• jimmydoreisalefty@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    Short Summary

    1. Discusses how Trump or someone like him could potentially turn America into a fascist state in five steps.
    2. The first step involves using threats of violence to gain power, as seen with Trump’s attempts to intimidate voters and election officials in 2020.
    3. The second step is to consolidate power by turning every arm of government into a tool of the party, similar to Hitler’s actions in purging non-Nazis from the civil service.
    4. The third step is to establish a police state, with Trump planning to deploy troops for immigration raids and crackdowns on crime.
    5. The fourth step is to jail the opposition, with Trump openly threatening to prosecute his opponents and remake the Justice Department for personal vendettas.
    6. The final step is to undermine the free press, as a fascist regime needs to control the flow of information, which Trump has been attacking and threatening to punish news outlets.
    7. The video emphasizes the importance of recognizing the threat of fascism and taking action to prevent it from taking hold.
    • BarqsHasBite@lemmy.ca
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      7 months ago

      One thing that I’ve realized: Fascism is not strictly top down. It’s also bottom up. It’s the people on every rung (police, courts, whatever) that act on his behalf without being directly ordered.

      • Akasazh@feddit.nl
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        7 months ago

        Yeah it’s a weird concept called voluntary servitude, Étienne de La Boétie que about that in 1577.

        Somehow people seem fond of the idea of a big leader.

        I saw a lemmygrad post in which a college student was wondering if he should report a Chinese Co Ed that has said some things about xi to the Chinese government. It’s wonderful

  • electric_nan@lemmy.ml
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    7 months ago

    And what are we going to do about it? Besides vote, I mean. Like vote as hard as you want to, but if that isn’t enough, then what?

      • surewhynotlem@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        We have millions of people that already do that, and they have done nothing so far.

        There won’t be a day where someone announces “we’re fascist now!”. It’ll be gradual. The people will do nothing.

    • ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.netOP
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      7 months ago

      There’s only so much that can be done politically if he manages to obtain and solidify power. At that point, it becomes about resistance, and trying to build communities that operate outside of politics and the system he controls. Engaging in mutual aid to build connections, and strengthening your local community will make it easier to organize effective resistance, in whatever form that takes.

      I think it wouldn’t be a terrible idea to be prepared now for things going very south, but hopefully it never gets to that point.

      • electric_nan@lemmy.ml
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        7 months ago

        For sure! Do that shit yesterday, no matter who is president. If you’re really worried about shit like this post, I hope you’re learning to shoot, and maybe acquiring guns and ammo.

          • LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net
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            7 months ago

            My concern with this is if you spend all your days practicing hammer swings pretty soon you start to think every problem is a nail.

            I am personally very skeptical that the most effective resistance to a possible Trump presidency will involve guns. There are 1000 tactics to try before that that have a much more proven history of effectiveness. Politics is ultimately about persuasion. It only becomes about killing your enemy once you’ve failed at that.

            • ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.netOP
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              7 months ago

              I don’t disagree at all, I see that as an absolute last resort, but I also don’t think it’d be a good idea to wait until the very last moment to start preparing for the worse case scenario, which isn’t outside the realm of possibility.

              If he wins, it’s possible things will only get sorta bad, but he actually does leave office in 4 years, and things go back to ‘normal’. But it’s just as possible things get even more polarized, he pulls some weird shit, and then we’re left holding the bag.

              History doesn’t repeat, but it does rhyme, and right now things are rhyming pretty hard with the 1930’s, the world over (at least in regard to this wild shift in popularity of right-wing ideologs).

  • Sunforged@lemmy.ml
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    7 months ago

    This isn’t a straight political community so I’m gonna derail just a bit. But it’s wild to me that Robert Reich is making this content, meanwhile his son is over here doing this, he also showed a naked picture of his father playing the flute in this episode.

    The internet is wild yall.

    • ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.netOP
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      7 months ago

      Bush never incited a coup attempt, nor spoke about being a dictator, nor praised authoritarian dictators for their displays of power, nor was there a cult of personality around him that saw him as a sole source of truth.

      Not that I’m defending Bush as a good president, but Trump is absolutely different and significantly more dangerous, and the cultists who follow him are as well.