06-04-2019, 10:39 AM
(06-04-2019, 09:59 AM)Beaker Wrote: Trump is an absolute moron and an embarrassment, but those who call him fascist are way off base and don't actually know what true fascism is.
I have typically seen it defined as a combination of nationalism and authoritarianism. He rose to the presidency relying on nationalism, and he certainly has authoritarian tendencies. He hasn't been able to completely fulfill those tendencies because of the guardrails of democracy holding him from it, but those guardrails have a lot of dents in them right now.
People hear fascism and all they think of is the end result. The fascist dictators that have made the history books. But those are the "success" stories. For every one of those, there are budding fascists that have tested democracies all over the world, and I truly believe Trump is one of those. There are a lot of people in the field of political science that see it this way, as well. Well respected scholars see proto-fascist tendencies within our country right now, scholars that have researched the rise and fall of democracies at the hands of fascists around the globe.
So people that dismiss the claims of fascism with Trump as easily as you are the ones that don't truly know fascism. The history, the trends, the rise of it around the world. It's more of a concern in this country than you realize.
"A great democracy has got to be progressive, or it will soon cease to be either great or a democracy..." - TR
"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little." - FDR
"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little." - FDR
