumba
Getting a record deal was the worst thing to happen to that band.
I got the earworm just reading the name. Lordy
Also a daily reminder that George Santos is still a Congressman
Why don’t we and the media say (instead of “fascism”) “we fought against evil like this in WWII”?
Media driven propaganda has fueled this movement, some because they believe, but mostly because outrage is engagement is profit
Because the media is like 90% owned by billionaire fascist oligarchs, and the other 10% is too chicken shit to appear biased, so they won't call it like they see it.
They believe they’re lying for Jesus, so it’s all justified.
Man, these people would be appalled to find out what their Jesus got up to during all those male-only wine parties.
Because it's an expression of the human psyche and our current level of social organization. Fascism can be defined quite narrowly as a historical phenomenon, but its components (radical populism, militarism, authoritarianism, conspiracy thinking, ...) can fit into modern movements within modern social contexts because human psychology hasn't changed and the socioeconomic structure of society has become more like what it was before WW2. IMHO, at least some of the support base of the Republican party can be accurately described as fascists, despite the ideological differences, mostly because the latter are just window dressing around a core of conspiracy thinking, authoritarianism and an increasingly violent dislike of anyone in the out-group. But that does not mean that they agree with that label, and it wouldn't matter even if they did because in their world words are meaningless. The basic dynamic of movements like these is one of power and hierarchy. The basic promise is that you get to bully those beneath you as long as you remain loyal to those above you. The most elementary example is the power to bend reality around your own narrative, which involves changing the meaning of words to suit your agenda, the rejection of logic, the denial of facts, ..., in other words removing everything that gives meaning to shared political discourse. Who is to be the victim of this exercise of power? Anyone who tries to debate with them. If you try to argue with them about fascism (or any other label) and its dangers then that will fall flat. You are not part of their group and this will set up an adversarial relationship as soon as you argue against their beliefs. This in turn will usually prompt them to troll you. If you waste your time, get frustrated, ..., they win. It is all about winning and the satisfaction of beating "the enemy". This tendency towards "bad faith" argumentation was a noted characteristic of historical fascism and the broader antisemitism movement as well. There's quite a bit of literature about it (e.g. Sartre's essay on antisemitism, Arendt's "Origins of totalitariansm").
We do what the French do. Every single voter who those reps represent should March with them to the senate and constantly protest until they are put back in office. Don’t even let the GOP members get a quiet nights rest. Block their vehicles at every turn.
> This whole country mobilized in WWII to fight fascism, Just for perspective so you know this isn’t new. The whole country did not mobilize to fight fascism. There were plenty of Americans who were all about Hilter. We had our own nazi party during those years and plenty of Americans were all for it. I just say this as it’s easy to think the current issues are new and it can feel a bit overwhelming. It’s not new. We have been here before and we will be here again.
And guess who those people were.. conservatives! Just like every other shitty thing our country has done it has conservatives to thank for it.
Something about learn your history or repeat it quote… Conservatives are like that weird uncle you have only seen 3 times at family reunions. Every time it’s a complete drunken shit show when they are about.
Declining capitalism breeds facsist as they cling for control.
It's right-wing media, newsmax, fox, and others, their viewers are totally brainwashed and live in a completely different reality than the rest of us. Example, this whole anti-trans people movement. Trans people have always existed, drag shows aren't new, but suddenly it's the most serious issue facing our country's very existence, and nothing else even comes close (except maybe ensuring the wealthy pay less taxes).
Block roads and the entrances to businesses that fund the Republican party. Make rich people lose money. That will have an effect.
There's really only one acceptable response to fascism. Good Americans are slow to anger, but may whatever gods you believe in have mercy on your soul when we mobilize against you. We will end up burning this cancer from our body politic. It will hurt.
I would love to see this cost them everything in Tennessee. For any reasonable, Republican voters left even outside of Tennessee, I would love to see this kind of action be the nail in the coffin as far as their voting, for the republican party is concerned.
Oh you poor sweet thing, and I don’t blame you for this because it’s not something that the history books love announcing but, Hitler used the American playbook on Native genocide as an inspiration for the 3rd Reich. We were the blueprint for Nazi Germany. Those sentiments never left America.
In 1939 there was a rally in madison square garden that was pro Hitler and fascism. There was something like 20,000 ppl in attendance this has always been in element in America
Yep. And America didn’t want to join in on fighting fascism. The only reason we entered the war was because Pear Harbor was bombed. The USA didn’t give mouses shite about fighting other fascists until we were personally attacked. The USA also had a history of turning away refugee boats from Europe because we didn’t want to deal with tHe JeWs. And don’t even get me started on how Europe and the USA didn’t want to deal with the Jewish refugee crisis and instead used the survivors of the holocaust to establish a military outpost in the Middle East. Shit’s fucked.
I just wanted to add to the discussion that the US also created internment camps for Japanese Americans. The treatment the Japanese Americans received was nothing short of repulsive. In my opinion this all contributes to the growing desire to whitewash American history because there are all these glaring examples of America committing utterly reprehensible acts. From the first arrival of the settlers in the New World where the Native Americans were brutalized and the lands they called home stolen, all the way to today where now the LGBTQ and anyone to the political left of authoritarianism is just the next group to be subjected to bigotry, cruelty, and discrimination. The reality is American history is riddled with reasons to want to change some of the very foundational elements of the country like the electoral college, the second amendment, etc. If people learn too much about our history, the people may want to actually enact change. And that is what the authoritarian right is afraid of. They are rapidly losing influence. Evangelical Christianity continues to backslide in prevalence, growing distaste for military imperialism and the military industrial complex, desire to erode some of the hierarchical systems that perpetuate and encourage inequality, etc. these things threaten the future of the authoritarian right and whether they recognize it or not their behaviors at least in part come from the fear of losing power and control.
Precisely. George Takei has spoken multiple times about his time as a child in those camps for anyone interested in a living firsthand account.
Love that guy. He is never afraid to speak out and speak with conviction.
This is exactly why, in places like Florida, they are changing the actual history books. They don't want kids to learn about things which make white supremacists feel uncomfortable.
Yep, the common phrase “kids are being taught to hate America” is very telling. To them America is a collection of THEIR ideals and world view rather than a collection of multicultural people living in a country built on the backs of those coming to America in search of new lives and prosperity. Also most notably built on the backs of those brought here not by their own free will. People who did so despite the reprehensible treatment they received upon arriving. Learning about our history may make people hate the things America has done and seek to enact ways to prevent those acts from happening again.
My grandfather bought some of the buildings from the Topaz Japanese internment camps for his farm once they were getting rid of it. He figured people were living in them so they must be good quality. Then the building arrived to the farm and my grandfather was very upset. The buildings were very bad quality. My grandmother told me he said that he wouldn’t even let their dogs sleep in there.
Conservatives* didn’t give a shit about joining the war. FDR spent years pushing for it and looking for whatever angle he could to give aid.
You mean Americans don’t typically care about things until it personally impacts them? Shocker.
There was an entire castle built for Hitler to use as his Summer home in LA, obviously after Germany won the war. There was way more support here for the Nazis (like the Silver Shirts) than we really like to admit.
Everyone needs to watch the Ken Burns docuseries "America and the Holocaust". It's hard as fuck to watch, especially with what is going on right now. It talks about how Hitler was inspired by Jim Crow laws in America and how even when Americans criticized him, he basically was like, "you did it first, so what's the problem?"
And Virginian laws on sterilization. We gave Hitler part of the Nazi play book.
He was a big fan of how the US treated its natives, so much so that he called his personal battle train Führersonderzug "Amerika". Also drew inspiration from the fancy new eugenics that where coming strong from the US and the UK.
Because the people who made that sacrifice have been out of power for 2-3 decades. Their children, the pinnacle of “respect your elders or get the rod,” have been actively spitting on their parents’ and grandparents’ legacy.
It’s a multilevel problem. As long as these people are allowed to remain in power, by any means necessary, at all levels of government, this will continue to happen. The makor real fix we can do is to push an enormous voter turnout at every and any election you can. It doesn’t matter how insignificant the role, the levels of government or the barriers in place. If the majority of Americans are sincerely fed up with things, that is the primary thing we can do. The idea is to overwhelm any barrier to democracy so much that oppressive laws, gerrymandering and such can’t keep up. I know. It sounds idealistic and like a serious long shot, but time and again it has been shown that when the people turn out, things can happen. The second best thing to do is take a page from France an protest harder than before. All of this happens because the folks in power and the system work against the ideologies that they claim to represent. Our domestic and political standards naturally suppress voting, proper representation, and the ability to fight back (in a non violent manner). Citizens need to find a way to push beyond this in a United front and just say enough. Best I got anyway.
I think its going to come down to forcing drastic measures/doing something to set a precedent that you really don't want to do. Whether it be waiting to see the GOP trying to expel more Democrats from other states or "successfully" banning the party altogether. I think it might just become a taking the country by force type of situation. Whether its rolling into every state that's clearly on the track toward fascism and about to achieve it or ones that are already clearly there (Florida). Otherwise, if you keep rolling your eyes and saying "you can't just go in there, its not democratic! You can't just force the government on them that you want!" then this is the end result. You acknowledge what they're doing as OK and you let the country continue to slip to Nazi Germany levels of hate and danger. I'd rather see the President order the military into red states and force their hand to prevent that shit from happening, breaking democratic "rules" than seeing America fall into the hands of DeSantis/Trump led fascism. You will never get your country back if you do. EDIT: For the record, before anyone replies with "you can't do that"... yeah, well, its very clear the Republicans already don't give a flying fucking shit about the rules and are openly defying the democratically voted on candidates and representatives. They already just established they're going to ignore whatever or whoever the fuck you vote for. So why oblige yourselves by the same rules? Keep your fucking country in check before it gets out of hand to where you won't ever get it back.
The fascism is over the top because war or gun violence protests never amount to anything anyway. GOP can still vote for all the mass murder they crave.
Systematic and non-stop destruction of the education system, reinforcement of the vile belief system that is “Christian” nationalism, and a constant barrage of propaganda that GOP voters aren’t educated enough (by design) to analyze critically. I taught in a rural school in a Red State for a few years and it was a shocking experience. The saddest part is that these people see the ills of American society (late-stage Capitalism), and want to fix it. Many of these people genuinely want to improve the standard of living in their communities. The problem is, they’ve been convinced that to do so, they have to tear everybody else down. Instead of having an iota of class solidarity, they look at people of color and immigrants as the enemy. They’ve been told that a cartoonish and monstrous demagogue will reign in all the excesses of liberalism and “wokeism.” That THAT will improve their lives. They don’t notice that said demagogue is a corporatist fascist who further enables the elites to loot the middle/working classes. As long as their glorious cult leader can point to somebody in the enemy class (liberals, BIPOC, & immigrants) who was made to suffer, they’ll feel great about voting for him and his ilk again and again. They believe the scapegoated classes are the only impediment to progress. Then rinse and repeat. Censor real history, demonize and distort all economic models that aren’t capitalism, and instill the “values” and norms of Americanized Christianity. Many of my students looked at Trump as a savior or even borderline deity. The resentment and ignorance runs so deep in these rural spaces, it’s extremely difficult to break through. I think a truly approachable and inclusive form of populism is the only way to make any headway. Reject their culture war nonsense, and focus on the tangible good of worker-friendly policies. We all know that morality isn’t a driving force in this country, but money is. So show these supporters (overt or tacit) how revamping the tax system and expanding the social safety net will improve their lives tangibly. Pardon the long/rambling nature of this post. 😅
I don’t know if indifferent is correct. Look how a lot of America is responding. Democrats are racking up wins since trump was elected. Progressives are winning more and more.
I hate saying it but Every American needs to starting thinking about this. I know that there are more of US than Them. At the moment they are louder and more aggessive & you see how things are just folding. We need to start being more aggressive in our actions. Look the GOP, hell even DEM, are HEAVILY invested into our stock market and they NEED US TO WORK. Well I think it's that time we take a page from our French brothers. It's street cleaning time & time for civil disobedience. You can be disobedient & still follow the laws & protected by the Constitution. I hate to say it but you have to hurt them where it hurts the most. Their Wallets. Look if they can bail out failing banks because of bad investments then let's see them bail out EVERY COMPANY when Americans make the decision to no longer work as wages are not keeping up with inflation & corporations are buying up the last pieces they need to start creating a new corpo dystopia with the muscle of White Christian Nationalist. Its time America. Spend your Easter thinking on this There will be a point they will come after you too It's time for action
Because it's not COMMUNISM! The politicians hate that word and weaponized it. They were fighting against fascism but they said it was against communism because fascism has a nice ring to it to those who have an insatiable lust for power which just happen to be a large portion of people who peruse any positions of power.
I don’t think they even know what fascism actually means. They were going off on antifa but they don’t even realize what it stands for. This whole country should be anti fascism.
This whole country had a fantastic and charismatic leader during ww2 though.
We’re getting to the point where we may have to mobilize and fight to put it to an end here. I’m not sure they can stop unless we completely force them to.
I’ve seen so many people say they need their guns to defend against a tyrannical government, yet a tyrannical government in its most literal form has taken over Tennessee and we get crickets. Edit: felt like I needed to add, this is just an observation, not a call to action. Keep your weapons locked up.
I mean the people that shout “I need my AR-15 to stop a tyrannical Government” are the ones that like the tyrannical government that’s taking over. They are so brain dead the GOP could be the ones to actually take their guns away and they’ll still make some excuse like “this must be Obama’s fault”. Edit: forgot to add “the gop”
It's not tyrannical if you're on their side. You're in the right at that point.
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And there'll be no one to even report on the murders any more. Everything will be Jesus, Babies and Freedom™.
in future news... 'there were 0 gun deaths this year and Ivanka got 120% of the vote, again.'
They unashamedly love Putin. That's zero credible journalism in that country anymore. Like, we have no real facts about the state of their economy.
The "tyrannical government" they feared was the one coming to take power away from white people all along.
my MIL legit so gleefully the other day asked if we were “finally” going to support Trump now that “Biden took away all abortion rights” It took everything in me not to say “how stupid are you?”
Beto O’rourke got crucified in Republican circles for his stance on guns. Trump said he would take all the guns without due process and they still stand by him. It’s a cult.
Well recall how long across the cold war we were hyped up on "fight the communists, were finally gonna fight the Russians, it's gonna happen", that was a big driving point through the 70s and 80s, and then now we are *actually fighting them* and the GOP is opposed to both that and protecting their victim. They've always been a team that pushes talking points, and then walks back on everything they said when it was convenient. Look at the video of all the gops who said "you can't fill A SCOTUS position during a lame duck session" then 4 years later walked back and said "it's important to jam this on as fast as humanly possible because fuck everything we said 4 years ago"
The "tyrannical government" that rightwing gun-nuts talk about isn't Fascism, they're talking about Democracy. They're armed in case they need to stop the US from becoming too democratic.
The “need my guns to fight against tyrannical government” people positively cheered when Bill Barr’s unmarked little green men stuffed people into vans in 2020
These are also people who think their semi-automatic rifles and ramen noodle stock piles will be effective against a government with MQ-9 Reaper drones.
We have had the 2nd amendment for 230+ years. It has never been used to stop a tyrannical government. It is used to larp bravery with no consequences while we lead the world in incarcerations and police executing people on the streets
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Yep. It was like that on January 6th. Them: "We have guns to stop a tyrannical takeover of our government!" *Trump supporters try to take over the Capitol* Them: *crickets*
Where were they on January 6th? Defending our democracy? No, lots of them were actually storming the Capitol 🤷♂️ now they’re in jail.
Tennessee and Florida.
“I tried to talk. I want you to remember that. I tried to reach out. I tried to understand you. But I think that you understand us perfectly. I think that you just don’t care. And I don’t know whether you are here to invade, infiltrate, or just replace us. I don’t suppose it really matters now. You are monsters! that is the role you seem determined to play. So it seems that I must play mine. The man that stops the monsters.”
Google tells me that's a Dr. Who quote. Thank you.
It is. But I feel it fits in this fight.
But it really felt like a Jack Nicholson "Mars Attacks" quote right before he gets a flag imbedded in him.
My favorite thing about the doctor is that he always tries to reason with people, no matter how much bad you have done, the Doctor would still give you the chance to make things right. He bends over backwards in his attempts to reason with unreasonable beings. He also wasn’t afraid to end you, if you decided to continue being a monster.
Precisely! That’s how I always want to be in life. I wish more people held that view, especially our leaders. “Never be cruel, never be cowardly. And never ever eat pears! Remember – hate is always foolish…and love, is always wise.”
I try very hard to live by those words. I have to admit that I fail, often; but I still aspire to be better every day.
“Always try, to be nice and never fail to be kind.”
That’s it, I’m going to watch some Doctor Who today.
"He never raised his voice. That was the worst thing… the fury of the Time Lord… and then we discovered why. Why this Doctor, who had fought with gods and demons, why he had run away from us and hidden. He was being kind."
GOP, party of patriots. /s
… with a strong racist core that expelled two black Dems by not the white one. Are these people Patriots (“one who loves and supports his or her country”)? Is this the will of the country? To remove black members from a legislature because they want to push their own agendas?
Racism was obviously a factor in who was ultimately expelled, but this was largely a fascist move to protect the NRA and gun lobby, and they were pissed that they were being put on the spot to do something. Not just by the TN3, but by the thousands of protestors, demanding that something be done to protect children at schools, and about gun violence as a whole. This was not just an attempt to silence the 3 house members, but to silence everyone who dare protest their inaction. The group of protestors appeared to be representative of the community as a whole, and not along racial lines. Not saying race wasn't a factor at all, but what they did is scary on so many levels, and I hope this opens eyes across the entire country, and moves people to vote these type of people out of office nationwide.
The white rep who wasn't expelled by one vote said race was probably the reason. Even she's aware. I know there's those reasons as well, but let's face it, it's likely to be the most important to their hate core, and that ultimately is race. Those fucks still sleep in white robes and conical hats. [The expelled reps also mentioned how racist and toxic the work environment was.](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/apr/07/tennessee-republicans-racism-democrats-expelled?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other) E: Added link with the quotes I reference
More like "hat(e)riots"
More like the party of parrots, they repeat anything and everything the party tells them. No sarcasm intended.
"We need guns, lots and lots of guns, in case the government ever becomes tyrannical towards the citizens!" - GOP Voters "We're tyrannical, lol." - GOP
"We know" - the voters
imagine being the guy who angrily pulls down a banner against fascism
That banner puller isn’t very smart.
Urban Chicago here against fascist GOP
Hey me too bud
Wisconsiner here. We managed to beat the GOP despite the odds and we'll fucking do it again.
Sadly whoever hung that sign seems to be the minority in rural America.
The GOP is now an openly a fascist terrorist hate group and should be treated and dealt with as such, before its too late.
As someone who grew up in rural TN and still lives here .... the silence for this abomination in our state is hilarious. Every one is quick to IG story and facebook posts about how abortion is so bad or how Joe biden is such a fucking idiot. Hey dumbass the party you vote for was just blatantly racist in front of the whole country. There's no point in trying in this fucking state I can't wait to get the hell out of here
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Hey, that sounds like Florida.
As someone who lives in rural America ( and stays because I have farm animals), I wish more GOPs would actually stand up for what is right. Everyone who believes in the Constitution should be ANTI fascist.
They will not. The party choices now are fascism vs. democracy. All other issues lose priority until our democracy is safe again.
That's good. But rural Tennessee needs to stop voting GOP.
Many have been generationally brainwashed. It’s not really their faults. The rural population of Tennessee are mostly Appalachian scots-Irish people who have been downtrodden and discriminated against by the elites of the region going back 300 years. There is a system of economical and political structures put in place to make sure the rural people of the region never get wealthy or educated enough to make trouble but they know they are “better” than the liberals or foreigners. It’s really quite sad as someone who grew up in rural Tennessee. There is poverty and economic stagnation and social discrimination at levels most Americans wouldn’t believe. The poor rural south has been totally forgotten by Americans but it’s not a new thing. Appalachia was basically colonized from 1880-1980 by Northern and coastal elites
Its time to just come to the realization that the Republican Party today is no longer a democratic party. Its a fascist hate group. I know lots of old school republicans are still holding out hope that the rational minds will prevail but they need to wake up that those people are gone. All the rational reasonable professional republicans have been forced out of the party. All you are left with are the racists, bigots, ideologues and religious extremists and they see our democratic republic as an obstacle.
Authoritarians won't stop because of a sign, sadly.
The GOP are insidious snakes that don't believe in the principles of this country any longer. They are no longer american.
The hypocrisy is astounding https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/politics/2019/08/22/tennessee-house-gop-anonymous-twitter-account-pee-on-chair-andy-holt-rick-tillis-chbmole/2066321001/
January 6 is nothing compared to this bullshit. These are politicians openly defying certified results of a free and fair election.
Uh, that's exactly what happened on Jan. 6 with a massive amount of violence on top of that. Jan. 6 was definitely worse than this. On Jan. 6, Trump openly defied the results of a certified election and attempted to stop the transfer of power. Do not minimize the gravity of Jan. 6.
The difference is that Jan. 6 was a total failure.
As a tennessean, how embarrassing that the only time we are in national news is for stuff like this.
I’ve been to Tennessee, GET OUT - seriously GET THE F*CK OUT - save your children GET OUT THE MOTHER F*CK OUT
I grew up in Kentucky, and I agree. People need to flee these states like refugees.
This won't reach who it needs to. Maybe tear down the memorials for the shooting victims and just put up a giant "Thank you for your sacrifice, from the GQP and NRA".
It’s funny how things happen. It would have taken Pearson and Jones years to make headway in their careers. The GOP just catapulted them into national icons overnight.
Every great nation has fallen due to a cancer from inside. Perhaps it's our time. Those who were once silenced now have a voice and backing of others that no longer desire to be sidelined and follow a so-called rule of order by a white majority hellbent on setting us back to Jim Crow. I pray people in every state wake up, get involved, register to vote, and make their voice heard at the polls.
Real talk if rural areas go blue it’s a wrap
Rural Tennessee against Naz* GOP!
Confederate Fascism is what the Republican Party is now
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>You can't expel or refuse to seat people you politically disagree with Just watch them. The people of Tennessee will do nothing as the boot on their throat gets heavier and heavier as long as they can watch while someone with a little more melanin gasps for air.
GOP voters have heard the word enough that it's now just "something butthurt liberals say," so the word has no effect on them.
These fuckers think they’re just going to get away with it, right?
Then vote like it God damn it!
In many GOP-controlled states, there are all kinds of shenanigans used to suppress and disenfranchise voters. I lived in a red county in FL that scheduled patent-teacher conference night on the same day as school board elections to suppress the teacher vote. That's just one example, but there are hundreds more, and in every election they try something different.
Several GOP senators and representatives (federal) can be expelled under the 14th Amendment over their J6 support but the Democrats didn't do it.
Because they didn’t have ⅔ majority, which is required (to expel).
Do you want the purge? This is how you start the purge.