President Trump: The NEW one and only politics thread

Azrael · Jun 29, 2018

Slacker said: ↑

From The Irish Times, so posted here for @YankeeFan's ringing endorsement ...

Fintan O’Toole: Trial runs for fascism are in full flow

Fascism doesn’t arise suddenly in an existing democracy. It is not easy to get people to give up their ideas of freedom and civility. You have to do trial runs that, if they are done well, serve two purposes. They get people used to something they may initially recoil from; and they allow you to refine and calibrate. This is what is happening now and we would be fools not to see it.

One of the basic tools of fascism is the rigging of elections – we’ve seen that trialled in the election of Trump, in the Brexit referendum and (less successfully) in the French presidential elections. Another is the generation of tribal identities, the division of society into mutually exclusive polarities. Fascism does not need a majority – it typically comes to power with about 40 per cent support and then uses control and intimidation to consolidate that power. So it doesn’t matter if most people hate you, as long as your 40 per cent is fanatically committed. That’s been tested out too. And fascism of course needs a propaganda machine so effective that it creates for its followers a universe of “alternative facts” impervious to unwanted realities. Again, the testing for this is very far advanced. ...

And the results are quite satisfactory. There is good news on two fronts. First, Rupert Murdoch is happy with it – his Fox News mouthpieces outdid themselves in barbaric crassness: making animal noises at the mention of a Down syndrome child, describing crying children as actors. They went the whole swinish hog: even the brown babies are liars. Those sobs of anguish are typical of the manipulative behaviour of the strangers coming to infest us – should we not fear a race whose very infants can be so devious? Second, the hardcore fans loved it: 58 per cent of Republicans are in favour of this brutality. Trump’s overall approval ratings are up to 42.5 per cent.

This is greatly encouraging for the pre-fascist agenda. The blooding process has begun within the democratic world. The muscles that the propaganda machines need for defending the indefensible are being toned up. Millions and millions of Europeans and Americans are learning to think the unthinkable. So what if those black people drown in the sea? So what if those brown toddlers are scarred for life? They have already, in their minds, crossed the boundaries of morality. They are, like Macbeth, “yet but young in deed”. But the tests will be refined, the results analysed, the methods perfected, the messages sharpened. And then the deeds can follow.
Click to expand...

I'm sure all this is fine.

Twirling Time · Jun 29, 2018

Illinois Nazis. I hate Illinois Nazis.

‘I snookered them’: Illinois Nazi candidate creates GOP dumpster fire

melock · Jun 29, 2018

heyabbott · Jun 29, 2018

Twirling Time said: ↑

Illinois Nazis. I hate Illinois Nazis.

‘I snookered them’: Illinois Nazi candidate creates GOP dumpster fire
Click to expand...

Jones, who told POLITICO he’s running to counter a “two-party, Jew-party, queer-party system,” laughed when he was informed the GOP was unable to put up a candidate against him.

They won’t denounce him too hard. Conservatives believe in what he said. Trump believes what he says. And his supporters believe what he says. Those who defend trump, here, on Fox, on twitter and on talk radio believe what he says. And when they deny it, they are lying. Most of trump’s supporters aren’t smart enough to build and run a concentration camp. But they are mindless and brutal enough to work in them, Sleep in the beds previously owned by the concentration camp prisoners, eat their food and wear their clothes.
And if you think I’m talking about you, you are right.

typefitter · Jun 29, 2018

Slacker said: ↑

From The Irish Times, so posted here for @YankeeFan's ringing endorsement ...

Fintan O’Toole: Trial runs for fascism are in full flow

Fascism doesn’t arise suddenly in an existing democracy. It is not easy to get people to give up their ideas of freedom and civility. You have to do trial runs that, if they are done well, serve two purposes. They get people used to something they may initially recoil from; and they allow you to refine and calibrate. This is what is happening now and we would be fools not to see it.

One of the basic tools of fascism is the rigging of elections – we’ve seen that trialled in the election of Trump, in the Brexit referendum and (less successfully) in the French presidential elections. Another is the generation of tribal identities, the division of society into mutually exclusive polarities. Fascism does not need a majority – it typically comes to power with about 40 per cent support and then uses control and intimidation to consolidate that power. So it doesn’t matter if most people hate you, as long as your 40 per cent is fanatically committed. That’s been tested out too. And fascism of course needs a propaganda machine so effective that it creates for its followers a universe of “alternative facts” impervious to unwanted realities. Again, the testing for this is very far advanced. ...

And the results are quite satisfactory. There is good news on two fronts. First, Rupert Murdoch is happy with it – his Fox News mouthpieces outdid themselves in barbaric crassness: making animal noises at the mention of a Down syndrome child, describing crying children as actors. They went the whole swinish hog: even the brown babies are liars. Those sobs of anguish are typical of the manipulative behaviour of the strangers coming to infest us – should we not fear a race whose very infants can be so devious? Second, the hardcore fans loved it: 58 per cent of Republicans are in favour of this brutality. Trump’s overall approval ratings are up to 42.5 per cent.

This is greatly encouraging for the pre-fascist agenda. The blooding process has begun within the democratic world. The muscles that the propaganda machines need for defending the indefensible are being toned up. Millions and millions of Europeans and Americans are learning to think the unthinkable. So what if those black people drown in the sea? So what if those brown toddlers are scarred for life? They have already, in their minds, crossed the boundaries of morality. They are, like Macbeth, “yet but young in deed”. But the tests will be refined, the results analysed, the methods perfected, the messages sharpened. And then the deeds can follow.
Click to expand...

That 42.5 percent will be real fucking quiet about their former allegiances in a decade or two.

melock · Jun 29, 2018

"I am smarter than anybody."

HanSenSE · Jun 29, 2018

Good people on both sides.

Azrael · Jun 29, 2018

I'm sure this is fine.

Neutral Corner · Jun 29, 2018

Neutral Corner · Jun 29, 2018

Well, duh.

Rosenstein felt used by the White House in Comey firing: report

Jake from State Farm · Jun 29, 2018

Azrael · Jun 29, 2018

Don't forget:

Anthony Kennedy's son is Donald Trump's banker.

I'm sure this is fine.

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