Well, it’s not like it was ever specifically the Judaism that differentiated it as “fascism” instead of some other brand of assholery.
The interesting question this line of thought raised for me is, if you are utterly toxic to every person you encounter in every way possible, is it still bigotry? My high school chemistry teacher used to tell every class, “I don’t discriminate: I hate you all equally.” He was only sort of joking. And that’s like Trump. Literally everyone who crosses his path is an enemy in potentia, and he seems unable to draw a distinction between moral virtue and what’s convenient for Trump. See, for one prominent example, the terms “fake news” and “witch hunt,” his usage of which has nothing to do with objective facts, but everything to do with his sense that the targets of those terms might damage his interests. My interpretation is he lacks any true sense that an act can be mala in se.
Yes, he will absolutely target you for being a Jew, or a woman, or Hispanic, and he will do so viciously and unashamedly. But if he didn’t have one of those available, he’d pick something else, whatever he intuits would be most hurtful to you. So is that still bigotry?
Just to avoid potential confusion, I am pointedly not trying to give him a pass on bigoted behaviors. He still should have his feet held to the fire over each and every one of them. What I’m suggesting instead is that this is something much worse: unfocused, unrestrained, generalized malevolence. To try to hang any specific brand of bigotry around his neck may be to miss the forest for the trees. Yes, you should be offended at the way he treats your particular group, but at the same time we all need to be aware that his apparent hate-on for our own groups isn’t special or unique. It’s entirely circumstantial. If you are inconvenient to him, he wants to hurt you, and the traits you can be offended about are just arrows in his quiver.
It seems to be the same sort of cognitive dissonance that enables the trolley wing of the alt-right to say the most offensive things, then laugh at what they portray as your error in taking it as sincere bigotry. The goal of throwing around the N-word, say, isn’t to express a specialized hate for black people. The offense itself was the goal, and to take the bait is to play their game with their ball on their court. It’s insincere, calculated rhetorical violence, which I’d think is miles worse than being a simple ignorant asshole. The latter at least imagine (however wrongly) they have some justification. The former is pure sadism.
