Some view it as hyperbole; others don't even know what the words mean. But it's all textbook. Textbook history, textbook political science, textbook psychology, textbook social psychology. Elementary stuff, not obscure. And it's happening in real time, right before our eyes.
I wish my grandma was still alive. She was living through the end of the republik of weimar and the onset of national socialism... and eventually was deported into one of the concentration camps and survived. I would love to hear her opinion on whats happening to the usa..
I'm glad my relatives that survived the Nazis are dead and cannot watch what is happening. They did not deserve to relive the trauma.
“Americans are a stupid people, by and large.” https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/5c0c356b-9d05-491b-a6e7-5de9f64b732c
The danger he represented was obvious in 2016. That was the whole point of the Resistance. I think that most partisans on both sides got it from the beginning. The Republican base wanted a dictator, the Democratic base was in vehement opposition. For the middle though, it’s endless denial.
You idiot Americans are now living in a dictatorship. Way to go. You deserve it assholes. But now you’re fucking up the rest of the world along with fucking up yourselves. Americans are pathetic.
Three days after the election in 2016 I watched Bannon at a presser say that the 3rd goal of the trump administration would be to dismantle the administrative state. The goal has always been a right-wing Nationalist Christian power grab.
Textbooks are boring, so that explains the reaction, I guess.
Some of us didn’t doubt that very early on (like the night the election results were announced), however, the confirmation of the keystone cops did.
Agreed! I’m sad to say there are several folks in my circle (personal and professional) who are SO apathetic to what is happening! It drives me absolutely insane.
I have a colleague who's a liberal who recently said, 'I didn't change my life for any past president, so I'm not going to change it now for this one'. The people closest to me see what's happening and feel as insane as I do that this is happening and there seems little we can do to stop it.
The words we use to describe what is happening in America don’t necessarily convey the proper level of alarm or danger. The words we use come from history, but it’s the present that has me so worried.
Which scares the hell out of me. This country is asleep at the wheel and we’re rolling toward a cliff. Maybe one day, they will all wake up, but by then, it’ll all be too late … I’m losing hope for this country …
We are Frederick Fleet.
It's success is partly down to being plain before your eyes. It's easier to discount when there's no attempt to cover it up.
The courts are enough of a guardrail, either.
America is on an #Auschwitz trajectory here. If you’ve ever wondered how #Nazi Germany got to be Nazi Germany, you’re living through that kind of transformation right now.
And it’s a murder cult. They want to kill people. They want only terrified, uneducated people to work and make them money.
It’s partly the culture. Our culture of narcissism. Their eyes glaze over because fundamentally they are also authoritarians experiencing their own identity crisis where they have an impossible to fulfill need to be high up on the social pecking order. You’re asking them to look within. Many can’t.
Yes "Textbook" as in "In Textbooks" not a metaphor, or turn of phrase actual step-by-step events that you can read about that led to the destruction of democracies that lasts for generations. eventually leading to a husk of the civilization that preceded it. You can read about it IN TEXTBOOKS!
...and it's happening fast without much, if any, resistance.
TBH it didn't help that in the public discourse the impression of past decades was that on the Right, "Everything we don't like is Communism" and on the Left, "fascism". At least in the loudest, terminally online segments.
Civics is a lost vocation. The idea that 'we' are responsible for the people we elect to govern the country, state, city, town. Half US electorate don't know how to judge character and competence. In democracy, character and competence are the whole ballgame. China model better. More effective.
Chinese system emphasizes collective decision-making and stability, which facilitates consistent policy implementation and long term planning. US democratic capitalism can not plan two weeks in advance.
It is what Republicans in Congress want. They COULD stop this train, but they refuse.
The gop thinks they are safe from trump fascism & he will destroy them too All fascist turn in heir closest supporters
The problem is that it is “textbook”. A vast number seek every escape to *not* crack a textbook open to read it. A significant number are deeply unserious and willfully ignorant, looking for someone else to stoke their resentments and tell them what to do to hurt the people they hate.
You hit the nail on the head. It's partly ignorance, some of it is innate distrust, and some of it is people's nature to be self-centered ... and some are not political, but I think the main culprits are the social algorithms and the RW play for dopamine rushes. Propaganda frequently works.
Maybe to one of your points, I was talking to my wife's cousin a few days ago, someone I would consider at least somewhat "plugged in" shocked she'd never heard of Qanon. I think some are just so used to living their lives that they are completely tuned out.
I agree @ourshallowstate.bsky.social @gtconway.bsky.social but I think people are ready to revolt, but need a leader, or strategy, etc and less informational content/rage. The zone is flooded daily by DJT and republicans are great at avoiding will of people so it feels helpless sometimes.
I agree 100%. I am in Canada but am amazed that the only Democrat really making the news for his opposition to Trump is Newsom. Democrats need a leader STAT.
Of all the people, I never would have foreseen Newsom rising to the occasion. I don’t think much of him apart from this but where the hell is everyone else? The formal Democrat leadership has totally shit the bed so…go, Newsom!
If someone had made a tv series like House of Cards about this, nobody would have bought it.
Martin MUST resign and Wikler made head of the DNC for starters.
followed you
Amd a lot of fear - wanting it to not be true and scared of acknowledging it.
Pink slips, healthcare gone, food stamps gone, cheap goods gone, Latino kids schools friends disappeared from one day to the other. Have to cut back at supermarket. Getting spoken down to by politicians. Cops and soldiers with guns everywhere barking orders. Trump will lose on the streets.
Stock and crypto markets are the momentary opiate of the spending class.
That's the entire reason education is so important, if it wasn't so important, the fascists wouldn't spend the last 30 years attacking it
It would be nice if someone who was on board and is now speaking out against trump would explain how they couldn’t see this in 2015.
College textbooks, yes. I'm not sure they teach some of that in high school. And, he loves the uneducated for a reason.
Anyone who was even halfway paying attention during junior high history and English classes should recognize the similarities between what began in Germany prior the WW2 and what’s happening here.
Willful ignorance.
Even if you don't know the textbook definitions, you probably know what mad cow disease or rabies is. Just think of Trump and the GOP as a collective case of mad cow disease.
And textbook literature. The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears.
As individuals, humans have IQs ranging from idiotic to genius. As a collective, humans don't have the brains God gave to a goose.
Don’t use big words like authoritarianism or fascism. Say dictatorship. Most understand that world. Then give examples of what Trump is doing & compare to Xi, Putin & Hitler.
word not world!
And almost no one is doing anything about it. Total complacency. Just going along with their lives and shrugging shoulders.
"The masses never revolt of their own accord, and they never revolt merely because they are oppressed. Indeed, so long as they are not permitted to have standards of comparison, they never even become aware that they are oppressed." -George Orwell
That’s why the GOP have worked so hard to destroy public education. People who know nothing about world history have no idea that fascists that gained power democratically have never been removed democratically. NEVER. Think Hitler, Mussolini, Orban. It will take generations.
And in the end, fascism doesn’t work out well for anyone, including the fascists. I am reading “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich” by William Shirer. It is should be REQUIRED reading of all!
There are many educated people who are well aware of this. But this is what they want because they themselves are authoritarians.
If the people can’t read or write cursive, the historical documents can be changed to whatever you want it to be.
And most Americans don’t care as long as they can have their Labor Day barbecues and TV shows. It’s called hegemony, and Americans are more than willing to play the child to Trump‘s “Daddy.”
Yes! Thank you for being vocal for us who see this!
it's why they are uneducated...yet have guns, the plan...weren't you in those meetings, maybe should've thwarted this shit then...
It’s not complicated, that’s why the Trump admin can do it
Look up Personality disorders in the DSM-5 under cluster B, trump is all of that! 🤬
Yes, he has so many psychological problems there cd be one whole textbook about him. It says so much about our society that millions prefer such a sick person.
And there is not enough functional journalism left with the reach to explain it to them.
It’s the curse of being a knowledgeable person. You can see what’s coming far in advance of everyone else, so when you tell them, they think you’re crazy.
BTW eventually she is raped in a a temple wher e she seeks sanctuary is sold into sexual slavery and goes mad before being killed.
"hate to always be Cassandra, but......"
That's why they want so desperately to change the textbooks. That's also what the last round of fascists did. They spent a lot of effort changing what children learned and didn't learn.
Worse still, a solid 35% of the population, minimum, defends it to the death.
The question is why? What is their end game?
Textbooks are woke tho
Blue state secession is the only path forward I can see. The US reputation is shattered, our constitution shown to be utter crap, full of holes big enough to drive a Nazi occupation through. Sane states need to secede and form a sane nation. It's that or be the occupied part of a Nazi nation.
Although I wish Calif could secede, secession = war. The red states cannot survive without the blue states.
Make no mistake, we are at war. It's a cold civil war right now. Proxy battles via gerrymandering, court filings, and flimsy pretexts for occupying Democratic cities. The Nazis aren't going to stop. If a cold war is to win, and not turn to full war, ALL options must be considered.
I’m perfectly willing to volunteer in case of a war declaration. But I think I’m in a small minority. We can’t even get Americans to bother to vote. If “no vote” was a candidate in the 2024 election, it would have won.
Agreed. Nothing makes me more angry. 😡😡
The red states require proof they can’t survive without the blue states, though.
The fact that the blue states produce 70% of the nation’s GDP should be convincing. But I’m OK with letting it be a surprise to them.
Which is why there needs to be a strategy. Take a hard look at our Democratic Party. See any super strategic service-minded intellectuals that can organize a strategy that benefits the people? For me, that answer is clearly, no.
“others don't even know what the words mean.” Yes, “Wannabe Dictator” is the phrase most likely to be understood and spread across political worlds. It also retains hope. Must assume 6th grade reading level and general disinterest in reading anything long if you want to actually reach many people.
Dems, intellectuals, lawyers like precise words, but ordinary Jack & Jill don’t care. Every American knows what “Dictator” means. That’s why it’s the one word Mr. T tried to deny & blur recently. He knows it would catch on. “Wannabe” means he hasn’t succeeded yet, there’s still hope.
which means—i say this with all humility—we need better words as a writer, i humbly suggest our messaging needs to get better, stat (& yes i paid attention at Mass today which is probably why that word popped up twice @lorifreshwater.bsky.social)
💯 Text 👏🏼 Book 👏🏼 I wish ppl would stop with the “they should…” or “if they cared…” regarding the regime. Nope. Go read history & psychology & get with the program already.
We are a nation of watchers, not doers.
That so many people are oblivious speaks volumes about what being “American” has become.Regardless of economic class,we’ve literally become a nation of strangers lost in our own worlds. From clichés,“rugged individualism”to the “me generation”we haven’t experienced any shared sacrifice since WW II.
Many Americans chose not to vote. In every recent election cycle, the candidate of the non-voters would have won the popular vote. We are either apathetic or misinformed. Holding on to democracy is not possible with an electorate who denies the facts. Truth, justice, and the American way died.
Reality, it's not somewhere everyone wants to live in these days. For many it is also not a fun exercise to admit their country is an actual faschist hotbed.
…and The Heritage Foundation Playbook “Project 2025 - Mandate for Leadership”
What is not textbook is the size and organization of this country. The regime is weak. Most people, even in L.A. and D.C., are not affected by what the regime is doing. We don’t even see it (in L.A. right now). The reason lawyers see it is because of the complicity of SCOTUS and the GOP Congress.
A lot of us are just plain overwhelmed. There's so much, every day. It's like standing in front of a firehose.
Yes, that’s deliberate. Flood the zone with 💩 is what S Bannon said. It makes people feel overwhelmed & helpless. Newsom’s trolling helps overcome that somewhat by holding a mirror up to T malign actions.
so we toasted by orange fascist felon criminal president wtf....kind of like people really just can't believe it.... BUT -
Insofar as we were a democracy, we will have to look at “us” as one contributing factor, either by ignorance, apathy, decadence, or malice— we’re the problem it’s us. Many of us have been too insulated by our comfort, as long as it didn’t come for is directly…
Also, precisely what Hannah Arendt described as inebriation and torpor inculcated by the strategic disinformation campaign that MAGA has been waging since 2015, befouling the while epistemic ecosystem. Exactly the outcome Arendt predicted the “masses” being manipulated into… @gtconway.bsky.social
I feel like I’m in a horror movie and I’m the only one who sees the monsters.
Anyone who knows world history can see the exact same elements in today’s Republicans as in the dictatorial supporters of every authoritarian who ever lived.
I mean, you are not a liberal 🤷♀️ But you sure as shit aren't a fascist
I'm with you all the way! We need more leaders like you. Rally people, go into the communities where people are fed up with their representatives and letting them know at their town halls. GO THERE! I don't know how to wake people to what is happening. I think most folks are full of fear.
Keep on keeping on it!
"others don't even know what the words" That's been my complaint. "Authoritarianism" is an abstract word and doesn't sound that bad. More visceral words are needed.
Our country is turning into Russia and most people are too lazy to Google authoritarianism, let alone read a book about it. It’s infuriating, George.
I forget which day it was last week that we were working on a matter in Ohio, not a huge one but every person counts IMHO. Legal couldn’t get a volunteer to give up 1-2 hours on the long weekend to organize a case file - case: mom of 4 facing deportation, and did everything the “right” way. SMH 🤦🏻♀️
Every person and every political action counts, no matter how small.
People expect politicians to do all the work, but democracy is not a spectator sport
True
My generation grew up hearing about the “Big War”, the old Soviet Union, and the evils of it all, and how many people suffered because of it - and how we’d never let that happen again. Today’s generation views it as ancient history that they think is no longer relevant to their lives today. Sad.
To the general public, They need it explained in terms they understand. Plain language has immense power. I know you get this. Don't speak down to others who are less educated, but take time to help them understand. This is community building 101.
I keep telling everyone that we are fucked, unless he dies, and if he does it better be quick because he's destroying this Country mighty fast!!
So many view it more in the lense of pro wrestling matches. Our guys is winning cheer cheer!
Some of us were screaming from the rooftops nearly a decade ago. My first thought when I heard he was running was that'll be a laugh and a half ... then I realized he might "win" and panic set in. I was raised in a small town in Northern B.C. in Canada🍁 and have known about Donald trump since the
late 1980's, early 1990's ... the fact that most Americans weren't familiar with him and the danger he presented, was simply mindboggling. To see him installed in 2017 was unthinkable and again in 2025? Seriously America what the everlasting fuck! 😬
The damage Trump has already done can’t be repaired in what’s left of my lifetime. And maybe never. And I guess maga still thinks he is Jesus.
99.9% of our language has been de-fanged.
People who have only known good-faith, law-bound government, dismiss the opposite as preposterous. Can’t judge harshly. Generations of good fortune leave us open to predators like Trump & Co.
We were warned. People don't know their history. 54% of US adults are functionally illiterate--by design. Social media is manipulating us --by design. Fokkkx news programmed Americans with lies. My neighbors don't even believe Jan 6th happened. The coup continues. bsky.app/profile/sick...
But egg prices...
FFS, OMB is run by the fuck who literally WROTE THE BOOK on how to destroy the country. And then thete's fElon's doggie incel boys...
That’s exactly right. He’s doing precisely what an enemy of the US would try to accomplish, step for step.
He is an enemy of the US. The oath to defend against enemies "foreign and domestic" is not idle, although, in the case of MAGAts, it is a lie when sworn to.
I almost wonder if Trump and his lackeys already have deals to relocate to Russia, Qatar, Bahrain etc in case the tide finally turns against them.
It ain’t hyperbole - it’s real and it’s now.
This may seem like a non sequitur, but it’s not. We MUST take back the House and Senate. But the far left will be one of our main obstacles. I’m posting this here for reach.
this is true, we are our own worse enemy.
Many people, apparently, are living lives so marginally meaningful that they simply don’t care one way or the other.
Glazing over- in my own family. 😡 Nevertheless, I persist!
