I started reading about the camps at a very young age. 12. I wondered how the German people could have allowed the rise of Hitler. I explored the aftermath of WW1. How that terrible war&economic collapse may have led to that type of nationalism. I naively thought that couldn’t happen here. However Trump has tapped into something. Maybe a large portion of Americans really do want a strong man. They don’t want someone too smart. Maybe we’ve always been racist, misogynistic. The GOP has always wanted to dismantle FDR. I’ll go further&say some would have supported Germany in WW2. Rs hated the LBJ mid 60s legislation. The need for cheap labor is more the reason for anti abortion laws than any concerns about when life begins?
Trump clearly likes Hitler.
He doesn’t know or care about who the generals really were. Hitler hated/killed Jews &ended elections. That’s all he cares about. Unfortunately I’m starting to believe some Americans like that too.
In the late 1930‘s there was a huge gathering of American Nazis in NYC over 30, thousand members of the American Nazi Party held a rally! Plenty of Americans were on the side of Hitler of course they had to shut down or keep quiet once Poland was invaded September 1, 1939!
I was 11 or 12 when I viewed the photos of the death camps that my older brother brought home after mustering out of the US Army Air Force. The Army must have given a photo pack to each soldier leaving the service. The news reels of that era were also educational.
Because I DO believe that BOTH the leaders of Hamas and Israel should be tried for war crimes in the Hague, does NOT mean that I hate Jews or Palestinians.
You people are dangerously insane. Trump governed for a full term making no fascist move whatsoever. Faced with months of violence and rioting encouraged by Democrats, he didn’t use the FBI or the DoJ to go after any of those Democrats. He didn’t have Hillary arrested although there was ample cause to do so with her prior destruction of evidence and criminal activity. He didn’t politicise the FBI or the DoJ. He didn’t launch any of the lawfare, judicial witch hunts and show trials your side have deployed. He didn’t incarcerate people for trespass in a public building. All he did was peacefully and legally oppose a stolen election. Even the worst you can pin try to pin on him, J6, saw him tell people to protest peacefully and tell people to go home peacefully. Those comments were his comments on the day and are on public record and refute any of your insane claims of insurrection. Similarly he didn’t spy on political opponents, wiretap them or raid their homes. He didn’t have pet corrupt judges try to steal their money and close down their business operations. He didn’t pay a foreign spy to make lurid claims against them and base impeachments off those false claims. He didn’t institute a two tier justice system. He didn’t engage in fascist style military adventurism and constant war mongering, unlike all the people you consider respectable.
Mussolini also described fascism as corporatism. The State and Business colluding together to control everything. That’s exactly how you ‘respectable’ Globalists operate. You have FBI and CIA involvement in mass surveillance of US citizens who have conducted no crimes. You have FBI and CIA direction of censorship on social media platforms. You use labels like misinformation to increasingly reduce and destroy free speech including any dissident opinion you don’t like on any topic.
Every Globalist there is with power has acted more like a fascist than Trump. What Macron did to the Yellow Vest protestors was fascism. What Trudeau did to the Canadian truckers was fascism. What every Globalist leader did with forced medical interventions and mandated medical experiments was fascism directly breaking the Nuremberg Code. What the Biden administration did to J6 protestors held without trial for years was fascism.
Let me explain something you don’t seem to recognise-the fascists are the people who silence, censor and arrest on partisan political grounds, not those who don’t do these things. Everyone you consider respectable is more of a fascist than Donald Trump is. You are far more of a fascist than Donald Trump is. And everyone outside your social circle of likeminded affluent lunatics and well remunerated media shills knows it, which is why Globalist leaders are so often despised by their own population and score disastrously in approval ratings.
Why do you think some people love Trump? You will of course say it is because they are racist, stupid, ignorant, uneducated, all the usual hypocritically unthinking smears. It’s not any of that. It’s because they know what you are like, and they have learned that you are liars. The excesses and corruption of Globalism is what forces people towards Populism. You create the people you hate. And then you hate the People too because they want something better than you.
You lost me at “peacefully and legally.” Let’s shitcan January 6th? And no, arresting insurrectionists was not fascism. But read some Umberto Eco or Jason Stanley on what comprises fascism and get back to me.
J6. That’s all you have. And what was J6? A rally. Rallies are perfectly legal. So is opposing a stolen election. So is taking cases to court hoping that the court will look at the evidence (which the courts refused to do). Other Presidents and presidential candidates have disputed results. Again, his comments asking for the rally to be peaceful are on record. Why do you ignore that? His comments telling people to go home peacefully are on record. You ignore that too. As for the violence that did occur, this was tiny compared to the anti trump riots your side encouraged for months. The people who died on J6 were unarmed female protestors murdered by the police (that’s fascism too, by the way). Most of the J6 protestors, even those that entered the capitol, were peaceful. That’s why there is filmed evidence of them behaving peacefully (which the J6 enquiry tried to suppress…again, ACTUAL fascism). Who was encouraging violence? Not Trump, but the FBI. FBI agents were the most vociferous people demanding violence that day. Tear gas was also fired on the crowd to create a violent response. So no it wasn’t an insurrection by Trump. It was an insurrection to rush through certification of a false result. A Reichstag Fire incident, which then also allows the fascist pursuit of enemies of the regime.
Sure, you want to think that trespassing grannies were violent MAGA revolutionaries. It makes locking them up for years without trial a bit more palatable doesn’t it? But again, the fascists are the people who hold prisoners for years without trial.
You can’t supply a single coherent or substantive point, a single piece of evidence, or a single moment displaying thought, and I’m the moron? Ok, ‘dude’. 😂😂
Again, this is called projection. Under Trump, both Russia and China were partly contained. There was no Ukraine War or Russian invasion of Ukraine. Trump firmly warned Putin against it and Putin believed Trump's warning. That's the advantage of actually talking to Putin. As for the Chinese, its probably helped them build BRICS and extend Chinese influence globally that the US has pursued a permanent war strategy enriching US politicians and war hawks.
Chinese influence is definitely a worry. I'm sure you have condemned all the US universities for taking Chinese donations, and Hollywood for that too? Or how about US politicians and their families who have taken Chinese money and have Chinese business links, or who have affairs with Chinese spies? I'm sure you've condemned the Democrats all that applies to up to and including Biden, right? No doubt you dislike the WEF for their role back in the 70s helping to bring China into the world economy without China dropping its totalitarian system and human rights abuses? And Trudeau for praising Chinese totalitarianism? And Walz for visiting China multiple times and apparently loving it when China crushed pro democracy protests when he was there?
Or are you just a hypocrite who is so stupid and uninformed that none of these things factor in at all?
Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014., Russia and Ukraine have been at war since then. Fighting in Donetsk was going on the entire Trump presidency, and Trump did everything possible to undermine Western sanctions and prevent a Ukrainian build up that might have stopped the Russian attack in 2022.
That was just brilliant! And I'm speaking as someone who, prior to 2020, had a full blown case of TDS. And, for the author to include Bill Gates was just absolutely laughable. Between buying up farm land in the US and endorsing (until he could no longer make money of it) the harmful covid shots, he is one of the worst people in my book. If he's endorsing Harris, that just makes me even more suspicious of her.
You mean like the conspiracy theory that lab leak was the origin (since confirmed as the most likely origin)? Or the conspiracy theory that masks don't work? (since confirmed by the Cochrane Library examination of every single study on masks). Or maybe the conspiracy theory that MRNA and other COVID vaccines have dangerous side effects? (since confirmed by multiple studies and the withdrawal of one of these vaccines). Or that they are ineffective? (again multiple studies to this effect and the reason boosters are necessary, also the reason due to swift adaptation that virtually nobody ever recommended mass vaccination with novel treatments against emerging viruses before).
I notice that yours like other comments against what I said are all very brief sarcasms rather than evidence based commentary. How curious.
Kim J -- What makes you think COVID shots are harmful? Just curious.
Also, are you suggesting that Gates buying up farmland is reprehensible? Would it be preferable to have farmland bought up by Con-Agra or some random private equity outfit? Again, not trying to be argumentative, just trying to understand this from your perspective. Thanks.
As Kim hasn't replied I will venture to do so. First, thank you for a very civilized tone of query, which differs from the majority here.
I think the issue would apply to anyone buying up lots of farmland. Concentration of power and monopoly is always a bad thing. I'm personally wary of all very large ventures whatever the political affiliations of their owners. With Gates there are additional concerns due to all his other interests and history-the monopolistic practices of Microsoft under his direction, the network of influence that sees him interacting with world leaders and influencing policy in unaccountable ways, and the food supply interests he has pursued with GMO's and synthetic foods. All these suggest he's not a great person to have controlling any significant part of your food supply chains. You don't have to believe wilder theories to worry about his influence.
Thanks Kim. People who wake up from the media enforced Trump is Hitler absurdity are vital-they are the ones who have essentially escaped conditioning and can show others how to do it. The irony of it all is that Trump is the relative moderate and his accusers are lost in an extremist vision of their fellow Americans and ordinary people who want populist policies. This false vision is constantly reinforced by media bias and the closed nature of their social circles (which rarely if ever include working class voters).
Re Gates, I agree with you. Another selfish interest masquerading as a compassionate one. You might be interested in my book on him, which is titled Gates of Hell. I’m very critical of him, but don’t include the stuff that says he definitely is evil or for example the assumption that population control comments prove an intent to kill. Just the nature of so much unaccountable power and such reckless disregard for potential negative consequences of tech based interventions can be devastating even without the intent to harm.
Jupplandia, you seem to be writing as someone on the fringes of society, presenting examples of how you and others like you have been victimized by liberals, liberal thinking, liberal policies, in fact, the entire liberal world, and yet you seem to be a well-informed, thoughtful and articulate person. A member of the educated "elite", in fact.
That is interesting, for a start: a key segment of Trump supporters are variously described as disaffected working-class voters who would traditionally feel affinity with Democrats.
The fault in your mini-Jeremiad, if I may apply such a term to your comment posted in a Substack blog read by I-don't-know-how-many-political junkies, is that you wear your grievances on your sleeve. Sometimes an appeal to your reader's emotions can at least win sympathy, but not when accompanied by over-the-top exaggeration of your oppressors' faults, imho..
I think you are being too clever when you cloak your arguments in pseudo-rationalist logic, arguing in effect, "I don't like Globalists, I don't like to be coerced into following government directives -- to wear a mask or get a vaccination during world-wide pandemic, for example -- and being forced to do things I don't like is just as bad as anything fascist Trump says or does, so anti-Trumpers are worse than he is, so there I win the argument full stop." Such arguments come across as childish, petulant, despite being at least understandable, as no one really enjoys being compelled to do things we dislike.
Still, there is a ring of a child's whiny counter-argument to being told he must go to bed because it's bedtime -- "But I'm not tired." (Frankly you don't have to be a MAGA-ite to feel resentment at being told what to do. Count me in).
I am absolutely appalled by Trump the man, MAGA the 'movement' and the appeal that these have over Trump's millions of Americans. But one of your points is at least defensible, even if an exaggeration: "...everyone outside your social circle of likeminded affluent lunatics and well remunerated media shills knows it, which is why Globalist leaders are so often despised by their own population and score disastrously in approval ratings." (I dispute the allegation that we anti-Trumpers could be called "shills" and "lunatics" simply by our disapproval of DJT, but that is a minor quibble).
I could go on, but I think I've made my point: whinging about how terrible some people have been to you is not a good way of bringing them over to your point of view. Of course, having a good rant sometimes just feels good.
Hahaha, thank you for an entertaining rendition of the suffocating smugness of people on your side of this. Don’t you get it yet? People like me no longer submit to your patrician disdain. We aren’t going to change our opinions or doff our caps or ignore basic relevant facts (like which side are trying to imprison their political opponents) in these issues. So go ahead and use that hilarious passive aggressive superior tone all you want. Pathologise those who make rational points you wish to ignore.
Does it change the fact that Trump did not initiate any new wars (meaning he lacks the militarism which is one of the features of fascism). No it doesn’t.
Does it change the fact that it is Globalists who are consistently arguing in favour of the suppression of free speech (total media control and censorship being fascist requirements). No it does not.
Does it change the fact that it is Trump who is the target of assassination attempts, not the person ordering them? No it does not.
So however much you want to pretend there is an issue with Trump, or an issue with someone like me calling out the hysterical fatuousness and inaccuracy of Trump is Literally Hitler rhetoric, all of the features of fascism are displayed by the people you consider respectable and not by Trump.
Having put yourselves in this absurd position of claiming that half the country are Nazis, and then using fascist methodology yourselves, you can’t extricate from it or excuse the ridiculousness of it all (and the anti democrat nature of it all) by pretending that those who call out your hysteria are the ones who have lost all sense of rational balance.
Jupplandia, you certainly love excoriating people you don’t know based on your narrow-minded stereotypes of people you don’t like….and I wonder why all the hate? For the record, your hatred is not reciprocated (tbh, maybe just a little, because I don’t enjoy being stereotyped, but no one’s perfect).
Anyway, to coincide with a phrase, That’s all I’ve got.” Have a nice day.
What does it mean that half of Americans want to vote for a fascist? If he wins, does it mean that we have to stop referring to America as the leader of the free world? We will need to update a lot of beliefs and change our vocabulary.
Powerful article -- kudos to "the hardworking staff here at Drezner's World" for the clarity and the excellent compilation of evidence! I hope the nation comes to its senses and does not hand power to a fascist over the next two weeks.
"The Evidence for Trump's Fascism Is Overwhelming" When I read this I expected evidence. Instead, there is only the opinion of others. The opinion of others is not evidence for an argument's validity.
You were given the evidence -- in essence, testimony from Milley, Kelly, and other generals, along with Dimon and Gates' reticence to be public in their support of Harris. Your decision to designate all this as "opinion" leads me to assign the value of your opinion all the weight it deserves after a year of insufferable trolling.
What "facts" are you referring to? I'll tell you what. I'll list the quotes for you.
Milley: “fascist to the core” “the most dangerous person to this country” “No one has ever been as dangerous to this country as Donald Trump,” “Now I realize he’s a total fascist. He is the most dangerous person to this country.” These are statements of opinion, not fact. They may be good opinions, and even have a factual basis, but Milley is not reciting these underlying facts, if they indeed exist, but rather his opinion.
Kelley: “Certainly the former president is in the far-right area, he’s certainly an authoritarian, admires people who are dictators — he has said that. So he certainly falls into the general definition of fascist, for sure.” More statements of opinion. Kelly even labels his statements opinions. So even he's not confused.
So Mike, these two are not "laying out the facts", but reciting opinions. And far from "nonsense", my statement remains valid, logically accurate, and imminently sensible.
Considers putting on Dara Horn hat, exclaims aloud to spouse what decades of Holocaust education/memorials have been doing if not for this moment
In order to be the temporary dictator of Bannon and some others' imagination that will return the US to history and tradition Trump would have to have some sense of history and tradition. Clearly does not.
It can not be talked about often enough just how completely stupid he is, just a totally uneducated moron who’s never read a book (except maybe Mein Kampf )
Maybe, when idealising “German generals, Trump thought of Wilhelm Bodewin Johann Gustav (La)Keitel …
At the same time, should Trump be elected President (and even if he was not but instead came a close second, which is the alternative), he could boast of a larger support among American voters than Hitler ever enjoyed among German voters.
Should one draw the apparently logical conclusion that today’s Americans are more fascist (or more stupid) than yesterday’s Germans?
Overwhelming? From the editorial-"The answer is that most Americans simply don’t believe the fascist meme, and for good reasons. The first is the evidence of Mr. Trump’s first term. Whatever his intentions, the former President was hemmed in by American checks and balances. Democrats, the press and the federal bureaucracy were relentlessly opposed to all his works, as they would be again.
Mr. Trump’s worst attempt at stretching executive power—reallocating military construction money to build the border wall—was small beer compared with Mr. Biden’s lawless $400 billion student loan forgiveness.
Fascism historically was “national socialism”—government control over much of the economy. By that definition, Democrats today are the national socialists—using regulation, mandates, law enforcement, and trillions of dollars in subsidies to coerce Americans to follow their dictates on climate and culture. Mr. Trump was a deregulator in his first term and promises to be more so in a second.
Ms. Harris is making much of Mr. Trump’s comments on Fox last Sunday that “we have some very bad people. We have some sick people, radical left lunatics. And I think they’re the—and it should be very easily handled by—if necessary, by National Guard or, if really necessary, by the military, because they can’t let that happen.”
It was a typically grandiose and self-defeating statement, but when we asked about it Thursday in an interview, Mr. Trump made clear after some rambling that he was talking about destructive riots. He said he’d “certainly not [use force] against my opponents—it’s against civil unrest.”
Even if Mr. Trump doesn’t mean this, he’d have to face the obstacles built into the American system. His own judicial nominees rejected his claims about a stolen election, and Republicans in and outside his Administration blocked his attempt to overturn the election.
JD Vance is no Mike Pence, but the Electoral Count Act makes a replay of 2020 more difficult. We have confidence that American institutions—the Supreme Court, the military, Congress—would resist any attempt to subvert the Constitution."
Making excuses for a dictator wanna-be presidential candidate is like a condemned man in a tumbril on his way to the guillotine remarking to no one in particular, "Well, this isn't the outcome I'd been l=hoping for. On the other hand, at least they provided us with free transport."
I started reading about the camps at a very young age. 12. I wondered how the German people could have allowed the rise of Hitler. I explored the aftermath of WW1. How that terrible war&economic collapse may have led to that type of nationalism. I naively thought that couldn’t happen here. However Trump has tapped into something. Maybe a large portion of Americans really do want a strong man. They don’t want someone too smart. Maybe we’ve always been racist, misogynistic. The GOP has always wanted to dismantle FDR. I’ll go further&say some would have supported Germany in WW2. Rs hated the LBJ mid 60s legislation. The need for cheap labor is more the reason for anti abortion laws than any concerns about when life begins?
Trump clearly likes Hitler.
He doesn’t know or care about who the generals really were. Hitler hated/killed Jews &ended elections. That’s all he cares about. Unfortunately I’m starting to believe some Americans like that too.
In the late 1930‘s there was a huge gathering of American Nazis in NYC over 30, thousand members of the American Nazi Party held a rally! Plenty of Americans were on the side of Hitler of course they had to shut down or keep quiet once Poland was invaded September 1, 1939!
I was 11 or 12 when I viewed the photos of the death camps that my older brother brought home after mustering out of the US Army Air Force. The Army must have given a photo pack to each soldier leaving the service. The news reels of that era were also educational.
I guess that might be the age, even if our lives are a cocoon, we start thinking about the nature of evil??
This was the 60s, so the mass murder of student nurses in Chicago. Charles Manson. Vietnam, Race…
You know nearly all the people who hate Jews so much that they support Hamas killing and raping them vote Democrat, right?
Horse shit.
Republicans mostly hate Jews but support Israel while waiting for the 2nd coming.
BTW it’s possible to think Netanyahu is a war criminal, but not hate Jews
I most certainly do not hate Jews never have and I vote Democrat! Where on earth do you get your information ? Unbelievable!
Because I DO believe that BOTH the leaders of Hamas and Israel should be tried for war crimes in the Hague, does NOT mean that I hate Jews or Palestinians.
Quite the opposite.
You people are dangerously insane. Trump governed for a full term making no fascist move whatsoever. Faced with months of violence and rioting encouraged by Democrats, he didn’t use the FBI or the DoJ to go after any of those Democrats. He didn’t have Hillary arrested although there was ample cause to do so with her prior destruction of evidence and criminal activity. He didn’t politicise the FBI or the DoJ. He didn’t launch any of the lawfare, judicial witch hunts and show trials your side have deployed. He didn’t incarcerate people for trespass in a public building. All he did was peacefully and legally oppose a stolen election. Even the worst you can pin try to pin on him, J6, saw him tell people to protest peacefully and tell people to go home peacefully. Those comments were his comments on the day and are on public record and refute any of your insane claims of insurrection. Similarly he didn’t spy on political opponents, wiretap them or raid their homes. He didn’t have pet corrupt judges try to steal their money and close down their business operations. He didn’t pay a foreign spy to make lurid claims against them and base impeachments off those false claims. He didn’t institute a two tier justice system. He didn’t engage in fascist style military adventurism and constant war mongering, unlike all the people you consider respectable.
Mussolini also described fascism as corporatism. The State and Business colluding together to control everything. That’s exactly how you ‘respectable’ Globalists operate. You have FBI and CIA involvement in mass surveillance of US citizens who have conducted no crimes. You have FBI and CIA direction of censorship on social media platforms. You use labels like misinformation to increasingly reduce and destroy free speech including any dissident opinion you don’t like on any topic.
Every Globalist there is with power has acted more like a fascist than Trump. What Macron did to the Yellow Vest protestors was fascism. What Trudeau did to the Canadian truckers was fascism. What every Globalist leader did with forced medical interventions and mandated medical experiments was fascism directly breaking the Nuremberg Code. What the Biden administration did to J6 protestors held without trial for years was fascism.
Let me explain something you don’t seem to recognise-the fascists are the people who silence, censor and arrest on partisan political grounds, not those who don’t do these things. Everyone you consider respectable is more of a fascist than Donald Trump is. You are far more of a fascist than Donald Trump is. And everyone outside your social circle of likeminded affluent lunatics and well remunerated media shills knows it, which is why Globalist leaders are so often despised by their own population and score disastrously in approval ratings.
Why do you think some people love Trump? You will of course say it is because they are racist, stupid, ignorant, uneducated, all the usual hypocritically unthinking smears. It’s not any of that. It’s because they know what you are like, and they have learned that you are liars. The excesses and corruption of Globalism is what forces people towards Populism. You create the people you hate. And then you hate the People too because they want something better than you.
You lost me at “peacefully and legally.” Let’s shitcan January 6th? And no, arresting insurrectionists was not fascism. But read some Umberto Eco or Jason Stanley on what comprises fascism and get back to me.
J6. That’s all you have. And what was J6? A rally. Rallies are perfectly legal. So is opposing a stolen election. So is taking cases to court hoping that the court will look at the evidence (which the courts refused to do). Other Presidents and presidential candidates have disputed results. Again, his comments asking for the rally to be peaceful are on record. Why do you ignore that? His comments telling people to go home peacefully are on record. You ignore that too. As for the violence that did occur, this was tiny compared to the anti trump riots your side encouraged for months. The people who died on J6 were unarmed female protestors murdered by the police (that’s fascism too, by the way). Most of the J6 protestors, even those that entered the capitol, were peaceful. That’s why there is filmed evidence of them behaving peacefully (which the J6 enquiry tried to suppress…again, ACTUAL fascism). Who was encouraging violence? Not Trump, but the FBI. FBI agents were the most vociferous people demanding violence that day. Tear gas was also fired on the crowd to create a violent response. So no it wasn’t an insurrection by Trump. It was an insurrection to rush through certification of a false result. A Reichstag Fire incident, which then also allows the fascist pursuit of enemies of the regime.
Sure, you want to think that trespassing grannies were violent MAGA revolutionaries. It makes locking them up for years without trial a bit more palatable doesn’t it? But again, the fascists are the people who hold prisoners for years without trial.
"J6. That's all you have" is not the winning argument you think it is.
Yep.
Daniel, the responses below are from Dumb and Dumber........Keep up your excellent good work!
Thanks Raymond. :-)
This is what happens to people who consume too much right-wing propaganda. You're pathetic, dude.
Brilliant argument. You obviously spent a lot of time crafting that one.
not worth my time refuting an obvious moron -- I'm too busy canvassing for Kamala
You can’t supply a single coherent or substantive point, a single piece of evidence, or a single moment displaying thought, and I’m the moron? Ok, ‘dude’. 😂😂
Do they pay you in Rubles or Yuan.
Again, this is called projection. Under Trump, both Russia and China were partly contained. There was no Ukraine War or Russian invasion of Ukraine. Trump firmly warned Putin against it and Putin believed Trump's warning. That's the advantage of actually talking to Putin. As for the Chinese, its probably helped them build BRICS and extend Chinese influence globally that the US has pursued a permanent war strategy enriching US politicians and war hawks.
Chinese influence is definitely a worry. I'm sure you have condemned all the US universities for taking Chinese donations, and Hollywood for that too? Or how about US politicians and their families who have taken Chinese money and have Chinese business links, or who have affairs with Chinese spies? I'm sure you've condemned the Democrats all that applies to up to and including Biden, right? No doubt you dislike the WEF for their role back in the 70s helping to bring China into the world economy without China dropping its totalitarian system and human rights abuses? And Trudeau for praising Chinese totalitarianism? And Walz for visiting China multiple times and apparently loving it when China crushed pro democracy protests when he was there?
Or are you just a hypocrite who is so stupid and uninformed that none of these things factor in at all?
Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014., Russia and Ukraine have been at war since then. Fighting in Donetsk was going on the entire Trump presidency, and Trump did everything possible to undermine Western sanctions and prevent a Ukrainian build up that might have stopped the Russian attack in 2022.
That was just brilliant! And I'm speaking as someone who, prior to 2020, had a full blown case of TDS. And, for the author to include Bill Gates was just absolutely laughable. Between buying up farm land in the US and endorsing (until he could no longer make money of it) the harmful covid shots, he is one of the worst people in my book. If he's endorsing Harris, that just makes me even more suspicious of her.
Nothing like an endorsement of vaccine conspiracy theories to bolster your credibility.
You mean like the conspiracy theory that lab leak was the origin (since confirmed as the most likely origin)? Or the conspiracy theory that masks don't work? (since confirmed by the Cochrane Library examination of every single study on masks). Or maybe the conspiracy theory that MRNA and other COVID vaccines have dangerous side effects? (since confirmed by multiple studies and the withdrawal of one of these vaccines). Or that they are ineffective? (again multiple studies to this effect and the reason boosters are necessary, also the reason due to swift adaptation that virtually nobody ever recommended mass vaccination with novel treatments against emerging viruses before).
I notice that yours like other comments against what I said are all very brief sarcasms rather than evidence based commentary. How curious.
Kim J -- What makes you think COVID shots are harmful? Just curious.
Also, are you suggesting that Gates buying up farmland is reprehensible? Would it be preferable to have farmland bought up by Con-Agra or some random private equity outfit? Again, not trying to be argumentative, just trying to understand this from your perspective. Thanks.
As Kim hasn't replied I will venture to do so. First, thank you for a very civilized tone of query, which differs from the majority here.
I think the issue would apply to anyone buying up lots of farmland. Concentration of power and monopoly is always a bad thing. I'm personally wary of all very large ventures whatever the political affiliations of their owners. With Gates there are additional concerns due to all his other interests and history-the monopolistic practices of Microsoft under his direction, the network of influence that sees him interacting with world leaders and influencing policy in unaccountable ways, and the food supply interests he has pursued with GMO's and synthetic foods. All these suggest he's not a great person to have controlling any significant part of your food supply chains. You don't have to believe wilder theories to worry about his influence.
Thanks Kim. People who wake up from the media enforced Trump is Hitler absurdity are vital-they are the ones who have essentially escaped conditioning and can show others how to do it. The irony of it all is that Trump is the relative moderate and his accusers are lost in an extremist vision of their fellow Americans and ordinary people who want populist policies. This false vision is constantly reinforced by media bias and the closed nature of their social circles (which rarely if ever include working class voters).
Re Gates, I agree with you. Another selfish interest masquerading as a compassionate one. You might be interested in my book on him, which is titled Gates of Hell. I’m very critical of him, but don’t include the stuff that says he definitely is evil or for example the assumption that population control comments prove an intent to kill. Just the nature of so much unaccountable power and such reckless disregard for potential negative consequences of tech based interventions can be devastating even without the intent to harm.
Jupplandia, you seem to be writing as someone on the fringes of society, presenting examples of how you and others like you have been victimized by liberals, liberal thinking, liberal policies, in fact, the entire liberal world, and yet you seem to be a well-informed, thoughtful and articulate person. A member of the educated "elite", in fact.
That is interesting, for a start: a key segment of Trump supporters are variously described as disaffected working-class voters who would traditionally feel affinity with Democrats.
The fault in your mini-Jeremiad, if I may apply such a term to your comment posted in a Substack blog read by I-don't-know-how-many-political junkies, is that you wear your grievances on your sleeve. Sometimes an appeal to your reader's emotions can at least win sympathy, but not when accompanied by over-the-top exaggeration of your oppressors' faults, imho..
I think you are being too clever when you cloak your arguments in pseudo-rationalist logic, arguing in effect, "I don't like Globalists, I don't like to be coerced into following government directives -- to wear a mask or get a vaccination during world-wide pandemic, for example -- and being forced to do things I don't like is just as bad as anything fascist Trump says or does, so anti-Trumpers are worse than he is, so there I win the argument full stop." Such arguments come across as childish, petulant, despite being at least understandable, as no one really enjoys being compelled to do things we dislike.
Still, there is a ring of a child's whiny counter-argument to being told he must go to bed because it's bedtime -- "But I'm not tired." (Frankly you don't have to be a MAGA-ite to feel resentment at being told what to do. Count me in).
I am absolutely appalled by Trump the man, MAGA the 'movement' and the appeal that these have over Trump's millions of Americans. But one of your points is at least defensible, even if an exaggeration: "...everyone outside your social circle of likeminded affluent lunatics and well remunerated media shills knows it, which is why Globalist leaders are so often despised by their own population and score disastrously in approval ratings." (I dispute the allegation that we anti-Trumpers could be called "shills" and "lunatics" simply by our disapproval of DJT, but that is a minor quibble).
I could go on, but I think I've made my point: whinging about how terrible some people have been to you is not a good way of bringing them over to your point of view. Of course, having a good rant sometimes just feels good.
Hahaha, thank you for an entertaining rendition of the suffocating smugness of people on your side of this. Don’t you get it yet? People like me no longer submit to your patrician disdain. We aren’t going to change our opinions or doff our caps or ignore basic relevant facts (like which side are trying to imprison their political opponents) in these issues. So go ahead and use that hilarious passive aggressive superior tone all you want. Pathologise those who make rational points you wish to ignore.
Does it change the fact that Trump did not initiate any new wars (meaning he lacks the militarism which is one of the features of fascism). No it doesn’t.
Does it change the fact that it is Globalists who are consistently arguing in favour of the suppression of free speech (total media control and censorship being fascist requirements). No it does not.
Does it change the fact that it is Trump who is the target of assassination attempts, not the person ordering them? No it does not.
So however much you want to pretend there is an issue with Trump, or an issue with someone like me calling out the hysterical fatuousness and inaccuracy of Trump is Literally Hitler rhetoric, all of the features of fascism are displayed by the people you consider respectable and not by Trump.
Having put yourselves in this absurd position of claiming that half the country are Nazis, and then using fascist methodology yourselves, you can’t extricate from it or excuse the ridiculousness of it all (and the anti democrat nature of it all) by pretending that those who call out your hysteria are the ones who have lost all sense of rational balance.
But nice try.
Why hello Russian troll (or are you Chinese or Iranian or N. Korean)?
Jupplandia, you certainly love excoriating people you don’t know based on your narrow-minded stereotypes of people you don’t like….and I wonder why all the hate? For the record, your hatred is not reciprocated (tbh, maybe just a little, because I don’t enjoy being stereotyped, but no one’s perfect).
Anyway, to coincide with a phrase, That’s all I’ve got.” Have a nice day.
Lost me at "You people are..."
BTW, that Substack red check is useful.
What does it mean that half of Americans want to vote for a fascist? If he wins, does it mean that we have to stop referring to America as the leader of the free world? We will need to update a lot of beliefs and change our vocabulary.
Powerful article -- kudos to "the hardworking staff here at Drezner's World" for the clarity and the excellent compilation of evidence! I hope the nation comes to its senses and does not hand power to a fascist over the next two weeks.
"The Evidence for Trump's Fascism Is Overwhelming" When I read this I expected evidence. Instead, there is only the opinion of others. The opinion of others is not evidence for an argument's validity.
You were given the evidence -- in essence, testimony from Milley, Kelly, and other generals, along with Dimon and Gates' reticence to be public in their support of Harris. Your decision to designate all this as "opinion" leads me to assign the value of your opinion all the weight it deserves after a year of insufferable trolling.
An argument is made using facts. Not opinions. In this article Milley, Kelly et al are not presenting facts, but giving their opinion.
Nonsense, they are laying out the facts of what Trump has said and done.
What "facts" are you referring to? I'll tell you what. I'll list the quotes for you.
Milley: “fascist to the core” “the most dangerous person to this country” “No one has ever been as dangerous to this country as Donald Trump,” “Now I realize he’s a total fascist. He is the most dangerous person to this country.” These are statements of opinion, not fact. They may be good opinions, and even have a factual basis, but Milley is not reciting these underlying facts, if they indeed exist, but rather his opinion.
Kelley: “Certainly the former president is in the far-right area, he’s certainly an authoritarian, admires people who are dictators — he has said that. So he certainly falls into the general definition of fascist, for sure.” More statements of opinion. Kelly even labels his statements opinions. So even he's not confused.
So Mike, these two are not "laying out the facts", but reciting opinions. And far from "nonsense", my statement remains valid, logically accurate, and imminently sensible.
eminently*
Thanks for engaging and you're right about the adjective. Well done. But I'm right about the point : )
Considers putting on Dara Horn hat, exclaims aloud to spouse what decades of Holocaust education/memorials have been doing if not for this moment
In order to be the temporary dictator of Bannon and some others' imagination that will return the US to history and tradition Trump would have to have some sense of history and tradition. Clearly does not.
I forget who made the joke that Republicans want to return to the glorious world of 1928 but this was in the 1990s sometime.
It can not be talked about often enough just how completely stupid he is, just a totally uneducated moron who’s never read a book (except maybe Mein Kampf )
Completely so. But if he can lower gas prices, or at least if he can lower gas prices FOR ME, then I will vote for him without reserve.
Don't forget Mr Vance, who seems the very model of March Violet¹ gunning for the job of Gauleiter.
¹https://tinyurl.com/MarchViolet
I can't let go of what he has said he will do because I believe this man is a sociopath and so very dangerous!💙✌🌹🤗Ella
Has he seen Downfall?
Trump can barely read. Everything he knows is from TV (Fox) and syncophants.
He is the world's great con man (46% of voters), a great liar, cheater, and entertainer which gets lot of admirers and enablers
He is using evry fascist rtick in the book (which he has never read)
He has ADHD He cannot concentrate but has great energy (charisma)
Granted on all counts. But he does sound a lot like me in what you said -- and me love that.
Maybe, when idealising “German generals, Trump thought of Wilhelm Bodewin Johann Gustav (La)Keitel …
At the same time, should Trump be elected President (and even if he was not but instead came a close second, which is the alternative), he could boast of a larger support among American voters than Hitler ever enjoyed among German voters.
Should one draw the apparently logical conclusion that today’s Americans are more fascist (or more stupid) than yesterday’s Germans?
Plz read if u scared… lol
https://open.substack.com/pub/jmpolemic/p/is-trump-an-incipient-fascist-dictator?r=1neg52&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/the-fascist-meme-returns-donald-trump-election-voters-5e513359?msockid=2b7fd0357f5961fe097bc37b7b596f81
Overwhelming? From the editorial-"The answer is that most Americans simply don’t believe the fascist meme, and for good reasons. The first is the evidence of Mr. Trump’s first term. Whatever his intentions, the former President was hemmed in by American checks and balances. Democrats, the press and the federal bureaucracy were relentlessly opposed to all his works, as they would be again.
Mr. Trump’s worst attempt at stretching executive power—reallocating military construction money to build the border wall—was small beer compared with Mr. Biden’s lawless $400 billion student loan forgiveness.
Fascism historically was “national socialism”—government control over much of the economy. By that definition, Democrats today are the national socialists—using regulation, mandates, law enforcement, and trillions of dollars in subsidies to coerce Americans to follow their dictates on climate and culture. Mr. Trump was a deregulator in his first term and promises to be more so in a second.
Ms. Harris is making much of Mr. Trump’s comments on Fox last Sunday that “we have some very bad people. We have some sick people, radical left lunatics. And I think they’re the—and it should be very easily handled by—if necessary, by National Guard or, if really necessary, by the military, because they can’t let that happen.”
It was a typically grandiose and self-defeating statement, but when we asked about it Thursday in an interview, Mr. Trump made clear after some rambling that he was talking about destructive riots. He said he’d “certainly not [use force] against my opponents—it’s against civil unrest.”
Even if Mr. Trump doesn’t mean this, he’d have to face the obstacles built into the American system. His own judicial nominees rejected his claims about a stolen election, and Republicans in and outside his Administration blocked his attempt to overturn the election.
JD Vance is no Mike Pence, but the Electoral Count Act makes a replay of 2020 more difficult. We have confidence that American institutions—the Supreme Court, the military, Congress—would resist any attempt to subvert the Constitution."
Making excuses for a dictator wanna-be presidential candidate is like a condemned man in a tumbril on his way to the guillotine remarking to no one in particular, "Well, this isn't the outcome I'd been l=hoping for. On the other hand, at least they provided us with free transport."