Have I mentioned how dystopian it is that as the world burns we're not thinking about ending the capitalism that's burning it, but we ARE making nighttime TV dramas about hard-jawed hyper masculine firefighters and the inexplicably attractive women who love them?
Amazing to me the election is over and yet all of these ads during this football game are still pretty fascist; military ads, stuff about "true patriots," and a million new drama series about either cops or very macho firefighters/lifeguards.
@GhostOnTheHalfShell In total fairness, the prior existence of Prussian Military Cult, German colonialism, and the widespread societal embrace of race "science" in mainstream German society also gave the Nazis a similar advantage. But point taken.
Ultimately I do NOT want to seek medical attention unless I have to because we're in a pretending we're post-Covid world, even medical professionals are refusing to mask, and hospitals are literally where sick people congregate so I tend to think of them as Covid factories. If resting keeps me from having to seek medical attention in that situation, I think it's clearly worth it.
Alright, my arm is increasingly becoming a hanging lump of meat; I think I probably avoided any serious damage when my shoulder popped out yesterday, but there does seem to be a direct relationship between muscle fatigue, pain, and mobility. So I'm going to step away from the keyboard for a bit, maybe lie down for a few hours, watch the Lions game, etc.
No seriously tho, I know this is a bit of a side topic, but whenever folks tell you that "it's not fascism" or "it's not genocide" because it hasn't reached the END of the story, just ask them if Hitler was still a fascist while he was sitting in a Bavarian jail writing his manifesto, and was it still genocide when the Nazis had only gassed a couple train cars full of Jewish ppl.
The arguments going on in these spaces are not well thought out and the ppl making them do not have good intentions.
(Also tho, folks shoulda listened to me 10 years ago, and we might not be as fucked as we are. But alas, they aren't gonna let you get on the megaphone and say "actually these people are all nazis or collaborators and they are leading you to a fascist order and shallow graves."
But I mean, take a look around you? That's precisely where we've gotten. And if your quibble is the "shallow graves" part - just wait; the planet is on fire and billions are gonna die. It's coming.)
Anyway, you think this argument is tough now? You shoulda been there in 2015 when I was saying "umm, this really looks a lot like fascism" while posting citations to explain why, and folks were looking at me like I had three heads.
Today, in 2024, it's much easier to talk about fascism and why we're watching it spread all across the Pig Empire; indeed, today I can say "fascism is spreading" and have ppl say "no, it's already here."
Hell, even in a wholly established order, they will lie, they will create new official histories. What's "the truth" in a fascist society can change from one day to the next depending on the needs of the ruling fascist order. Hannah Arendt wrote multiple chapters about the way officially recognized truth is manipulated for power in a fascist regime and how folks devoted to that order simply changed stream because there is no "truth" under fascism; only power. Truth is what power can make it.
So that's why it's important to say "this too, is fascism." They wouldn't be working so hard to keep you from REALIZING that, if allowing you to do so wouldn't hurt their ability to seize power and eliminate their enemies.
And NEWSFLASH: fascists are NOT the most HONEST of people.
They are not going to just come out and say "yeah we're the Nazis, we love Hitler, we're going to fucking murder you" until they have enough power to tell you to get on the truck and ensure your compliance by force.
Fascism adapts its arguments and rhetoric, constantly. And they will and do, lie to you, to obtain power. What never changes is their PURPOSE.
Y'all don't get it, these people don't have anything else. You think I'm joking when I say that these guys, nazis, spend literally all day hanging out with other nazis workshopping and game-theorying out how they can get people to embrace fascism, and create the space for a fascist order. But that's not a joke or an exaggeration. Fascists don't really have much else going on; you're busy living your life, they're working out how to ruin it at all hours of the day.
Back when I was getting in trouble for teaching my students about fascism in a higher learning institute, the phrase I used to use is that fascism seeking power, behaves a lot like water or electricity. It is, broadly speaking, seeking the fastest route to influence and power. They will say anything, they will pretend to be anything, to normalize their ideology and seek that power. So the beast today in 2024, behaves at least rhetorically, different than the literal Nazi Party, to obtain POWER.
Finally (I know, I said I was done already; sue me) I think what a lot of pedants forget when discussion fascism is basically that it's not 1930 anymore. Nazism and The Holocaust DID happen. Society has a memory about how embracing fascism turns out, so unlike say Nazis and Italian fascism, you can't just pop out and say "hi, we're the fascists" with a smile on your face anymore. Fascists KNOW describing themselves as FASCIST will impede their path to power, so they've adapted their sales pitch.
Writer, analyst, anti-capitalist, anarcho-syndicalist. "So if I can shoot rabbits, then I can shoot fascists."Que Se Vayan Todos. Ni ici ni ailleurs. No pasarán.Slumming 'round Carcosa with a library card and zero f*cks left to give. PS: under no circumstances do I want to talk about voting, or your vote - ever.