The rise of fascism in the US

[Rob Ray]

Jfc liberals never learn do they. Barely holding the Senate and set to lose the House despite facing off against a slate of dog-shooters, anti-abortion abortionists, stop-the-stealiacs and far-right loonspuds and they're crowing about Biden winning the day. A man so popular an active insurrection and stripping of rights from half the population barely made a difference.

 

[petee]

set to lose the House despite facing off against a slate of dog-shooters, anti-abortion abortionists, stop-the-stealiacs and far-right loonspuds

sorry, but you don't know america.

also, there are real issues of inflation, which can probably be laid to trump' policies and corporate profiteering, and an increase in petty crime, which has nothing to do with federal politics but which is happening now and so in eternal fashion is being blamed on the party in power. it was those issues that the GOP ran on, and they still didn't get anywhere. in MI, the democrats took all three branches of state government for the first time in 40 years.

 

[Rob Ray]

I understand that the Democrats did better than expected despite an economic downturn, ta, there's no shortage of liberals shouting this from every available rafter. But the fact is the trend has been from "responsible Republicanism" to outright MAGA fucknuts over the last 20 years and the Dems are still struggling. It's a triumph of far-right normalisation that their carpet-chewing avatars "almost but not quite" winning (and in some cases winning handily) is regarded as a major success.

 

[petee]

I understand that the Democrats did better than expected despite an economic downturn, ta, there's no shortage of liberals shouting this from every available rafter. But the fact is the trend has been from "responsible Republicanism" to outright MAGA fucknuts over the last 20 years and the Dems are still struggling. It's a triumph of far-right normalisation that their carpet-chewing avatars "almost but not quite" winning (and in some cases winning handily) is regarded as a major success.

i certainly wish they would win every election resoundingly* but they're not such weaklings as they're portrayed. one blogger today pointed out "Ever since Trump beat Hillary Clinton, the Trumpist GOP lost and kept losing. A movement that prioritized vicious political combat lost the House in the 2018 midterms, lost the presidency and the Senate in 2020, and has likely blown a virtually unlosable election in 2022, despite the fact that the country is struggling under the great weight of the worst crime and inflation in at least a generation." (and never forget that trump lost the actual vote in 2016.)

if you want, you can come over here and join the screaming matches about whether the democrats should be prioritizing personal identity or economic precarity as the road to electoral success and you'll quickly come to hate your life. otoh those MAGAs may be fucknuggets but they also have policy positions, which mostly suck, but some people like them and there you are.

*and then dismantle the government in favor of an economy for use, not profit, and a horizontal, egalitarian set of social relations.

 

[Ax^]

 

[two sheds]

i certainly wish they would win every election resoundingly* but they're not such weaklings as they're portrayed. one blogger today pointed out "Ever since Trump beat Hillary Clinton, the Trumpist GOP lost and kept losing. A movement that prioritized vicious political combat lost the House in the 2018 midterms, lost the presidency and the Senate in 2020, and has likely blown a virtually unlosable election in 2022, despite the fact that the country is struggling under the great weight of the worst crime and inflation in at least a generation." (and never forget that trump lost the actual vote in 2016.)

if you want, you can come over here and join the screaming matches about whether the democrats should be prioritizing personal identity or economic precarity as the road to electoral success and you'll quickly come to hate your life. otoh those MAGAs may be fucknuggets but they also have policy positions, which mostly suck, but some people like them and there you are.

*and then dismantle the government in favor of an economy for use, not profit, and a horizontal, egalitarian set of social relations.

and there's relentless propaganda from fox news et al. Throw enough of that stuff and it's going to start sticking to a lot of people if only because they get used to those ideas.

 

[Ax^]

not just fox news premoting this shite in the states but it does have carson

America is a lot more conservative than europe,

why do you think trump happened with all of his blatant use of far right troupes

 

[petee]

and there's relentless propaganda from fox news et al. Throw enough of that stuff and it's going to start sticking to a lot of people if only because they get used to those ideas.

but that's what's impressive - despite the endless barrage of rightwingery, the democrats keep winning, or at least not losing so badly. this is due not one bit to biden (obv.) but to that fact that tens of millions of voters see things straight. it's at the point that GOPpers are walking around with guns at polling sites and trying to rig local election laws to get what they want, because they can't otherwise.

 

[two sheds]

not just fox news premoting this shite in the states but it does have carson

America is a lot more conservative than europe,

why do you think trump happened with all of his blatant use of far right troupes

Indeed, et al were heavily involved

 

[Rob Ray]

i certainly wish they would win every election resoundingly* but they're not such weaklings as they're portrayed. one blogger today pointed out "Ever since Trump beat Hillary Clinton, the Trumpist GOP lost and kept losing.

Trumpism achieved what its predecessor the Tea Party had failed to do and mainstreamed what had hitherto been extreme ideas, even after they fucked up royally. The Dems aren't fighting elections against Bush or even Reagan today, they're fighting them against obvious grifters - and they aren't dominating. They're ekeing out slightly better than predicted results in which nearly half the population is voting for tabloid fodder white nationalists and freakshows. That is a weakling position.

if you want, you can come over here and join the screaming matches about whether the democrats should be prioritizing personal identity or economic precarity as the road to electoral success and you'll quickly come to hate your life.

I see plenty enough as it is by virtue of the sheer weight of US media ta.

otoh those MAGAs may be fucknuggets but they also have policy positions, which mostly suck, but some people like them and there you are.

Yes. Ranged against warmed-over Sorry About This neoliberalism, enabling a long slow march rightwards as the "centre" continues failing to square the circle of Capital crisis using methodologies drawn from 30 year old economic dogmas.

 

[petee]

dude you have no fucking idea. that post itself is a tissue of rhetoric as bad as any i see every day over here.
or at least give us the solution, which you seem to think you know.

 

[Ax^]

hey i'll stand down to anyone from the country

it been enough of a shite show in the uk to tell someone else how their system works

 

[Rob Ray]

dude you have no fucking idea. that post itself is a tissue of rhetoric as bad as any i see every day over here.

Wee tip, it's easier to pull local rank if you don't then immediately volunteer that you hear similar every day from other US citizens.

or at least give us the solution, which you seem to think you know.

I don't think there is one, at least in the short term. The far-right has succeeded in capturing a very large percentage of the US public and sinking its talking points into everyday discourse, while the Democrats are fully stuck in economic logics (not entirely of their own making) that enable the extension of that position. Turning that tanker would be a generational social task, not an electoral one. But there's no point in sugar coating or pretending the situation is something it's not - we aren't kids.

 

[gentlegreen]

I've heard claims that some of the Trumpian candidates won their primaries with help from Democrat sympathisers ?

 

[redsquirrel]

nearly half the population is voting for tabloid fodder white nationalists and freakshows. That is a weakling position.
........
Yes. Ranged against warmed-over Sorry About This neoliberalism, enabling a long slow march rightwards as the "centre" continues failing to square the circle of Capital crisis using methodologies drawn from 30 year old economic dogmas.

I agree with the substantive point in the last sentence.
But I think it is just worth reminding ourselves that it's not half the population, it is about half the voters, closer to a quarter of the electorate - which supports your argument, even under the current circumstances a hell of a lot of people don't see the Democratic Party as any sort of useful response.

 

[two sheds]

and there's relentless propaganda from fox news et al. Throw enough of that stuff and it's going to start sticking to a lot of people if only because they get used to those ideas.

This was quite an eloquent description of a similar process, from reddit again

Because you get a group of white guys together doing a repetitive task over and over for 10 hours a day, and they’re all white, there will be one of those guys in a group who will be the most popular, or the funny guy, or the “smart guy”, and he will also be the talkative one, so he can and will literally preach you right in into his beliefs and views. He will tell the jokes that get a little more racist each time, and you’ll start laughing along with the other guys, not that it’s funny, but you don’t want to end up the butt of his jokes, besides it’s just a joke, no big deal. Then he will start talking about some fake news story that puts a negative light on a certain race or belief. After a while, between their jokes, they’re sending you links to “news stories” and explain how it’s okay to be angry. All the while pressing how we’ve got to “stick together” for the sake of our families (I had none).

Next thing you know, you’re sitting at a bar getting a beer with the guys after work, and you look around and realize your smack dab in the middle of an Arian Nation biker bar surrounded by gun toting, no shit have and will killed someone skinheads, and these monstrous people are walking by, saying hi, patting you on the shoulder, friendly as fuck, and you realize you’re becoming one of them. They are accepting you, and you’d be wise to humbly accept their offer.

Sorry I got specific, I worked in HVAC for about 18 months, in the middle of a liberal area, but in the middle of nowhere. Young white guy from the Midwest, fresh out of the military with no friends or family around, I was the perfect target for recruitment. It’s all recruitment tactics, and it fucking works. Needless to say not only did I feel like I had to disappear, I had to do it by leaving the state. I was legitimately scared for a few weeks that I had not moved far enough away and they would come looking for me. Honestly, they didn’t even know or cared that I was gone, but the paranoia was real. Shit was scary.

u/ThePNWGamingDad explains how White Nationalism recruits new members in the workplace​

[WhitePeopleTwitter]

 

[Pickman's model]

This was quite an eloquent description of a similar process, from reddit again

u/ThePNWGamingDad explains how White Nationalism recruits new members in the workplace​

[WhitePeopleTwitter]

whatever else you may be in i very much doubt an arian bikers' bar exists anywhere in the world. Arianism - Wikipedia

 

[Karl Masks]

It must be fun living in their heads

 

[Pickman's model]

It must be fun living in their heads

for a moment i thought that was bradley walsh of the chase

 

[two sheds]

whatever else you may be in i very much doubt an arian bikers' bar exists anywhere in the world. Arianism - Wikipedia

Fair point. Either the bar visitors were surprisingly philosophically minded or the poster was a bad speller

 

[Cid]

dude you have no fucking idea. that post itself is a tissue of rhetoric as bad as any i see every day over here.
or at least give us the solution, which you seem to think you know.

Not having a candidate who's set to turn 82 just after the next election would probably be a starting point.

 

[Tanya1982]

Great news that Kari Lake has lost. She'll no doubt find another grift soon enough, but it seems that Arizona dodged a bullet today. Sadly for her, her pussy will not be grabbed in celebration at Mar a Lago.

 

[Pickman's model]

Not having a candidate who's set to turn 82 just after the next election would probably be a starting point.

Back in the day didn't the americans poke fun at the Soviet gerontocracy?

 

[8ball]

It must be fun living in their heads

I like how he breaks up the insane disturbing shit with a bit of therapeutic colouring.

 

[Karl Masks]

I like how he breaks up the insane disturbing shit with a bit of therapeutic colouring.

I like the amateur glossalia

 

[petee]

Not having a candidate who's set to turn 82 just after the next election would probably be a starting point.

that would be useful (not that there's anything wrong with biden). whitmer looks electable (her legislative record isn't particularly lefty: The Voter's Self Defense System). shapiro too looks like a comer. could he win the presidency after only two years as governor? obama won after only 3 years in the senate. nb, these are names the democrats didn't have even two years ago. (fetterman needs to recover from the stroke before he becomes an option.)

 

[NoXion]

I like the amateur glossalia

Apparently that shit's supposed to be "the language of God" or some such rot, but it just sounds like fake nonsense to me, exactly like someone who is obviously trying their damnedest to sound linguistic.

I've always wondered if that kind of thing was some kind of in-group shit-test. Bouncing around and babbling like an idiot to prove just how strongly one believes.

 

[teqniq]

This is shaping up to look quite a car crash McCarthy wants to be speaker but appeasing the lunatics is not a good recipe:

Kevin McCarthy's appeasement of MAGA nihilists won't end well

It's impossible to govern in coalition with extremists.

aaronrupar.substack.com

i love this photo from the top of the article:

 

[8ball]

This is shaping up to look quite a car crash McCarthy wants to be speaker but appeasing the lunatics is not a good recipe:

Kevin McCarthy's appeasement of MAGA nihilists won't end well

It's impossible to govern in coalition with extremists.

aaronrupar.substack.com

i love this photo from the top of the article:

View attachment 358331

That’s a “thanks for the link” like, not a “like” like, like.

 

[teqniq]

As if by magic: