Yes, It's Fascism

[allegorical oracle]

The Atlantic - By Jonathan Rauch

Until recently, I thought it a term best avoided. But now, the resemblances are too many and too strong to deny.

snip

Glorification of violence. Every state uses violence to enforce its laws, but liberal states use it reluctantly, whereas fascism embraces and flaunts it. Trump thus praises a violent mob; endorses torture; muses fondly about punching, body-slamming, and shooting protesters and journalists; and reportedly suggests shooting protesters and migrants. His recruitment ads for ICE glamorize military-style raids of homes and neighborhoods; his propaganda takes childish delight in the killing of civilians; and we have all seen videos of agents dragging people out of cars and homes—partly because the government films them. Like the demolition of civic decency, the valorization of violence is not incidental to fascism; it is part and parcel.

Also characteristic of fascism is what George Orwell called “bully-worship”: the principle that, as Thucydides famously put it, “the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.” This view came across in Trump’s notorious Oval Office meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in which Trump showed open contempt for what he regarded as Ukraine’s weakness; it came across explicitly, and chillingly, when Stephen Miller, the president’s most powerful aide, told CNN’s Jack Tapper: “We live in a world, in the real world, that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power. These are the iron laws of the world that have existed since the beginning of time.”

snip

Police-state tactics. Trump has turned ICE into a sprawling paramilitary that roves the country at will, searches and detains noncitizens and citizens without warrants, uses force ostentatiously, operates behind masks, receives skimpy training, lies about its activities, and has been told that it enjoys “absolute immunity.” He more than doubled the agency’s size in 2025, and its budget is now larger than those of all other federal law-enforcement agencies combined, and larger than the entire military budgets of all but 15 countries. “This is going to affect every community, every city,” the Cato Institute scholar David Bier recently observed.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/yes-it-s-fascism/ar-AA1UWfO5

[paleotn]

1. Mike Godwin himself suspended his own Law (Godwin's Law) for the duration of Donnie the orange.

That was way back in 2017. And this Atlantic writer is just now getting the memo? Well, better late than never I guess. On a side note, I wonder how good said writer is at identifying ducks?

https://www.thestranger.com/politics/2018/06/19/27874178/godwins-law-suspended-by-godwin

[allegorical oracle]

2. Better late than never. Thought he phrased his illumination cogently.