Seems very, very bad. plus.thebulwark.com/p/theres-a-s...
Matthew Gertz — Seems very, very bad. plus.the...
Trump is threatening to use the government to “come down hard” on the free press. Believe him. www.mediamatters.org/msnbc/trump-...
The right’s vision for a second Trump administration would empower Fox’s authoritarian extremism www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/rig...
Trump's authoritarian comments are getting short shrift from the mainstream press. www.mediamatters.org/donald-trump... www.mediamatters.org/abc/trump-ca... www.mediamatters.org/donald-trump...
We need to get George Saunders to write a sequel to Love Letter and really George Saunders it up.
Because their corporate overloads prefer Republican tax cuts and one party rule over democracy
It’s crazy people aren’t listening to people like Jonathan Karl, as well as The academics and researchers who are trying to warn people that Trump is literally out in the open planning a totalitarian fascist dictatorship and will enact it day one. 
The lame duck is gonna be terrifying
Its amazing how the Federal Government is powerless to stop him, but so powerful that he can use it to create a dictatorship.
Cute you’re learning to use your words take your time kiddo someday you will learn how to speak.
I think most people have no idea what a totalitarian fascist dictatorship means, such as imprisonment and death for a lot of people based on the whims of the despot. It may mean mass murder of people in the thousands-to-millions. It means no access to information other than what the despot allows.
As much as I worry about a totalitarian state, I also worry about militias taking action with minimal restraint.
The militias are a part of that state they are just its birthing pains.
Agreed.
I've had to deal with shitlibs being like "but how is he gonna do that, isn't it illegal" like he's not on trial for doing illegal shit and not unopposed to doing illegal shit. It's annoying as hell.
Your first mistake is not building coalitions with the so-called "shitlibs" if you're at all worried about fascism.
You are not better.
You are not entitled.
You are not helping.
I tried talking. Everyone is instead adamant that voting for the Green Party or not voting at all is better. You assume I've not tried to talk shit out and explain amicably, and for that, you've made an ass out of yourself.
I've even directly explained and given resources backing up the existence of Project 2025 and they're like "but muh Biden".
It’s also objectively the most progressive set of accomplishments w/ measurable progress on progressive priorities attained in a generation, at least. Even if that’s a low bar- it’s still true. The move is “build on this” not “you’ve abandoned us we want tax cuts, budget cuts, & frozen wages again”
And yet everyone I talk to is adamant about not showing up or voting for JILL STEIN of all people. and Dr. Weixelbaum is suggesting I... continue speaking to a brick wall?
Hitting the nail on the head. A positive-elections are about momentum & how bad things are might prime us for a reversal come next year. (Wishful thinking I know)
^agree - negative partisanship animates voters more than anything else, for better or worse.
But it's also important to tell people what they are voting FOR. Not just what they're against. There are ways to do both effectively!
Great sentiment & true. But the campaigns spent more, earlier, faster, & more widespread than any campaign in history doing exactly that & it’s measurable. They’re now pivoting to “what your voting against” cuz telling people what they were for & have done became offensive.
Thankfully, someone with a head not buried in wishful thinking
yeah I see some of what you're seeing -- going negative early
but speaking of early, it's still super early! 11 months is a political eternity. Different convo than rebuking the leftwing populist above for not getting w the antifascist program tho
I'm very antifascist, I just also see the fucking writing on the wall. If you give Republicans an inch, they take the fucking Supreme Court. I'd rather take mediocre than "we're going to replace everyone with our candidate and make being trans illegal by calling it porn"
The 11 months being a political eternity is the saving grace for a lot of us terrified we’re gonna indict the entire philosophy of investing in people because it didn’t eliminate all poverty or remake the entire medical system in a 3 yr. period that started with stimulus checks & widespread death.
^this is what making everything about you looks like.
It's a populist grievance loop. I'm interrupting it. I know it's uncomfortable.
None of this is new. The Social Democrats, Socialists and Communists were the shitlibs of 1920's Weimar Germany.
Nah. I'm out here standing on my actual name and record of using my words to flip seats.
Help or get out of the way.
I thought "shitlib" refered to standard Democrats. And "leftists" meant "people who are threatening to vote green because Biden and Trump are basically the same".
Nah, I'm a leftist personally, and whatever you want to call the Green's official stance on Russia, it seems to favor right-wing oligarchs. I don't consider a pro-Putin vote to be anything close to left, no matter how green they are.
Heard loud and clear.
Now you try listening. If you're going to tear down potential allies against fascism, your alleged leftism isn't worth anything. Take "shitlib" out of your damned vocab
moving on.
Good, move on to where you're needed.
>Heard loud and clear
>Immediately ignored the statement and talks over it
You ain't an ally of mine shitlib, I'd busy you in the jaw without a second thought. Eat shit bitch boy.
I really appreciate your kind and insightful comment, which helps accurately depict the movements you represent—and how other compassionate and concerned people should react to them.
You sound like the kind of person to condemn Stonewall because it was "too violent"
I was having excruciating 4-hour consensus meetings with anarchists, communists, and other fellow leftists at the infoshop I helped found, literally around the time you exited your mother's womb.
The ideological world you inhabit didn't start when you decided you were the central character in it.
Now that's a hell of a way to phrase running a book club out of your worker exploitative business.
You're changing the subject.
Tell me what you meant by "bust"
What, are you shy now?
Bust means one thing, man. Well two if you're counting slang, but I certainly as shit ain't nutting at you. If you're really scratching your brain that hard, go Google it.
Enlighten me. Be specific about what you meant by that comment.
What physical act were you planning to do?
for a doctor, you sure as hell don't know when people see through your bait
Womp womp. Dr. Weixelbaum seems to have deleted his goading.
Nah, I blocked him. I just have better things to do than listen to a middle aged manchild repeatedly ask me what the word bust means
Ah, gotcha
Well, fighting's an art really. Got a lot of options once you understand your body's biomechanics and develop the skill to do it through practice. Probably why I like it alot more than arguing with a cop calling manchild centrist. So idk, lotta options available, and you don't plan out a fight.
Oh I know who you are. Dr. Weixelbaum. Wonder what Tom Morello would say about your comments.
Well, this all took a very dark turn.
It's a predictable turn. First comes the violent language, then the violent threats. That's what populism is.
I think this is good for others to see, since there's seems to be some confusion separating populism from leftism. Populists hide behind rhetoric, but solidarity means nothing to them.
Well, I appreciate all of y’all and wish you the best over the next year plus.
I don’t know that I agree with your slight or theirs but I do appreciate your dose of pragmatism in discourse.
And I read your thread about midterms - good work and good luck.
Thanks! Stay tuned
Huge swing and a miss if you think I'm a populist. Last I check they ain't exactly huge fans of individualists. That pol sci PhD is really failing you today.
lol at conflating poli sci with history
those groups are famously dissimilar and often at vicious odds with each other. See, you're learning something after all
For someone who's tryna act like such an expert you sure do suck at distinguishing an individualist anarchist from an authoritarian populist. Hell it was an open book test, answer was right in my bio. Might wanna ask for a refund on that degree.
You were saying something about busting me in the jaw. Elaborate.
How the hell is someone who went to college for 9 years so hung up on the word bust? A fuckin 3rd grader could answer this one.
perhaps you aren't capable enough to explain clearly, I don't know you
try again
Nah I'm good, I'll leave it with a hint of mystery for ya to obsess over tonight.
My comment reflects the violence I live in. The kind where I gotta go to protests and face down neo nazis, proud boys and the cops protecting them with a plate carrier and mossberg strapped to me, while your suburbanite, armchair activist ass types online and nothing else.
Can you help me understand precisely what you mean by “busy you in the jaw?”
Autocorrect didn't like the word "bust" I guess. Can you figure it out this time, or you still need some help, mr. "Phd"
ah, so just to be clear you were threatening to physically assault me. Does that sound correct?
The great thing about spending nine years in graduate school in an over-long history PhD program is you (hopefully) learn to seek the utmost clarity in the commentary you encounter.
So. Don't be shy. Explain exactly what you meant.
I get that you upper middle class dumbshits don't talk the same way us poors you look down on all day do, but what I said doesn't exactly take a PhD to decipher. Why, you itching to call the state funded minority murder squad that bad, Mr. "Leftist"?
Generally "shitlib" is used by leftists as a slur against anyone who engages in filthy electoralism instead of talking about a general strike on their podcast.
But yes, you've got the right view of the Greens. "Fuck America specifically" is not a cogent foreign policy.
yep that's the parlance, it's why I commented
Biden won and was supposed to stop this, yet nothing gas fundamentally changed. Don't deflect blame to people without power. You sound like a "shitlib."
I appreciate when my point is made by others, even if they don't see it that way
So what's the alternative? Sitting at home and not voting like a selfish baby? Voting for a third party who will never win? Or perhaps just giving in to the fascist side of the country and voting Republican? Give a better alternative, and maybe I'll shut up and join you. Until then, fuck off.
Stop propping up an entitled octogenarian who's polling behind the person he promised to hold accountable. You are doing as much to bring us Fascism as trump is.
Ah yes, so do nothing then. And how is warning people about Project 2025 bringing fascism exactly?
Does a better candidate have to beat you over your non-functional head for you to figure it out?
When one comes along, I'll accept it.
Liar.
Oh yeah I'll just go build coalitions with people who will support genocide, bigotry, unlivable wages and conditions, ect. because they don't give a shit what happens as long as it doesn't affect themselves personally, and their politics team wins. Eat shit dumbass.
He also has an extra Supreme Court justice he did not have until the final few months of his presidency and most of the barriers he experienced were one vote losses challenging executive action at the supreme courts level.
Yeah, definitely not a great sign when Karl, who was basically created in a GOP propaganda lab (aka the Leadership Institute), is sounding the alarm about Republicans. That's how you know it's extreme.
Rove is kind of the propaganda version of Kissinger, right? When evil incarnate is scared, we are really fucked.
It’s Jonathan Karl (not a name I’m familiar with, honestly), not Karl Rove.
But Trump got Dick Cheney to speak up after the election - which also fits your archetype.
Too many evil people in that faction to keep track off
True dat.
It is bad. But, let's be real, bullet points 1-3 would be standard procedure in a Nikki Haley administration, and that of any future republican who can win a presidential primary. Can't un-ring the bell.
She would not use her supporters to commit violent uprisings to allow her to declare martial law so that she could become a dictator. She is shady, but she’s not a narcissistic psychopath.
installing an army of Trump loyalists to the civil service is going to be pretty hard if all his cabinet secretaries are acting. Like, being confirmed by the senate is what makes them the boss over their departments! This isn't a norms thing, senate confirmation allows secretaires to do their jobs
What also seems very, very bad is when even the more level headed conservatives use 'pro-democracy activist' like it's a slur
The medieval pardon power of an American President may destroy this country because the Founding Fathers were too dumb to grasp its implications
This is all really bad. I'm sure that, as a result, Democrats will do even less to earn the public's trust (and votes) as they believe (stupidly) that they will win solely on the basis of not being as bad as the other guy.
Rwanda
People who say, "This can't happen here!" forget that it can because it already did during Trump's first run at dismantling democracy
Duh. We know. Too bad no one who has the power to stop it cares to do so.
I apologize ahead of time for my use of fancy words, but here goes, DUH! It’s not only what trump wants but what a whole lot of republicans have wanted for a long time. Even before trump in some form.
It’s pretty simple: if we tries this shit, we overthrow him and the rest of the Republicans.
Otherwise we’re gutless cowards who deserve whatever we get anyway.
I'm not going to get terrified of a thing that someone is planning to do once they get power. Because even if he gets to run, which I'm not sure is going to happen and will be in one year... I can't do shit to stop him, except give money according to the people I'm GIVING THE MONEY TO. Untrustworthy
So all you're encouraging is for us to be anxious and afraid and unable to take adequate action to either change other's votes (a thing you can't do, especially if it's a primary) or prevent any of the things that could make him come to power. Hillary didn't lose because we weren't afraid enough!!!
Hilary lost because enough people were not scared enough to see the difference between Clinton and trump.
Hillary lost because she was not likeable and everyone who thought she was definitely going to win were so smug about it that it made racists and sexists mad. That's not their fault but I would have preferred it to stop after she lost and it has not. FEAR IS NOT SUFFICIENT TO MOTIVATE PEOPLE.
If the Obama administration taught me anything (other than to never trust politicians) it's that people respond better to rhetoric about hope than they do rhetoric about them being cowards. In fact, that way lies fascism, which Hillary is further from than Trump but she is closer than where I am.
Oh shit you're a political analyst on here and you're still saying dumbass shit like this? Oh we're not making it to nirvana folks.
She lost because she thought people would fear Trump more than they disliked her. She was wrong. Go search up her pied piper strategy and stop tootling your shitty little song. Last time it fucked ALL OF US. Because it gave us Trump. I'm not willing to listen to anything she says. YOU'RE right out
One of the most important reasons Hillary lost is that there was so much tension over being yelled at that people were lying about who they were gonna vote for. They said they'd vote for Hillary when they were really voting for Trump. But now ppl will say they're voting and just not vote at all
It’s pretty simple: if he tries this shit, we overthrow him and the rest of the Republicans.
Otherwise we’re gutless cowards who deserve whatever we get anyway.
Despots employ terror, including torture and murder, along with surveillance and control to prevent attempts to overthrow. About 80% of patents issued in the US in 21st century have been for surveillance and control of human populations.
Which makes overthrowing them all the more important.
If they can scare you out of revolution, does your freedom *really* mean that much to you?
True, I think that we need to provide our friends, relatives information on what a fascist dictatorship means so that at least some understand what is at stake.
Oh ok, just fight a bloody war against the government. No problem.
Of course.
He's a fascist traitor.
Frightening beyond words, but I regretfully suspect there is more truth to what he said than what I would want to believe. Thanks for posting this.
Is it wrong to be ok with reporters sounding like pro-democracy activists?
Seriously. And how does one state all that and then go on to talk about "Never Trump weirdos"? Clearly the "weirdos" are those who would even consider voting for him.
Unless they’re talking about the “Never Trump” weirdos who once he as the nominee or after the election were “OK maybe Trump”
At some point a republican will become president again and all this will happen. It doesn't matter which one.
the more times they lose with this agenda, the harder it will be to sustain any lasting momentum for it.
Trump has led the GOP to subpar performance in 2018, 2020, and 2022 elections. he won't have a following left if he flubs it in 2024 again
Fingers crossed
So I read these things, and I'm genuinely terrified. What, beyond voting, do I do about it? Both in the now, and in the dysoptian hellscape should this come to pass?
Can't help with the second, but for the first: www.buzzfeednews.com/article/moll...
Phone-Banking Is Democrats’ Best Hope For Organizing In A Pandemic. It's Also Helping Volunteers F...
Democrats aren't doing as much on-the-ground organizing. But isolated in their homes, some are making hundreds of calls to get people to vote and find connection.
www.buzzfeednews.comAnyone have a gift link to the Kagan piece on WaPo that’s referenced? I got the paywall
Well yeah, it's in writing. It's not like any of this is hidden. It's Project 2025.
Damn maybe dems upd try to win this time
Damn maybe dems should try to win this time
What the fuck are you even talking about?
Maybe you're not up on current events but they did actually win last time.
This could all be solved very simply if anybody was willing to do it.
I've been hoping for an alligator to walk out onto the golf course and help us out.
I remember when the "this is fine" dog was funny instead of, you know, an accurate depiction of our current national psychosis.
That's alright. Just run an unpopular octogenarian against him and hope for the best.
That’s what his cult wants too. They don’t care about the law or the constitution. They want to do whatever they want without consequences 🤷🏽♂️ .
so wait, this ex-Politico writer, who made his bones carrying bad faith water for these would-be autocrats & enabled their shenanigans with #BothSidesism is NOW REALLY CONCERNED?? AND HE WANTS ME TO BUY HIS BOOK???
YFKM, right?
Talk about a dollar short, a minute late and some VERY bloody hands...
Rich people support trump because they think they can control him. Ask the oligarchs in Russia how well that worked out. If trump wants their money, he will take it and kill them and their families.
Dear American people, just fucking don't vote for him.
Seriously starting to wonder where I could flee to.
The plans of oligarchy come to fruition. You can't vote an oligarchy out.
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