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In July, The Huffington Post puckishly announced that it would put its coverage of Republican presidential wannabe Donald Trump in its “entertainment” section, because, for all the noise he was making, they considered his campaign little more than a “sideshow.”
Yesterday, in the wake of Trump’s alarming call for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States,” Arianna Huffington reversed that decision, declaring that she was “no longer entertained” by Trump’s campaign, which has “morphed into … an ugly and dangerous force in American politics.”
Huffington is not the only one who’s taking the threat of Trump more seriously these days, and for good reason. I find myself wondering, quite seriously: is this how Fascism in the US will begin?
And I don’t think I’m Godwinning myself here. While Trump isn’t a true fascist ideologue, I don’t think, there are definitely fascistic elements to his campaign, and to his popular appeal; it’s not for nothing that the neo-Nazis I sometimes write about on this blog are almost to a man big Trump fans. Indeed, the rather frighteningly popular Daily Stormer — a site that gets far more traffic than any manosphere blog — responded to Trump’s proposed ban on Muslim immigration thusly:
Islam – 0/5 would not allow.
Get all of these monkeys the hell out of our country – now!
Heil Donald Trump – THE ULTIMATE SAVIOR.
While all this is a little bit outside the purview of this blog, I thought I would share some of what I’ve been reading about Trump and his relationship to the “f word” and open up a discussion on the subject. Because this guy isn’t going away any time soon.
In Slate, Jamelle Bouie, drawing from a classic Umberto Eco essay on the essence of fascism, argues that the f-word “is the political label that best describes what the GOP front-runner has become.”
Donald Trump May Not Be a Fascist, But He is Leading Us Merrily Down That Path
In a long and thoughtful post examining the fascistic elements of Trump’s campaign, investigative journalist and long-time right-wing watcher David Neiwert argues that
Donald Trump may not be a fascist, but his vicious brand of right-wing populism is not just empowering the latent fascist elements in America, he is leading a whole nation of followers merrily down a path that leads directly to fascism.
This is an absolutely essential read, filled with links that help to put Trump’s campaign in a broader perspective.
It’s not just Trump: Islamophobia in America is spiraling out of control
In a long and chilling post on Vox, Max Fischer chronicles the recent spread of Islamophobia in the US, arguing that
Trump is just the tip of an iceberg that runs much deeper than many Americans would like to believe. America’s climate of anti-Muslim hatred and fear, a form of bigotry known as Islamophobia, is rampaging out of control. And it has very real and legitimately scary implications for the millions of Americans who follow Islam.
95,000 Words, Many of Them Ominous, From Donald Trump’s Tongue
Two New York Times writers, with the help of several academics, analyse a week’s worth of public utterances from Trump to understand the patterns in his demagoguery.
Donald Trump is the Gamergate of Republican politics
An interesting comparison from the Washington Post’s Alyssa Rosenberg.
18 Real Things Donald Trump Has Actually Said About Women
To return to the main theme of this blog, a little collection of some of Trump’s more misogynistic quotes.
Discuss.
While I know he isn’t stupid enough to go THAT far, there is absolutely no doubt whatsoever in my mind that if Trump were to say something like: “I’ll dump all the n*gg*rs, sp*cs, t*welheads, f*gg*ts, libtards, socialists, communists, race-hustlers, feminazis, betas, cuckolds, looters, moochers and parasites into pits, blow ’em up with nukes, and make America white again like the founding fathers intended!” at one of his rallies, the entire crowd would erupt into ecstatic cheers. The level of anger, hatred, bloodlust, paranoia and narcissism which has come to characterize western (especially American) Conservatism in the new millennium saddens and disgusts me…
It was really just a matter of time before someone like Trump emerged, the emergence of thuggish gangs of young men claiming to oppose Islam in the name of “patriotism” has become a feature on the streets of more western countries than the United States which has plenty. The othering that our politicians exploited to fight their foreign adventures in Afghanistan and Iraq is coming home to roost.
I think this is the real problem with Trump. Not too long ago my high school history teacher with whom I’m friends on FB shared a particularly nasty and very racist video which basically equated Muslim immigration with the destruction of Western civilisation. The video itself wasn’t Stormfront, but it used a lot of clips that were probably sourced from there. (I dug around a little bit.) This is a person who I really respected and remembered fondly. I pointed out where the clips came from and he was unapologetic.
Having grown up in the Bible Belt, I viscerally understand the real and present danger of fundamentalist religion and clinging to ignorance. So I’m not afraid to voice my concerns (well maybe a little) about rising numbers of people who act in a similar manner without the benefit of already having come through the reformation and liberalisation of their religion. I think there are some clear parallels between the Christian puritan and end-of-times movements during the post-reformation period and where Sunni Islam is right now. (Except there’s oil money and much better information technology behind this particular religious turmoil.*) When we fail to realise this, we cannot even begin to address radicalisation and integration and broader issues of tolerance and equality for women, gay folk, people of different religions, etc and the need to embrace inclusive democratic values. San Bernardino was an attack on that diverse and inclusive democracy – the folks killed were the essential graft workers of modern society – the boring but necessary weights and measures, product safety, hygiene and food standards and public health type workers who work under democratically elected administrations.
So yes I’m concerned about the giant step away from enlightenment values by having larger numbers of adherents to an inherently sexist, evangelical (by book or sword) and puritanical religion into Europe. But when the dialogue degrades into exclusionism and racism that’s a giant step away from the values I hold and is just as dangerous.
_____
*Printing press tech did help drive the Puritan movements, but I’m not sure if there was a large influx of money, too. Perhaps this coincided with increased wealth from the New World and relative increases in wealth and earning power following periodic decreases in population due to plague? Anyway, I don’t want to live in a society like that – I grew up surrounded by neo-Puritan, Bible essentialists and that was bad enough, but at least they were SOMEWHAT tempered by the embrace of the US Constitution and free speech and democratic values – even if they had to be kicked into extending those rights and the franchise to everyone.
__
Edited to add – wow – that’s tl;dr
Well, we’re doing our best on my side of the pond.
(The headline’s slightly misleading, though – we’ve been mocking Trump for a very long time; it’s not a sudden new development.)
@PinkiSyddyKitty
Hi and welcome to WHTM. I hope I’m not crossing any lines if I ask if you’re SpukiKitty from FSTDT? It’s just that your writing style is similar to hers and also she’s a big fan of Pinkie Pie and Syd Barrett. 🙂
As to the OP, well, I have to admit that when I first heard of Trump campaigning, I dismissed him completely. I even laughed at the cartoonish buffoonery and over-the-top statements. I’m not laughing anymore, though! I’d say that Trump doesn’t have a whelk’s chance in a supernova of getting elected, were the election held today, but a lot can happen in 11 months. Worrisome times.
By the way, I’ve always wondered about the very long election campaigns that happen in the United States. Over here (Finland), we only have campaign posters up for, like, two-three weeks before the election and even then most people are sick lf the talking heads by the time election rolls up.
@ Walter
Consider this crude analogy:
I’ve been saying this a few times by now, but even though I regard Trumpism as potentially fascistic, the closest similarity I can find is from before the term fascism was coined: the French presidential election of 1848, just after a revolution that had thrown out the Orléanist monarchy.
And who did the population vote for? The guy with the famous name: Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte.
And Bonaparte was by no means the candidate of the French establishment (it was Louis-Eugène Cavaignac, who had become very unpopular among the lower classes). Bonaparte (nephew of the other one) was the dark horse with a famous name who ran on a populist platform and won the election, with no less than three-quarters of the vote (male universal suffrage).
Bonaparte would soon start calling himself the Prince-President, but only temporarily, because before his term was meant to end, he staged a coup d’état and installed himself as Emperor Napoleon III. (He also loved to mess with Mexico, for what it’s worth.) It was already common knowledge that he had staged two failed coups under his belt before he was voted in — and still they voted for him.
The French remained so wary of seeing another president stage a coup this way that the president wouldn’t be elected directly by the population again until 1965, after a national referendum shortly after the end of the Algerian crisis.
————-
What I also want to say is that we shouldn’t call Trump ‘fascist’ only because he appears to have racist policies; Mussolini himself thought the idea of race itself ridiculous until Hitler started leaning on him to pass racial laws, in 1938.
Instead, I do believe Trumpism is fascistic because it is based on a personality cult, where Trump is seen as nothing less than the national personification of the U.S. And that in itself is dangerous.
But frankly I saw that Trump *had* to be taken seriously the moment he announced his candidacy. Where were the pundits then?
@PinkiSyddyKitty
Yes, I forgot- welcome to WHTM too! I’ve not been here long- still new- so I’m glad to see another new person.
@ Alan Robertshaw
The analogy fits rather well. Really, the ways of Walter and people who have those views are really just trying to take power away from and marginalise BLM (and other campaigns) while making a show of being more reasonable, when in reality…
Monzach,
We have long campaigns because of the money, basically. Campaign finance is fairly unregulated and candidates with a lot of money can and do spend ages campaigning.
Another issue is that major media companies see news as equivalent to their entertainment divisions. The news is expected to make a profit. Elections get ratings. So they cover them as much as possible.
Lastly, when it comes to presidential elections, states compete to hold their primaries or caucuses first so they can be influential. So the dates get earlier and earlier.
@Argenti (On UKIP thinking Trump is going too far): it’s really not that surprising. Europe’s far-right parties are all trying to paint themselves as moderate and reasonable. In the weeks up the last European Parliament elections, the Danish People’s Party (DF) were denouncing UKIP and FN as right wing extremists, Marine Le Pen denounced DF and UKIP as extremists and UKIP predictably denounced both DF and FN as extremist.
This is just a chance to paint themselves as more moderate and reasonable than they really are by denouncing something that they haven’t made themselves simply because they know how it would make them look – not because they don’t actually agree with it. I’m pretty sure individual UKIPpers have suggested similar things. Individual DF’ers certainly have.
@Argenti
I’m not quite so sure about that assessment. The US is unique in a number of manners. It’s been a major economic power for decades, yet still has levels of religious fundamentalism that are unlike anything in other industrialised nations. I’m willing to concede that crises help retrograde views gain traction (because a status quo proponent who says that everything is fine when it’s clearly not loses all credibility), but it’s neither necessary nor sufficient for it. The conquest of this continent was based on a massive genocide: as far as I know, there was no real crisis on the part of those committing it. What was the crisis that led to the massively retrograde Jim Crow laws? As far as I understand it, it’s more something that had been lurking in the background for some time and crept on and on until it became law of the land.
@David N-T:
The crisis that led to Jim Crow was the Reconstruction period. The Southern states depended on slavery to run their economies, so when that was outlawed, they would’ve been fucked even without the ravages of war coming in as well. Many people had lost their land, the old elite plantation families had seen their wealth (tied up in slave ownership) evaporate overnight, and the old social order had been violently uprooted. Backlash, in the form of Klan terrorism and the “Lost Cause” mythos that still poisons Southern politics today, emerged before the ink was dry on the peace treaty. By the mid 1870s, the North had essentially lost the will to keep fighting against the rampant terrorism in the South, and essentially cut a deal with the terrorists and handed them the region on a silver platter by ending the Reconstruction policies of enforcing civil rights in the South.
That’s how Jim Crow got started.
@ reimalebario
The problem with UKIP is that their policies are quite a bit more moderate, and I know that a lot of UKIP people have said things such as ‘we should let as many Syrian migrants in as possible’ or words to that effect, but its very nature means that it does attract quite a few politicians and followers who hold really terrible, racist views.
I don’t think the whole party is that far right, or racist even, but they have a terrible PR problem due to a lot of their support and members holding decidedly not-nice views.
@ WeirwoodTreeHugger
To me, from the perspective of someone in the UK, it seems really off that politicians running for US President can do massive campaigns when they have loads of money. It seems like a perversion of capitalism, and while not endangering the democratic nature of the system, it seems a bit like being wealthy can skew it. It just seems quite- I’m not sure I can think of the words, it just doesn’t seem right. (Then again, I don’t know that much of American politics, so there could be other factors I can’t comment on.)
There’s progressive sources where I am doing the same.
Yes! A matter of fact, I am. Hello, there! Who are you called on FSTDT? I previously made a couple of posts under the name “SpukiKitty” but that was a while ago and it was more of a “false-start” here and it used my previous web inbox address (that I stopped using). So, I’m starting over from scratch.
Concerning ol’ Trumpy-pants, I read somewhere that he’s thinking of going to a third-party. I hope so, it’ll decrease his chances more!
Thank you so much! Glad to be here!
@ PinkiSyddyKitty
That’s what I’m going to call him now, I think!
He’s probably just as incompetent as mussolini too.
Yes, he said today that he’s running all the way to election day regardless of whether he’s picked as the Republican candidate.
And the near-certain outcome of an independent run will be to split the Republican vote and hand victory on a plate to Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders.
I’m pretty relaxed about this prospect.
I would say it actually does endanger Democracy. In theory – although never really in practice – anyone should be able to run for office regardless of their background and socioeconomic status. When it takes a ton of money to run for office and have a chance of winning, it means only the wealthy and connected have a shot of holding office. Increasingly, even small local elections like school board are becoming very well funded. How is that a government of the people? It really isn’t.
Various European nations had African slaves too. The difference is, they were in plantations away from the Eureopean continent and when slavery ended, they didn’t settle in Europe. They stayed in the Americas and the Caribbean. If freed African slaves were living in Europe amongst the Europeans I can almost guarantee those countries would’ve enacted similar laws to Jim Crow.
Let’s not pretend the US is uniquely racist and oppressive. Just look at how the Romani have been and still are treated all over Europe.
The US is unique in the following ways:
1. It is a country founded in modern times, without a lengthy history of wars and grudges.
2. It is a country founded by a blend of immigrants from several ethnic groups. Yes, I’m only talking about white people in that statement.
3. Through most of its formative history, it was separated from any power that could reasonably compete with it by a completely unreasonable travel time across the ocean.
That is literally it. That, right there, is American Exceptionalism, in total.
You will notice that the unique can-do, independent nature of the American people is not on the list. That’s because said uniqueness isn’t a thing.
Every single difference between the United States and non-US countries is a result of one or a combination of the above 3 factors.
You’re welcome.
Any other MST3K fans think of that bit from Pod People where Joel says “Trumpy, you can do stupid things!” every time you see another news story about Trump?
Or is that just me?
@weirwoodtreehugger
Thanks for the explanation. I should have realized that it has to do with the amount of money spent on campaigns by the candidates and third parties. After all, the money has to be spent somewhere, and preferably campaigning. 😀
@PinkiSyddyKitty
Hi hi! *waves*
I post occasionally on FSTDT under the name TheCunningLinguist, but I’m not very active on there. Cool to see you on here as well.
@PoM
One more thing in the American Exceptionalism list. For a long time much of the habitable area was largely empty and to some extent remains so. Yes, there were Native Americans, but their populations were not enough to fill that space. Disease and deliberate genocide (though killing or expulsion) did for the rest.
This is truly a fascinating story in American politics, perhaps the most outlandish event of it’s kind in American history. Trump’s campaign defies all traditional political thinking, which may be his single strongest asset to the Tea Partiers that appear to have become the core of the GOP and already love his entire platform. I mean, not allowing ANY Muslims into the US?? I keep thinking it’s an Onion article, but it’s Lester Holt’s voice on NBC Nightly News I hear telling me this! This is seriously what the GOP front runner’s plan is: cast all Muslim’s as the enemy, making all Muslim American’s 2nd class citizens in the process which is what Daesh want’s more than anything: to make this a war of the West against all Muslims in the world and usher in the apocalypse. So it’s the Tea Party, Nazis and the very terrorists we’re fighting who want Trump to be president of the US.
The trillion dollar question is: how far does this go? We keep thinking “that’s it, he’s done it now!” only to see his poll numbers stay strong if not improve. If it’s Trump Vs. Clinton or Sanders, can he actually win?
Ugh… My brain screams “NO NO NO!! NO FUCKING WAY IN HELL THAT CAN POSSIBLY HAPPEN!!!” But it’s a real possibility if he wins the GOP nom. …I think I’ll brush up on French and look into what emigrating to Canada entails if that’s the outcome…
I just came across this on Tumblr and wanted to share it with you all.
Here is a gif of a bald eagle smacking Donald Trump in the face. I think that sums things up pretty well. Enjoy!
http://49.media.tumblr.com/cd7c0e1ab22412b9486941b25ba17d91/tumblr_nz43dqVWhO1tsf68ao2_400.gif
@Nick Anderson
I think we need to find a way to impeach him immediately if that happens.
It’s scary how accurate Idiocracy was at predicting our future.