[Pants-of-dog]

This is the list of warning signs of fascism in the US Holocaust museum:

Powerful and continuing nationalism
Disdain for human rights
Identification of enemies as a unifying cause
Supremacy of the military
Rampant sexism
Controlled mass media
Obsession with national security
Religion and government intertwined
Corporate power protected
Labor power suppressed
Disdain for intellectuals & the arts
Obsession with crime & punishment
Rampant cronyism & corruption
Fraudulent elections

I think the USA has had many of these since before Trump. Specifically, the following traits have always been part of US culture or policy:

Powerful and continuing nationalism
Disdain for human rights
Identification of enemies as a unifying cause
Obsession with national security
Corporate power protected
Labor power suppressed
Obsession with crime & punishment

Trump has added these:

Rampant sexism
Disdain for intellectuals & the arts

So, while Trump has dragged the USA a little closer to fascism, the US is pretty much the same fascism-lite it has always been.

[ArtAllm]

Fascism isn't coming to America only, it's coming to the world. Orwell must be credited for foreseeing it, he even predicted its geography.

Orwell was definitely talking about the Commie dictatorship, not about fascism.

Re-read 1984!
He was talking about "разруха" (economic devastation), previously pictured by Bulgakov in his novel Heart of a Dog.

In 1984 there was no working sewage!

He predicted the description of a working economy and total devastation, similar to the Bolshevik Russia!

In a fascist or NS regime the economy and the sewage system in particular functioned very well, there was no "разруха" in Italy or Germany, because there still were private ownership and companies, and Orwell knew it very well!

[Beren]

Orwell was definitely talking about the Commie dictatorship, not about fascism.

Commie dictatorship was red Fascism. But maybe we could replace the term with Totalitarianism and then we have a perfect phraseology.

[jimjam]

Billionaire-funded fascism is rising in America, calling itself “conservativism” and “Trumpism.” They claim to be super-patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. They demand free enterprise, but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest. Their final objective, toward which all their deceit is directed, is to capture political power so that using the power of the State and the power of the market simultaneously they may keep the common man in eternal subjection.

[One Degree]

The only threat of fascism is in the guise of liberalism. It is not conservatives promoting hate laws, censorship, ostracism, and firing people for their views. It is not conservatives advocating silencing the opposition. You want to believe evil people are obvious when in reality they are devious and always pretend to be one thing to actually accomplish another. That is what is being done with liberalism. Stop and think about the things above being promoted in the name of freedom and equality. They all accomplish the opposite.

[jimjam]

Stop and think about the things above being promoted in the name of freedom and equality. They all accomplish the opposite.

Huge tax breaks for billionaires, elimination/destruction of health care for non billionaires, increased concentration of wealth for the top 1% and destruction of the middle class? I could not agree more.

[One Degree]

Huge tax breaks for billionaires, elimination/destruction of health care for non billionaires, increased concentration of wealth for the top 1% and destruction of the middle class? I could not agree more.

That’s unregulated capitalism, not fascism. No one is suffering real harm because of wealth inequity. It may be ‘unfair’, but our current safety net provides a lot more than necessities if you are willing to go by the moral code requirements. We are suffering from an attack on our freedoms and independence. The end game of both the RNC and DNC is to restrict wealth and freedom. Which is why you are blind if you don’t support a populist no matter his personal failings. The only thing that matters is he is offering us a way out of our current disastrous path.

[SpecialOlympian]

No one is suffering real harm because of wealth inequity.

Lmao yes they are.

People are literally dying because of it.

[One Degree]

Lmao yes they are.

People are literally dying because of it.

Only if they refuse to give up their drugs or alcohol. I will exempt the mentally unstable from my comment. I know my state only offers ‘free mental health couseling’ to criminals. The liberals insisting they be put on the streets instead of being institutionalized has been a disaster.

[SpecialOlympian]

What are you talking about? Not being able to afford regular medical check ups or care for when symptoms those check ups could have prevented is killing people.

The liberals insisting they be put on the streets instead of being institutionalized has been a disaster.

Reagan was the one who put the mentally ill on the streets, hope that helps.

[One Degree]

What are you talking about? Not being able to afford regular medical check ups or care for when symptoms those check ups could have prevented is killing people.



Reagan was the one who put the mentally ill on the streets, hope that helps.

Nonsense. Our poorest qualify for Medicaid. It covers more than millions of working and retired people can afford. I would love to have free dental and vision. I would love to have free transportation. We now have the PACE program for those who can’t live by themselves. 3 people in my building of 20 have entered it. It is like living in a luxury hotel from what they have come back to tell us. They are responsible for nothing. Everything is provided.
Liberals pushed it, it is silly to suggest conservatives would start such a push.

Edit: @SpecialOlympian
I should have clarified. PACE is only for those who qualify for Medicaid.

[SpecialOlympian]

Nonsense. Our poorest qualify for Medicaid. It covers more than millions of working and retired people can afford. I would love to have free dental and vision.

Republican governors have specifically been turning down Medicaid money for their states.

[One Degree]

Republican governors have specifically been turning down Medicaid money for their states.

Good for them. The only reason Washington was allowed to control health and education was through bribes to the states. The fact we have a ‘Secretary of Health and Human Services’ is absurd. How can you have a secretary of something meant to be reserved to the states?

[SpecialOlympian]

1°: Medicaid and social programs are luxuriously decadent, efficient, and effective. If only I could enjoy their bounty!

Also 1°: We must cripple the mechanisms which make them function.

[maz]

This is a Yale professor? I highlighted the gobbledygook. Keep in mind that the media said this for the entire Bush administration, and the fringe right said the same thing about Obama.

Yale philosopher gives a frightening explanation of how fascism is seeping into America

A Yale University philosophy professor said the news cycle’s lightning-fast pace in the social media age is helping President Donald Trump blur the line between truth and fiction — and nudging the U.S. toward fascism.

Jason Stanley, author of the new book “How Fascism Works,” said the accelerated news cycle undermines democratic institutions that rely on an informed electorate and permits Trump to twist reality for his own purposes.

“A democratic culture is one that reflects truth,” Stanley told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “Democracy is based on two values, liberty and equality. Nobody thinks the people of North Korea are free because they have been lied to — they don’t know what they are doing.”

“Equality means you can speak truth to power,” he added. “Fascism is ideology based on loyalty, power and fear of the other, so you have to smash truths so no one can speak truth to power.”

News in the age of Trump moves from one scandal to the next, with barely a pause before a major story is wiped from the front page, and Stanley said that hands the president and his partisans a major advantage in gathering power.

“It’s an old tactic to attack the mainstream press,” Stanley said, “so there is no uniform reality on which to base our shared citizenship, so when we can just pick and choose among any news stream that fits our proclivities, we can just think that reality is, in fact, vacuous and it’s our team versus your team. When it’s your team vs. my team, we don’t have a respect for truth and just look to who has the best show and who is on my team.”

Stanley said the president’s behavior since entering politics have signaled his autocratic tendencies.

“The initial warning signs are attacking the mainstream media, attacking truth,” he said. “Conspiracy theories are particularly worrisome signs, birther-ism was very worrisome sign, is a sort of standard way to attack the mainstream media. You say, ‘The mainstream media is controlled by some shady forces, and you can tell because they’re not reporting on the conspiracy theory.’ (Then) they have to report on the conspiracy theory and they give it validity.”

[One Degree]

1°: Medicaid and social programs are luxuriously decadent, efficient, and effective. If only I could enjoy their bounty!

Also 1°: We must cripple the mechanisms which make them function.

The major problem is the Washington elites and many of their well off supporters have absolutely no idea what a poor man’s working life is like. They pass social programs that seem basic to them, but to the poor working man they appear outrageously unfair. If you are working your butt off and not able to afford what people on Medicaid can get, then the system is broken. Why work for less than you can get by pretending to be an alcoholic? I am not against helping the poor. I am against elites who have no idea what they are doing. Local government has a more realistic view of what is fair. This is why they should have authority over these programs.
A millionaire is not capable of deciding what the poor need.

[Steve_American]

@One Degree,
I wonder if you realize that you undercut your own argument there.
Even if we accept that those on Medicaid all get good medical care (which I do not believe), even if we accept that ---
when you admit that the working poor get much worse medical care, you shoot your argument full of holes.
The working poor could be the ones who will die and are dying from lack of good medical care.
.

[One Degree]

@One Degree,
I wonder if you realize that you undercut your own argument there.
Even if we accept that those on Medicaid all get good medical care (which I do not believe), even if we accept that ---
when you admit that the working poor get much worse medical care, you shoot your argument full of holes.
The working poor could be the ones who will die and are dying from lack of good medical care.
.

No I didn’t. My argument has always been geared toward making the system ‘fair and equitable’, not on giving the poor everything the wealthy think the poor need. We should not be worried about giving everything to everyone, but what we can afford. The poor should never receive benefits the lowest the full time worker can not afford. That is not fair and equitable.

[Pants-of-dog]

A public health care system that gives access to all people and is free at point of service for all people would be fair and equitable.

[SolarCross]

A public health care system that gives access to all people and is free at point of service for all people would be fair and equitable.

The best example of that would be the NHS of the UK probably. I don't think it is necessarily a terrible way to do healthcare but it isn't really better than a fully private solution such as in Switzerland. The NHS is a state monopoly though which is potentially dangerous if the government is not democratic. It also requires the government shoulder some pretty huge liablities which in turn means dragging a huge tax take across the people. In general it is better for the government and the people if taxes are not overly burdensome. If people find ways of not paying or not paying as much as the government would need while the government is committed to spending like crazy on huge projects (like universal free-at-the-point-of-access healthcare) that it can't manage then shit goes wrong really quickly see: Greece, Spain and Italy. Private healthcare is reliably efficient and allows for more choice and far less risk of large scale financial meltdowns.