If your question is “why do people spend so much time talking about all the ways Trump IS like Hitler instead of talking about the ways Trump is NOT like Hitler?” then I think the answer should be pretty self-evident.
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so whats your point, then, exactly? its “counterproductive” to call the orange menace and this administration for what it is?
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I don’t think you are okay with it, I just don’t think you see it as part of a larger problem that can very much lead to a full on fascist situation (which is what you are arguing here). Trump is doing this inhumane stuff before he has the same powers that the nazis seized in 1934. What if we have another major terrorist attack, and he invokes marshall law? What if he loses in 2020, and his followers refuse to accept the results because of his constant gaslighting about the election? At what point do we become truly concerned that we are in fact in 1934 and the fascist are seizing power? Isn’t the point to stop that before it gets to that point?
I mean, the last time a leader went full on fascist and unleashed genocidal action WAS IN OUR LIFE TIME. It happened in Yugoslavia. Hell, Laibach essentially went to Belgrade and said as much about Milosevic, and then it happened, and everyone was like “WOW, look at what they predicted!” But they just, understood fascism, knew European history, and paid attention to what was actually happening in Yugoslavia in the decade or so after Tito died. They just paid attention!
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Yesterfuckingday. Or to borrow a phrase, ‘If you are not shit scared you are not paying attention’
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Given how you’ve described the differences between Trump and Hitler, and the harm that would befall the task of dealing with Trump if he wasn’t dealt with accordingly, how would you propose dealing with Trump? (Based on your argument, I’d assume that it wouldn’t be the way Germans should have dealt with Hitler before the start of WWII.)
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Trump is like Hitler in that he draws from a far right base using a new medium of communication, Hitler was the first politician to effectively use the radio, Trump has Twitter.
But I do believe that Trump is not like Hitler in that Trump ultimately has no ideology. Hitler wanted to start a war and murder the Jews long before he came to power. Trump is an opportunist with dwindling support, and I am hopeful that his increasingly far right rhetoric and xenophobe policies are a sign of weakness, not of strength. He’s catering to a minority because the moderate Republicans who believed in his social and economic promises are slowly (very slowly) catching on to his scam.
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so fucking what? his fucking base and his masters have one!
and he delivers.
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What is the functional, practical difference between a “true believer” and a walking id with a violent fanbase?
Narrator: No difference at all.
Every “moderate” Republican who has gone against him is no longer a member in good standing. They get purged. Every other “moderate” Republican is gaslighting for the bastard, even as he doubles down on his antisemitism.
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Racism is an ideology. Trump’s racism has been evident since the 70’s. Do you think he was working toward the presidency back then?
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Well, I kind of believe in the American people, in that this far right wing extremism is a vocal, but small minority. Trump’s empty promises and scams will ultimately fall through, leaving him stranded on a small demographic island of “very fine people”, with no chance in hell to win the next elections, even if the Republicans gerrymander and chatbot the hell out of them. It’s just a weird kind of optimism, I guess?
The Republican Jewish Coalition defended Trump’s statement on Tuesday, tweeting, “President Trump is right, it shows a great deal of disloyalty to oneself to defend a party that protects/emboldens people that hate you for your religion.”
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Thank you. I wasn’t aware of most of these items, pre-birtherism that is
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he still got a 40% approval rating…fourty fucking percent!
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The Bush/Cheney era had a lot of fascist characteristics as well, though it was less overtly racist and they were mostly focused on remaking the Middle East rather than America.
Trump can’t get away with as much as they did because he’s not as smart. He’s a lot more obvious about his intentions, and that makes them harder to carry out.
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Either that or one is operating from a position of privilege and is unfamiliar with Pastor Niemoller’s famous poem.
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Almost half of American voters were totally fine with—if not enthusiastically supportive of—that far right wing extremism.
Breaking a country doesn’t require a majority of that country’s population. You can’t run a democratic society where 40 percent of the people are actively trying to sabotage the system.
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Right about the point you started a whole new thread to counter @Melizmatic’s entirely truthful and accurate statement that the Nazis didn’t start with concentration camps and gas chambers. Sure, you disapprove of the Trump administration’s policies, and rhetoric, and graft. But let’s not be hasty and label them Nazis.
OK. What’s the goal of Biff and his flunkies/handlers? What is their trajectory, if no one presents meaningful opposition in fact vs in rhetoric?
Let’s see:
-Mike Pence’s goal is A Handmaid’s Tale, full stop.
-Stephen Miller’s goal is incarceration, torture, deportation, and removal of all Hispanic immigrants, legal or illegal.
-John Bolton’s goal is to use nuclear weapons agains Iran. After that, it’s dealer’s choice.
-Sebastian Gorka, who may not be a formal member of the administration, but is still an informal advisor, is a wannabe Milosevic-level genocidal white supremacist, would advocate locking up/deporting/executing all Muslims.
-The whole chess set of interim cabinet officials is pro-carbon industry, and as a gestalt their goal is to get paid while hastening global catastrophe.
I’m sure I’m missing more. My point is, your assertion that they are not Nazis is correct - but if they proceed unopposed, this group will be worse. We need people to be angry right now. Rhetoric isn’t going to cut it.
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I think it’s a whole lot less useful to hand-wring over what the literal definition of Godwin’s Law is these days, than it is to send money to campaigns and causes that can credibly help defeat Trump and the rest of the GOP in 2020.
By any measure, Trump is the worst president of the last 100 years, maybe even the last 200 years. Everything else is just semantics.
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They are Judenrat with the emphasis on “rat”.
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as much as i’d like to agree with you on the following, and i agree completely with the ending clause
let us not forget that the biggest thing george w and his gang had going for them wasn’t their smarts but the smoldering ruin of the world trade center. that event provided them with an enormous tail wind that pushed them past so many potential obstacles.
edited to clarify the antecedent to the pronoun in the quote.
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