Reddit mentions of How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them

It's not rhetorical hyperbole to say that Fascism is what about 40% of the US population (the part that still supports Trump) wants for the US. Recommended reading https://www.amazon.com/How-Fascism-Works-Politics-Them/dp/0525511830 and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism

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1. Charismatic leader who leverages fear and hatred of immigrants and minorities to gain support.
   
2. Tells the people they are threatened and questions the patriotism of anyone who disagrees.
   
3. Despises the free press and has his own propaganda alternative (Fox News - Limbaugh - Goebbels)
   
4. Paramilitary thugs in the street to intimidate opposition (Proud Boys - Brown Shirts)
   
5. Adored by most conservative Protestants, those who disagree intimidated into silence ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Evangelical_Church )
   
6. Calls opposition socialists or communists.
   
7. Wants to take country back to an earlier time before minorities and decadent liberals messed things up (Make America great again)
   
8. Master race (Shit hole countries)
   
9. Blames foreigners for the country's problems (Trade war)
   
10. Tells the country the good people live in the heartland (Red States) as opposed to disgusting cities like New York and Los Angeles full of inferior minorities and immigrants and decadent liberals.
    
    I could probably think of more but that's a start. A common refrain on the right is that Liberals want to destroy America. But the reality is the opposite - the hard right wants to destroy Democracy because they are afraid of it, all those minorities voting. So they do everything they can to rig the elections - voter suppression, gerrymandering, unlimited money in politics, and worst of all, gladly accepting help from Vladimir Putin, until recently a enemy of America, to win the last presidential election.

It is not uncommon for a fascist dictator to obtain power this way. The book How Facism Works: the Politics of Us and Them by Jason Stanley describes how this process works and gives examples from history.

"And she, my family, and our friends are not fascists but they often support fascist ideals without know it." - there, that's it. EVERY leftist goes through this at some point.

One of the first things you could do is educate them on the origins of fascism. I mean this in a non confrontational sense. The unlearning process can be a painful one though so many people will disengage. It's tricky, all you can do is supply the information. Through learning the origins of what fascism is, they may grasp how it never went away and how it still effects us, daily. You could start with the following quote:

"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power." - Giovanni Gentile

Few more useful links below:

How fascism works

The new faces of fascism

Antifa Handbook

Alt America

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8AcmzqFdPM&t=11s - on Nazism

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUFvG4RpwJI&t=1108s - again on Nazism

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5ClScOsE-4&t=78s - on fascism & socialism

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1O3DWDzyv8&t=7s - capitalism & fascism

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_rto6JPYQ8 - neoliberalism & fascism

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6Nb3wbpljo - fascism & the political compass

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>Fascism (/ˈfæʃɪzəm/) is a form of radical, right-wing, authoritarian ultranationalism,[1][2][3][4] characterized by dictatorial power, forcible suppression of opposition and strong regimentation of society and of the economy.

There's plenty of parallels that could be made to support the assertion that Trumps base leans Fascist. Even the Trump slogan, "Make America Great Again", is a tenant of fascist politics. Alluding to a mythic past. This same sort of messaging is found around the world where fascism has made a foothold.

You are correct that authoritarianism is part of the equation.

Edit: "How Fascism Works" by Jason Stanley. While this book is wordy, it does a good job of explaining fascism and how it relates to the MAGA movement.

https://www.amazon.com/How-Fascism-Works-Politics-Them/dp/0525511830

Is a great book too.

It’s music. Are you expecting a treatise? You could read this:

https://www.amazon.com/How-Fascism-Works-Politics-Them/dp/0525511830

Hvis du ikke mener det, synes jeg du skulle læse Yale professor Jason Stanley's nye bog How Fascim Works

Jason Stanley, a Philosophy professor at Yale, has two recent books that might be of interest: How Propaganda Works, and How Fascism Works. Depending on how broadly you want to define "philosophy", US Naval War College professor Tom Nichols's book, The Death of Expertise, would also be fit the bill. The ideas in The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion by NYU ethics/business professor Jonathan Haidt also come up frequently in conversation.

If you're willing to look further back (and perhaps define philosophy even more broadly), the late NYU education professor Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business might be of interest.

Its a style of politics were people are fooled into blaming scapegoat groups (usually immigrants, minority religions, races, sexualities, marxists, communists) for their economic problems that tends to follow fiancial crisis when people are wanting change.

People are promised a return to some imaginary glory days.

Its a fake revolution that protects the status quo.


https://www.amazon.com/How-Fascism-Works-Politics-Them/dp/0525511830

> The US is still a democratic republic, and not a fascist state.

This is a perspective of wealth and race. In places such as Pine Ridge, South Dakota, Ferguson, Missouri or the Mexican border the perspective differs. The US is a proto-fascist state in an academic sense and has been documented as such.

https://www.amazon.com/How-Fascism-Works-Politics-Them/dp/0525511830

> The government is still functioning as intended.

The government of the United States was designed by slave-holders to protect their wealth, so this statement is historically questionable. But it is also a bold claim considering current events.

The system "may" be working in some ways. It is definitely not working in others. (But either way this is a topic obviously outside the scope of the current forum.)

> You, for example, believe the US has weak air pollution standards.

And you only provided whataboutism in response. I never mentioned anything about Europe or Asia. They also have very poor environmental laws in many cases. "Everybody does it" isn't even accepted as a child's excuse.

But instead of an actual conversation, you can't help but make weird false equivalencies. Why is that? Why the pose?