this post was submitted on 08 Jan 2024
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There is a set of grievances and motivations the bigots have that are not being addressed.
And no one has come up with an effective counter strategy to the fascist manipulation playbook yet.
Yes, that's the thing. I find it terribly frustrating that the same old playbook still works with all its pamphlet-like explanations, its false accusations and its pretended messiah logic: "It's the foreigners' fault that you can't find job; a strong leader will stand up for you and save us all if you just follow him unconditionally" and so on and so forth. It simply boggles my mind how people can still believe that - in Germany, with its terrible Nazi past, just as much as in America, where an obviously criminal billionaire pretends to care about those left behind and dissatisfied. It's almost as if people want to be exploited and instrumentalized against their own interests. I don't get it.
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Having hung around them before, I think it's because what tyrants actually promise them is the right to be openly hateful without consequence. See, they believe drivel about how people different from them are the cause of their problems long before fascism shows up; they were always bigots and likely always will be. The fascists simply mirror their thoughts, speech and behaviors openly, making the followers feel safe to express shit they already believed.
It's not the fascist leaders that are responsible, it's the people for thinking the way that they do.
That's probably the way it is. Unfortunately, this explanation doesn't give you much hope in humanity when so many people seem to think this way.
Allow me to pontificate upon the subject...
If someone is bigoted like that, the only way to solve the problem is to remove either them or the victim from the society. That would require either destroying or exiling one group or for one group to willingly put enough distance between themselves and their enemies such that conflict is impossible and the separation is maintained by default, but it's the only way for a progressive society to enforce its values.
Of course, there are ideologues and charlatans who don't want that to happen so they exploit the weaker and more insecure party -- the progressives -- by telling them it's immoral to do anything to resolve the problem, usually under the grounds that it would require force to do it, which is not actually true, and therefore convince progressives to suffer under the thumb of a group who are basically their abusers.
It's like an abusive relationship. The only way the abuse stops is if the abuser is killed or the victim runs away for good. Arrest and conviction of an abuser never actually stops abuse; it only exacerbates it as the abuser is much better at manipulating other people than their victims and thus turns third parties against the victims, completely subjugating them. So the victim is left with two options: either kill the abuser and face the wrath of the community, or run away and spend their lives looking over their shoulder knowing their abuser and the third parties will hurt them again at any time, stripped of participation in the community they had a right to.
And like the abuse victim, the progressives are faced with this choice: either warfare with the conservatives, or be forced to flee and start over... somewhere. Europe and South America maybe. And if the progressives run away and cede that territory, the conservatives will have unfettered control over nuclear weapons, meaning there's nowhere to hide.
I don't think the progressives are capable of winning a civil war once the fascists take power at the end of the year, though. That's what bothers me. This is going to spiral downward into a bilateral genocide; it's the logical conclusion of the chain of events that have transpired since the end of the last civil war. People are too afraid to even advocate for war because of decades of ideologues and corporations exploiting nonviolence to propagandize everyone else into submission.
So tl;dr there doesn't seem to be any positive outcome possible. I really, REALLY don't like the way things are turning. Progressives need to nut up and reject the brainwashing they were subjected to all their lives, and start training and preparing for a fight, as in today, but shills and trolls might make it impossible for them to do so. Running away might not work because nukes are things. Then again, warfare might not either because nukes are things. And submission will only lead to slavery and death.
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What was that Chinese curse put on people, back in the day? "May you live in interesting times..."
Exactly
I don't think any of them really even think Trump will even actually help them, let alone any idea that he cares about them.
The only thing that matters to them is that Trump has normalized open expressions of hate, racism, bigotry, xenophobia, and misogyny...and wrapped it up in a shrink wrap of jingoism, making it as simple as possible for anyone and everyone to get on board with it.
That's bad enough, but he also bundles fascism as well as the graft that follows trump like a shadow with the package.
Basically he's weaponized the fear of the unknown to built himself a cult. I would venture to guess that less than half of his supporters would have any clear, concrete, positive (that is, as opposed to the negative "he'd undo this" or "he won't do that") response when asked what, specifically, they think Trump will do that will help the country as a whole or them specifically.
And that's because the thing they want from him they've already gotten, and they just want him to keep it up: telling them the most comforting message of all: it's okay.
"It's okay you don't have a nice house or a good job or can't afford healthcare or can't put enough good food on the table. It's okay your family is all fucked up. It's okay that costs are going up, the rich are getting richer while the poor get poorer.
And it's okay because it's not your fault. You're not responsible for this. It's bigger than you can control or even affect. So you don't even have to try. I'm not going to make it better (and in fact I'll do my best to make it much worse), but that's okay too because I'm not going to ask you to shoulder any of the blame for any of this!
No, not your fault and I'm not asking you to do anything. Whose fault is it? Why it's the Democrats and the Mexicans and the Muslims and the women and the liberals and the immigrants and the colleges and the "urban populations" (hint: you can identify them by their skin tone!) and the "woke radical left" and China and Europe and pretty much anyone else that doesn't look, act, and sound exactly like you. That's whose fault it is.
And since it's not your fault and you can't do anything about it, I give you permission to hate them for it. And I'll do and say all the horrible, vile, shit that I want you to think and say. And because I did it first, that means it's okay to just go ahead and say what you've been thinking for years. If we all say it together, it'll become normal."
Basically he tells them they're victims, and that he feels sorry for them, and that they should feel sorry for themselves too, and that because they're the victims here, they're allowed to do and say whatever they want and it's okay.
Our most effective weapon is banning Nazi parties so far.