President Biden: The NEW one and only politics thread

I think the quote from Ian Kershaw in that first link sums it up: Trying to define 'fascism' is like trying to nail jelly to the wall.

With Donald Trump came a kind of (moronic) populism rooted in authoritianism and a cult of personality. Is that fascist or semi-fascist?

OK. But labeling him is kind of pointless by now, isn't it?

As disgaceful as the Republican party is in allowing itself to be coopted by a dishonest con man. ... let's not let the discussion cloud the fact that populism is endemic in all of American politics now. The Democrats may not have totally ceded themselves to someone as dishonest or mercurial as Donald Trump yet, but the flavor of populism that now defines them as a party is not entirely disimilar from the rhetoric he cons millions of disaffected people with. The flavor is slightly different, but they also use identity politics, scapegoating of others and making promises of the government rewarding certain constuencies and punishing others. And to the extent they have been able to follow through on it, it has been authoritarian by its very nature, too.

America has become the place where individualism came to die.

 

People do this when they are trying to frame something they disagree with. They typically compare someone or something to something they know others will find extreme.

The thing is, not all rhetorical devices are equal.

Trump as a "semi fascist" strikes me as closer to being on point than climate change is a "religion."