This is America's Fascist Collapse And it's Almost Too Late to Stop It

[hedda_foil]

This is just the closing paragraphs of an insightful and brutal piece by Umair Haque, who has been warning us for the past four years at Eudomonia and Company on Medium.com.

https://eand.co/this-is-americas-fascist-collapse-c830c1d2271a

--snip--

America’s not on the brink of a fascist collapse. It’s not in danger of having one. The last four years have been one. During those four years, a demagogue and his army of American Idiots built all the nascent institutions of a fascist society — camps, bans, raids, purges, and so forth. All that is now just everyday American life. And everyday American life now feels so scary, horrifying, brutal, violent, and dystopian precisely because Americans are living in a fascist society.

Only the final steps of fascist collapse are now left to take. A demagogue seizing power for life, declaring martial law, calling a state of emergency, postponing elections, cancelling them. Who’s going to stop him? Why do you think that phalanx of men in body armor who nobody can recognize or account for is there?
Only the final steps now remain. The final seizure of power.

Then the transformation of a society is complete. What do you think will happen if Trump isn’t removed from power by November? Do you think another four years will end in anything but even more tragedy? Do you think that there would be another election after that? Do you think America as we know it would survive?

Don’t kid yourself. Wake up. Wise up. Open your goddamned eyes. The last four years were America’s fascist collapse. This is just what finishes the job.

Americans, like so many before them, didn’t get it, until it was too late, even while the alarms were blaring in their very eyes, their house was burning down, and the smoke was in their nostrils. Nope, no fascism here! Those kids in cages? Those towns being raided? That President scapegoating whole minorities and banning them? That’s not fascism? No wonder they came for you in the end, too, finally, occupying your streets. Who was left, after the Latino, Mexican, Muslim, black, Jew, but the well-meaning, oblivious white American? The last one still in denial?

It was always fascism.

That, my friends, is why, and how, history repeats itself. Through cowardice, through folly, through ignorance, but most of all, through blindness, deafness, and silence.

More: https://eand.co/this-is-americas-fascist-collapse-c830c1d2271a

[jmbar2]

1. I do not agree with the premise that we are in collapse

We are under siege, yes. But 10 days of marching in the streets show the strength of resistance. This is a turning point in our nation in terms of defending democracy on an individual and collective level, facing up to the need for racial justice, the precarity of how we make a living, and dependence on "jobs" for health coverage.

I think the next decade could be as consequential as the New Deal Era in working out some of the weaknesses in our society. For younger folks especially, it will be an era of great opportunities to truly make a difference in the world.

These kinds of changes don't occur when everything is going great. They are triggered by great trauma. You are living in a unique time in history.

Be the change that you want to see happen.

[Alliepoo]

2. Beautifully stated!

I agree wholeheartedly, jmbar2!

[wishstar]

3. Thankfully Dems took back House in 2018 and we have good Governors and many good election systems

We would be screwed if voters had left Repubs totally unchecked in both Congress and WH and if we did not have many states with good progressive Governors making good decisions and keeping election system intact.

[Thomas Hurt]

4. Since the end of the counterculture this country has been on the path to christofascist theocracy...

Reagan, the moral majority, family values, rabid gun fetishism and rise of the NRA, stealth candidates, 911, patriot movement, militias, all have been pushing us to the right culturally.

The Pig was the culmination of that shift.