A recent Amazon Prime TV series offers insight into today's Republican Party

[Tom Rinaldo]

If you viewed the sci-fi alternate history Amazon Prime series "The Man In The High Castle", adapted from the Philip K Dick Novel, the American Nationalist leaders who head the American Reich (subservient to the Fuhrer) after the American surrender to Germany, pretty much encapsulate the mind set of the Republican Party today. Many are not true Nazi believers, but it doesn't matter. They lean authoritarian, and that is close enough for them to fall in line with whoever is calling the shots, no matter how crazy he might be. They are the technicians who implement Nazi blueprints in return for a small dose of power. That is our modern Republican Party.

[Goodheart]

1. And a lot like their new series, "Lu La Rich"

Grifters sucking in a bunch of fools.

[JenniferJuniper]

4. And I thought the Lu La Roe expose was tame,

compared to what I know about them. I know two women whose lives were nearly destroyed as direct result of their involvement with that pyramid scheme.

[Tom Rinaldo]

7. Haven't seen that, will have to check into it

Grifters are as old as humanity, but watching techniques evolve is always fascinating. What is so chilling about the American Right in "The Man in The High Castle" is the banality of total evil presented. Apple Pie co-existing with an ongoing Holocaust which few seem to fervently believe in but which must be subscribed to as a political necessity.

[Johnny2X2X]

2. Handmaid's Tale is more accurate

The Handmaid Tale's Gillead rulers are a mix of true believers/fanatics and power hungry cynics just along for the ride. So reminiscent of today's GOP which is a mix of True maniacal Trumpsters and cynics who are just scooping up the power the Trump party throws to them.

[Tom Rinaldo]

8. The Man in The High Castle nails the Kevin McCarthy and Mitch McConnell types more so than

...the Mike Lindells and Christo- fascists. In many ways I find the former more terrifying than the latter.

[Ilsa]

9. Yes, I watched the series two years ago, and I

was constantly drawing parallels to McConnell, et al, and even shuddered at some of the exactness.

[JustAnotherGen]

3. Loved it and the book

I read the book when I was in high school, and it remains a dog eared copy that I read over and over. The best thing about the book?

It leaves the ending open to the reader.

We can write whatever ending we want in America - if we have the will to bring to heel these dark unAmerican people.

[ananda]

5. I read the book and watched prime's first season.

It's very interesting, to say the least.

[Tom Rinaldo]

10. Both quite compelling. A major difference between the two is that the TV series focuses much more

on the Eastern and Central U.S. under the control of the Greater Reich, while the book is more centered on Western Coastal U.S. under Japanese occupation. In the Western Region the Japanese cultural influence is overlaid onto American society, but in the East homegrown authoritarian influences morph much more seamlessly into a new Nazi regime. Was anyone surprised that J.Edgar Hoover continues his career uninterrupted in the new American Reich?

[ananda]

11. As paranoid as PK Dick was, you have to admit..

he hit the nail on a lot of interesting problems and ideas..
and this was one of them.

These days, I feel as though we live in a two-zone reality,
red states and blue states.

One Nazi-like, vile but very ignorant; and the other
liberal and intelligent.

With big huge money behind the vile and ignorant, we
good liberals are really struggling to get the upper hand.

If we don't, well... it doesn't bear thinking about.

[Hotler]

6. Maybe we should frame the 2022 elections as democracy vs fascism. nt