I can easily give an evasive politician answer to almost any one of these questions. The pressure is better put on the press--to call things by their proper name. Not "populist", but "fascist." Not "billionaire", but "oligarch." When quoting Republicans on "elites", add "[a common antisemitic dogwhistle]." Or when they use "Judeo-Christian", add "[a term resented by most American Jews.]" Or "thug": "[a common racist dogwhistle.]"
The press responds (somewhat) to pressure in favor of truthfulness. Republican politicians do not.
Everything we're experiencing is a resonance, of what happened in Europe a century ago, as weak, polarized democracies yielded to fascist and authoritarian movements.
True, the precipitating conditions are quite different. The fascist movements of today are less organic, more opportunistic and conspiratorial than those of a century ago. Our fascists learned from history: and what they learned was, you cannot take down a democratic government and replace it with authoritarianism unless the necessary conditions--- chaos, cynicism, polarization, disillusionment with democracy---are present.
The chaos in post WWI Europe was immense. Economically, environmentally, culturally, the war had broken everything. The graveyards of Europe were filled with unimaginable millions. Millions of men had died in battle, and millions of civilians had died as well, some of them victims of battle and massacres, many of famine or disease (the "Spanish" flu, which would kill tens of millions of people around the world, had broken out in the waning months of the war). Even after 1918 it went on. Civil war in Russia, genocide in Armenia, depression, hyperinflation--the post war period was brutal, bloody, and chaotic. .
That was the backdrop for the rise of fascism in Europe a century ago. The battered democracies of the continent became natural seed-beds for the rise of extremist elements--those who promised retribution, those who promised "order," those who shifted public rage from its proper targets (the very rich, the arrogant and powerful who had created all the chaos) to handy targets of distraction: Jews, socialists, intellectuals, artists, gay people, unseemly women, whoever was available.
In the US during the last half century, we haven't had world war, massive economic dysfunction, or any of the external factors that had broken the democracies of Europe.
But we have had a handful of very rich men with a learning curve: powerful men who resented the trend toward democratization in the US that had begun in the 1960s, and who feared that the country was moving away from its capitalist roots and toward a social democratic era.
They set about undoing democratic reform, launching a long war of legislative, executive, and judicial attrition, defunding the infrastructure, weakening the safety net, offshoring jobs, busting unions, and packing the federal judiciary with sympathetic judges who would help them undo the civil rights and voting rights laws and rulings that had, they believed, unduly empowered the "wrong sort" of people: women, people of color, blue collar workers, those who had, because of democratization, begun to enjoy a place at the American table.
They sold the American people a bill of goods through a propaganda war that lasted from the 1970s to the present day, escalating as new outlets became available (from "little magazines" and opinion columns to CSPAN and talk radio to Fox and social media) flooding the zone with right wing mantras that polarized us by race, gender, faith, region, education level---any possible fault line was exploited.
This multi-billion-dollar propaganda war, combined with the massive transfer of public wealth out of infrastructure and safety net spending (where it did ordinary people quite a bit of good) into the private pockets of the very rich, has created considerable cynicism, polarization, and distrust in the US: if not as much as the chaos of war had produced in Europe, at any rate sufficient for the purposes of the very rich.
The evidence suggests our democracy has been disrupted enough to pave the way for an authoritarian insurgency with a depressingly large popular following. Even if the authoritarians are held back in 2024, it will be an agonizingly long time, if ever, before we can undo the damage done.
I can easily give an evasive politician answer to almost any one of these questions. The pressure is better put on the press--to call things by their proper name. Not "populist", but "fascist." Not "billionaire", but "oligarch." When quoting Republicans on "elites", add "[a common antisemitic dogwhistle]." Or when they use "Judeo-Christian", add "[a term resented by most American Jews.]" Or "thug": "[a common racist dogwhistle.]"
The press responds (somewhat) to pressure in favor of truthfulness. Republican politicians do not.
Everything we're experiencing is a resonance, of what happened in Europe a century ago, as weak, polarized democracies yielded to fascist and authoritarian movements.
True, the precipitating conditions are quite different. The fascist movements of today are less organic, more opportunistic and conspiratorial than those of a century ago. Our fascists learned from history: and what they learned was, you cannot take down a democratic government and replace it with authoritarianism unless the necessary conditions--- chaos, cynicism, polarization, disillusionment with democracy---are present.
The chaos in post WWI Europe was immense. Economically, environmentally, culturally, the war had broken everything. The graveyards of Europe were filled with unimaginable millions. Millions of men had died in battle, and millions of civilians had died as well, some of them victims of battle and massacres, many of famine or disease (the "Spanish" flu, which would kill tens of millions of people around the world, had broken out in the waning months of the war). Even after 1918 it went on. Civil war in Russia, genocide in Armenia, depression, hyperinflation--the post war period was brutal, bloody, and chaotic. .
That was the backdrop for the rise of fascism in Europe a century ago. The battered democracies of the continent became natural seed-beds for the rise of extremist elements--those who promised retribution, those who promised "order," those who shifted public rage from its proper targets (the very rich, the arrogant and powerful who had created all the chaos) to handy targets of distraction: Jews, socialists, intellectuals, artists, gay people, unseemly women, whoever was available.
In the US during the last half century, we haven't had world war, massive economic dysfunction, or any of the external factors that had broken the democracies of Europe.
But we have had a handful of very rich men with a learning curve: powerful men who resented the trend toward democratization in the US that had begun in the 1960s, and who feared that the country was moving away from its capitalist roots and toward a social democratic era.
They set about undoing democratic reform, launching a long war of legislative, executive, and judicial attrition, defunding the infrastructure, weakening the safety net, offshoring jobs, busting unions, and packing the federal judiciary with sympathetic judges who would help them undo the civil rights and voting rights laws and rulings that had, they believed, unduly empowered the "wrong sort" of people: women, people of color, blue collar workers, those who had, because of democratization, begun to enjoy a place at the American table.
They sold the American people a bill of goods through a propaganda war that lasted from the 1970s to the present day, escalating as new outlets became available (from "little magazines" and opinion columns to CSPAN and talk radio to Fox and social media) flooding the zone with right wing mantras that polarized us by race, gender, faith, region, education level---any possible fault line was exploited.
This multi-billion-dollar propaganda war, combined with the massive transfer of public wealth out of infrastructure and safety net spending (where it did ordinary people quite a bit of good) into the private pockets of the very rich, has created considerable cynicism, polarization, and distrust in the US: if not as much as the chaos of war had produced in Europe, at any rate sufficient for the purposes of the very rich.
The evidence suggests our democracy has been disrupted enough to pave the way for an authoritarian insurgency with a depressingly large popular following. Even if the authoritarians are held back in 2024, it will be an agonizingly long time, if ever, before we can undo the damage done.
Heyo, I cancelled all my substack subscriptions due to the platform refusing to stop making money from Nazis. (see: https://www.theverge.com/2023/12/21/24011232/substack-nazi-moderation-demonetization-hamish-mckenzie)
If there's a good way to support you (kofi? patreon? direct paypal?) please post about it.