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I wish everybody stopped talking about "test run" and "slippery slope": we're 200% IN the authoritarianism. In fact, it's so authoritarian everybody can stop using the authoritarianism cutesy and call it what it is: FASCISM.
Im convinced voting can be cancelled, people rounded up for mass extrajudicial execution and media will still be running headlines about "our declining democracy"
They're already rounding people up for extrajudicial deportation. If they happen to die in the process, well, they were illegal anyway!
We the people need to organize and resist. Get involved in your local community.
This is part of the reason why so many on the right are labeling any use of "fascism" as dangerous rhetoric -- to remove the ability to discuss current happenings in a more meaningful way.
I have a friend of a friend who is still maga. I heard him say that if anyone uses the words nazi or fascist he dismisses everything that person has to say or stops listening. I was like you can’t talk about this current moment accurately without using those words.
I started calling it fascism a few months back. When the shoe fits. And holy crap does it fit.
In January I said "the parallels to 1933 in Germany cannot be ignored", which is still kindof a mild statement, but my "enlightened conservative" relations already went up in arms about that.
We got a stop saying test run. We're in it. Sure it's "testing" in that they're seeing how far they can get, but we're in the fascist regime.
Came here to say this as well. We’re not test running for authoritarian, we’re in it. Now we’re just testing to see what the backlash is and how far and fast we can push it.
They're self-identifying as fascists, openly spreading hate, and I am really loathe to see what happens next week at Pete's little military get-together. At some point the administration will just execute someone openly, extrajudicially, to see what happens there. At some point the courts stop being even a pretext.
You mean like blowing up people on boats in international waters they claim to be narco terrorists?
Seriously. Should just say "is next incremental step down the path."
Why is everyone so fucking passive about this stuff?
I guess we now know exactly how dictators rise.
Liberals in the Democratic party have spent the last several decades "working with the right" to "get things done". The only methods they know are to praise their bipartisan compromise.
They are just continuing what they have always been. A controlled opposition party that points to problems but never does anything to solve them. They were once the one step forward to the conservatives two steps back. But over the last decade that has changed. The conservatives stopped letting steps be taken forward and stopped playing the game they both benefited from.
So Fascism is here and all the liberals can do is point at things. Their role now is to normalize each step backwards. To be the party saying "hey, that's not legal!" or "hey, this is bad". It gives the greater population the feeling of normalcy as this has always been their role.
It makes the fascism feel like it's just "another 4 years" and something to be waited out. The liberals are filling their own role to bring about fascism. And that role is in a passive opposition pretending that the existing systems are still something that can be restored. The very systems that brought about the rise of fascist in the first place.
I'd like to see an example of a democracy or other non-authoritarian system that has ever successfully resisted an authoritarian takeover like this where the authoritarian controls the military, the legislature, and the judiciary other than just by waiting for it to self-destruct or assassination. Seriously. It would be helpful to have a model to follow and I'm not familiar enough with history to know where to look.
I have a feeling if anyone is here to look back in fifty years, we'll find any actions we took were too little and too late, and that it's just human nature to think the worst isn't going to happen to us.
I fear exactly the same. I wish my fellow USAmericans had the courage of South Korea and Nepal.
You're looking for an example of fascism not being allowed to take power? Because there are countless countries in the world today that are not run by fascist. Those are your examples.
The point is about the structures of liberal bourgeois run democracy that lead to fascist being supported by the ruling class in order to maintain their class power.
I think you're misunderstanding how fascist take power and how they maintain it. I also think it's very unhelpful to say "it's human nature". It's a meaningless phrase we use to explain why things can't change. Even though all of human history has been countless changes to the structures of power and the allocation of resources. And being human is literally about defying nature.
Humans can change. I'm not sure yet whether humanity can. Human nature is a thing, though I think the only difference between us and any other animal is enlightened self-interest.
Also I didn't even specify fascist, but it does feel like the entire world has drifted rightward in the last 30 years, but if I'm honest it's probably been since Eisenhower in fits and starts. Far right has been trending upward throughout Europe. I don't know what democracies aren't, as I said.
Looks to me like America is just ahead of the curve and shaping up to be the next big bad that gets everyone else to unite and decide fascism is bad again. Maybe I'm just feeling overwhelmed and cynical right now.
I am of the mind that human societies - and in turn, humanity as a whole - undergoes something like the Anacyclosis cycle. A new society is vibrant and lead by good people, but over time the leadership becomes increasingly corrupt. Eventually, that society dies and a new generation will create an initially good society that will go once again through the process.
We just are in the unfortunate position of experiencing the roughest part of the cycle. It is our task to ensure that our children and beliefs are allowed to become the best that they can be.
Is Every Civilization Doomed to Fail? - Gregory Aldrete
The empire, long divided, must unite; long united, must divide. Thus it has ever been. - Romance of the Three Kingdoms
Brazil just jailed Bolsanaro, South Korea just resisted a coup. That's like, this year alone.
Are we already past the point of no return?
Depends on what you consider 'no return'. Every fascist regime falls eventually.
With only what’s left of the antique led DNC what do you think?
Let's not forget some key points.
The "big beautiful bill act" is set up to destroy America slowly and most of it is due to take effect JANUARY 2027. Right after midterms. Not a coincidence. All of our healthcare will get more expensive and hospitals will shut down.
The tariffs the Republicans have approved are going to add between $4,000 and $8,700 to your annual living expenses as time goes on under Republicans.
If you want to ignore the blatant lies, propaganda, pedophilia, racism, fascism, and war crimes; you are a horrible person.
LaMonica McIver (D-NJ) faces up to 17 years in prison for an incident where she briefly made physical contact with federal law enforcement officers who were attempting to arrest another elected Democrat, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka. (..)
McIver is charged under a federal law that targets anyone who “forcibly assaults, resists, opposes, impedes, intimidates, or interferes” with a federal law enforcement officer carrying out their official duties. There’s no question that McIver, who joined a group of people attempting to block federal agents from seizing Baraka, impeded or interfered with that arrest. But she only committed a crime if she did so “forcibly,” and the Trump administration’s claim that she did is quite a stretch.
A video of Baraka’s arrest shows a chaotic scrum where officers repeatedly laid hands on McIver. McIver also made contact with the officers a few times; in the most significant interaction, she appears to have placed her forearm on an officer who had just knocked her off balance and pushed him away.
It may be unlikely that a jury would convict McIver, but the mere fact that she must hire lawyers to defend herself places an extraordinary burden on her. House ethics rules prevent her from accepting pro bono legal counsel, so she must either pay for her legal defense — which could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars or more out of pocket — or use campaign funds to pay her attorneys.
I stand by that it's insane that resisting arrest of oneself or others and opposing and impeding law enforcement is illegal. Sure you shouldn't be allowed to attack, but the desire to be free and to stop unjust arrest should be considered innately human for the former and a consequence of internalized values of citizenship for the latter.
but the desire to be free and to stop unjust arrest should be considered innately human for the former and a consequence of internalized values of citizenship for the latter.
Which is exactly why they made the laws against it. The spirit of the law is that a lawful arrest has to be allowed to take place and the courts should decide whether that arrest was valid. The letter of the law just makes you a felon if you try to stop an arrest, regardless of the situation.
"Test run for authoritarian rule?" I thought his last administration was a "test run for authoritarian rule."
The advice remains the same. Start arming yourselves and everyone you know.
this post was submitted on 26 Sep 2025
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