The road to fascism is paved with people telling you not to overreact

[Duncanpup]

My wife just read this to me she saw it online, how this applies to so many of us in life and at DU.

[John Ludi]

1. It can't happen here...

(Sarcasm, by the way.)

[Duncanpup]

2. I know

[twodogsbarking]

3. I can see it working daily.

Maybe why TFG is not in prison.

[bullwinkle428]

4. I live in a state well on its way to becoming "North Mississippi" (Iowa), so I'm

definitely awake to how quickly certain elements of fascism can be implemented. I think it's those living in "blue bubbles" that tend to downplay potential threats.

Jailing teachers for sharing the wrong books? Check.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=16134504

[durablend]

7. This.

I think some here live in those "blue bubbles" and just aren't getting it.

[Missn-Hitch]

17. While I live in a blue bubble, I fled the red during Bush II.

The wife and I are becoming quite proficient in our weapons of choice.

My life is worth 2 or more fascist lives. Practice makes you more proficient.

Cheers and Happy Holidays!

[LogicFirst]

21. By definition

Fascism (/ˈfæʃɪzəm/) is a form of far-right, authoritarian ultranationalism characterized by dictatorial power, forcible suppression of opposition, and strong regimentation of society

The left does tend to turn the other cheek and seek out the best in people. This can sometimes lead to trouble.

[Skittles]

45. I can't understand what has happened to Iowa

I lived there when I was in the 9th grade and the people were incredibly kind to my family during very difficult times. They were conservative per se but very practical folk. I can't even reconcile that with the fascist tendencies I hear about now.

[The Magistrate]

5. There's Some Truth To That, Sir

Most people just aren't mentally equipped to comprehend malice, in either its depth or its persistence. They haven't enough experience of it in their upbringings and personal lives. It's hard to think of people doing things you never would yourself.

[Act_of_Reparation]

6. "Fascist movements could never grow without the help of ordinary people...

...even conventionally good people... To understand fully how fascist regimes worked, we must dig down to the level of ordinary people and examine the banal choices they made in their daily routines. Making such choices meant accepting an apparent lesser evil or averting the eyes from some excesses that seemed not too damaging in the short term, even acceptable piecemeal, but which cumulatively added up to monstrous end results."

- Robert O. Paxton, "The Anatomy of Fascism"

[Paladin]

8. We're under-reacting ourselves into a trump dictatorship.

That's not hyperbole, that's the truth.

From whence cometh our deliverance?

[flying_wahini]

9. Jewish families that left Europe before the War broke out were called overreacting too.

I’d rather be called hysterical than dead.

[BonnieJW]

10. Would anyone consider

leaving the country if the repubs win the next 2 elections?

My family is considering moving to Canada.

I welcome your thoughts

[hay rick]

13. I will fight here.

Canada is unlikely to have the capacity or desire to accept the number of Americans that would be willing to flee this country. I am older and have less to lose than many. If I had young children my considerations would be different.

[gab13by13]

22. Oak Island is looking for people to dig holes.

I worked in Canada a lot, even in New Brunswick, beautiful country. Went to a concert outside Moncton, Parlay beach, CCR, Steppenwolf, and Fog Hat. Almost didn't make it to work the next day. You know a lot of Canadians brew their own and grow their own.

[not fooled]

26. Already decided to move.

Now getting the house ready for sale (finish landscaping, paint, new carpet) and this week will start to sell accumulated stuff on eBay.

France if I can get a long-stay visa that will enable me to qualify for residency. Should work. Of course, they have their own RW element but I think it's unlikely to get as bad as here.

Moving as soon as the house sells, this Spring or Summer.

[Stainless]

27. I am considering Italy......

I may qualify for dual citizenship because my paternal grandparents were born in Italy!

[Wingus Dingus]

33. Interesting, my maternal grandfather was born in Italy, didn't know

that could be a path to Italian citizenship.

[PatrickforB]

11. I'm with you on that, Duncan. For sure. I don't see how it is possible to overreact

to the TREASONOUS events on January 6, and certainly the light hand-slap sentences have done no good at all in dissuading these kooks from fomenting more violence that finally culminates in a civil war.

Trump was a cancer, sure, but he was really only a symptom of decades of supply-side economics, primacy of the shareholder doctrine, oligarchs systematically draining the treasury, and corporate funded think-tanks that coach us to be rugged individualists so wedges can be pounded between us.

Now, we have the biggest wedge of all - the idea that overturning democracy would be a good thing. Because it WON'T. Not at all. It will be a dark age of dominionist 'christian' theocracy, wage slavery, sickness, death and ignorance.

[Septua]

12. You can't OVER-react to a coup...

..that is proceeding on a daily, hourly basis.

[hay rick]

14. It's easy to find reasons why we can wait until tomorrow to face the monster.

[AngryOldDem]

15. I actually got into an argument with my son over this.

He was being condescending and telling me that all this would blow over, and that it was confined to a small batch of loonies. Very typical “it can’t happen here” mentality.

I told him he needs to pay more attention, and that The Atlantic article by Gellman would be a good place to start.

It’s this attutude that too many people had in dismissing Donald Trump as a joke candidate that has landed us where we are right now. The man scared me from the start.

[CrispyQ]

31. This: The man scared me from the start.

When he announced his candidacy in 2015, two of my closest friends laughed when I said I was worried about him. Then when he won his party's nomination, they told me not to worry, "He'll never win."

[AngryOldDem]

35. "He'll never win" -- man, if that doesn't sound familiar.

That’s why, I’m convinced, the media didn’t do its job to derail him. He was too much of a ratings bonanza and sideshow. The way they covered him was sickening — thought he’d be an entertaining flash in the pan instead of an aspiring dictator.

[gab13by13]

16. I just saw an article headline on MSN I think,

about several top officials who were installed in DOJ under suspicious circumstances by Donald Trump, still working there.

Maybe it was click bait, maybe it wasn't.

[Sympthsical]

18. Does overreaction count if nothing comes of it?

Freaking out on social media is nice. It doesn't do anything, but it's nice.

What are people changing with their reactions? Where is the action part of that word? What are the people reacting doing to make sure fascism doesn't happen? Ok, we vote. That's good. Some of us donate to candidates and causes. Also good.

I have no illusion that what I post online makes any kind of difference. I'm just, you know, making conversation. Usually when procrastinating with work and school.

So what's the currency here that's being spent?

Sometimes I wonder if social media will be our downfall. Not because of the idea that it helps polarize us - which it does. But because it gives us a Matrix-like illusion that we are acting in some meaningful way. That all the energy of our outrage and disdain and desire for meaningful change is being channeled into pixels that dissolve and peter out rather uselessly almost as soon as we've expended them.

It all feels like screaming into the void. Which may help people feel better, but nothing really comes of it. Not meaningfully, at least.

[LeftInTX]

30. Fighting Nazis via the armchair

[Sympthsical]

32. The Barca Barricade

All those Amazon packages could come in useful.

[Lonestarblue]

19. The Republican Party has been telling us their intentions since 2010.

Their plan, publicly outlined by Karl Rove, was to focus on local and state elections to gain the majority to gerrymander their states after the 2010 census, which they successfully did. They have been moving toward permanent, one-party rule ever since. Trump was actually something of a fly in the ointment because too many voters saw him as corrupt and ineffective, but it was mostly just Trump who lost because Republican won a lot of down-ballot races.

Gerrymandering is now not enough for them. They’re setting the stage for outright overturning of elections to ensure their wins. We are headed toward authoritarian rule by Republicans, and nothing much is being done about it. Too many Democrats in Congress are just pooh-poohing the idea that Republicans could overturn an election and doing nothing. We live in crazy times.

[Texin]

20. Many Jewish families in Germany and the adjacent countries

that ultimately aligned with them (or were overrun by Germany later) allowed themselves to be uneasily complacent about the rise of Nazism. Those that didn't leave later found themselves in concentration or death* camps. To be non-reactive or complacent about the creeping fascist movement worldwide is to do so at their peril.

*Ultimately, all the camps were death camps one way or another (through infectious diseases, extermination or slave work-related).

[PTWB]

23. We're watching right wingers arm themselves in record numbers.

While watching them try to overthrow our duly elected government and threaten us at every opportunity. And yet there are still those among us who refuse to arm themselves.

Every left leaning liberal American who can lawfully own a gun, should own a gun. They should regularly familiarize themselves with their gun and be both safe and proficient with it. If January 6th had gone differently, it would already be too late for many.

Ceding gun ownership at such disproportionate levels to political enemies is irresponsible and dangerous.

[Texaswitchy]

36. Yes.

I agree

A handgun and shotgun.

When your rightwing neighbor comes for you protect yourself.

We are living in a dangerous times.

[hay rick]

37. This is an important point.

Democrats and those on the left need to have an uncomfortable discussion. We are the people who have screamed about the proliferation of guns, especially assault-style weapons. We mourn the explosion of mass murder events. We ridicule and condemn the counter-intuitive and licentious expansion of Second Amendment "rights."

Now we face the prospect of those weapons being used directly against us or in ways that subordinate our democracy to forces of armed intimidation. Our side also has a culture of nonviolent resistance. Nonviolence may work better as an appeal to conscience against obvious injustice. It may not work as well against bullying on behalf of ethnic prejudice and the imposition of religious conformity.

We need to both advocate for what we believe and prepare for that which we expect.

[PTWB]

38. Eloquent and poignant.

Very well said.

[Mad_Machine76]

24. I don't know if it's so much of a matter of not noticing (or caring) what's going on

There doesn't feel like there's much to do individually, other than of course to organize, vote for the right people, etc. Most of the Democratic leadership and rank-and-file understand what's going on too but we have a couple of intransigent Senators that are making things more difficult.

[UCmeNdc]

25. The Republicans are like bullies. If you do not push back they will run over you.

Trump counts on people backing down.

[dalton99a]

28. It's All Good

[LeftInTX]

29. Yes, but activism has worn my body out

[CrispyQ]

34. Their side is fired up & ready to vote, to steal the vote, or whatever they have to do to win.

Our side? Not so much.

I hope the DOJ has some nice surprises for us after the first of the year, cuz we didn't stand in long lines & risk our well-being & health just for some roads & bridges. There better be some accountability or the midterms are going to suck. Apparently, our side needs a super-villain to rally against.

[UTUSN]

39. K&R - my local radio yak wingnuts have used that for Drumpf since 2015.

They yukked it up, called his blabbering cute, said he was a "Populist," said he was like Andrew JACKSON, and later at the end when they were running out of apologetics said that if only he would JUST shut up and STOP TWEETING he would be hunky dory.

[panader0]

41. My significant other is a business manager for three local radio stations.

They ran Rush Limbaugh for years, the show had many advertisers that wanted their ads played on his
spot. I complained, but the stations run on ad revenue, she had no say in the matter. When advertisers
began to dry up the station switched to a rock format. Then people called for weeks complaining and threatening.
They showed up in person at the stations. It was scary for her for a while, but when Limbaugh went off
the air, the IQ of our area went up.

[UTUSN]

42. Same here except they never switched formats.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

40. Prior to the 2020 election, The Atlantic posted an article laying out ...

… the potential election theft. People here laughed and said it was impossible.

Someone even accused people as having “sour grapes” over the primary. Not sure of that logic but there it was.

I posted this Loyola Law piece that laid out similar scenarios back in 2019.

https://lawecommons.luc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2719&context=luclj

Preparing for a Disputed Presidential Election: An Exercise in Election Risk Assessment and Management

People argued that it wasn’t legal or there were laws in place to stop this potential theft. I agree. But, as we learned in 2000, The Supreme Court ultimately decides what’s legal. Every day we see what rules and norms these fascists are willing to throw out to get their way.

I still maintain, that had it gone down to Pennsylvania, we would have had an overturned election. As it turned out, leader of the Republican run Pennsylvania legislature played above the fray. I suspect that was because there were too many variables with Arizona and Georgia mixed in. Take away those two states and the pressure would have been immense and the prize too sweet.

[Kaleva]

43. Those who take the threat seriously have already left the country or gone into hiding.

Fighting fascists with the tactics used to defeat Jerry Ford in '76 will not be effective.

[Solly Mack]

44. K&R

[GoodRaisin]

46. So very true.

“Relax while they take your democracy.”