Ruth Ben-Ghiat - Biden as an Authoritarian: A Phony Talking Point

[Nevilledog]

https://lucid.substack.com/p/biden-as-an-authoritarian-a-phony

*snip*

It may be tempting to dismiss such rhetoric. Biden is hardly a man of the left, and he has made the defense of democracy against autocracy a theme of his foreign policy speeches. Yet we need to take this phony argument seriously. It is designed to take polarization to the next level, by peddling the idea that Commies/Radical Lefties/Socialists are out to destroy free will, spiritual life, and civilization as we know it. It is designed to depict Biden as an existential threat and foster survivalist thinking. And what do you do to survive? Anything necessary.

Unlike Democrats, Republicans have a formidable media machine that dispenses disinformation such as this to hundreds of millions every day. They know that propaganda works through repetition, but for maximum impact different sectors of society should deliver the same message, with small variations that cater to the tastes of their constituencies. That's what's happening right now with the "Biden as authoritarian" line.

Fox News hammers home the threat of socialism almost daily, providing a frame for its audience to interpret every Biden action. The president's public welfare measures, like subsidies to mitigate the pandemic's economic effects, become socialist handouts. And mask and vaccine mandates, which follow best public health practices, are evidence for millions that Biden is the Adolf Hitler of our times.

Fox also trots out survivors of state socialism in Eastern Europe, like Rebekah Koffler, to warn that political correctness, intolerance of religious feeling, and education in schools about "sex-related garbage" (presumably sexual diversity and the rights of LGBTQ+ individuals) portend the development of socialism in America.

*snip*

Link to tweet

Tweet text:
Ruth Ben-Ghiat
@ruthbenghiat
This is a democratic emergency. And why I wrote this piece. GOP thugs use the fiction of Dems=socialists to justify violence. https://lucid.substack.com/p/biden-as-an-authoritarian-a-phony…

Ron Filipkowski
@RonFilipkowski
Marge Greene says in 2022 she is going to “blow away the Democrats’ socialist agenda,” then blows up a car with “socialism” on it with a 50-caliber rifle she is auctioning off for contributions.
Embedded video
7:29 AM · Sep 18, 2021

[spanone]

1. It's legal to own a 50 caliber machine gun?

[Thomas Hurt]

2. If you can pass the background check, you can get a federal license to own automatic weapons.

[Igel]

4. Usually caveatted with "in theory."

It's hard to acquire one. In some states to start the process you get the local police to sign off on it. Then there's the federal background check, which isn't the same as the usual background check for a semi-automatic.

And the gun has to be from before 1986, meaning that the supply is limited and the rifles themselves are scarce.


Not bad, but still making it sound easier than it is ...

https://www.boisestatepublicradio.org/news/2018-12-21/automatic-weapons-are-legal-but-it-takes-a-lot-to-get-one-of-the-630-000-in-the-u-s

My brother thought about getting one maybe 8, 9 years ago. Wasn't sure he'd pass the background check.

My brother's been a federally registered firearms dealer since the mid 1970s ... with a clean record.

[Midnight Writer]

3. MGT with a gun is scarier than a monkey with a scalpel.