'Something Far Worse Than MAGA'

[pat_k]

2. Unhumans - Christian Nationalism - Christian Fascism

It is beyond my ability to wrap my head around where we are at this juncture. The unimaginable 30 years ago is being normalized and is gaining footholds in the mainstream.

The book "Unhumans" -- the far, far, far right dystopian vision of fascism saving the world -- is a prime example too.

Unhumans

Forward by Bannon,
Blurbed by J.D. Vance, Don Jr., and Tucker Carlson, among others.

Opinion
Michelle Goldberg
JD Vance Just Blurbed a Book Arguing That Progressives Are Subhuman
Aug. 5, 2024

Paywall free link to NYTimes
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/05/opinion/jd-vance-fascism-unhumans.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Bk4.xGes.1_ONuyrQ-M2p&smid=url-share

. . .
“Unhumans,” an anti-democratic screed that Posobiec co-wrote with the professional ghostwriter Joshua Lisec, comes with endorsements from some of the most influential people in Republican politics, including, most significantly, vice-presidential candidate JD Vance.

As they tell it, modern progressivism is just the latest incarnation of an ancient evil dating back to the late Roman Republic and continuing through the French Revolution and Communism to today. Often, they write, “great men of means” are required to crush this scourge. The contempt for democracy in “Unhumans” is not subtle. “Our study of history has brought us to this conclusion: Democracy has never worked to protect innocents from the unhumans,” write Posobiec and Lisec.

One of their book’s heroes is the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco, who overthrew the democratic Second Spanish Republic in the country’s 1930s civil war. The authors call him a “great man of history” and compare him to George Washington. They quote him on what doesn’t work against the unhuman threat: “We do not believe in government through the voting booth. The Spanish national will was never freely expressed through the ballot box.”

Nakedly authoritarian ideas like this one are not uncommon in the dank corners of the reactionary internet, or among the sort of groups that led the Jan. 6 insurrection. “Unhumans” lauds Augusto Pinochet, leader of the Chilean military junta who led a coup against Salvador Allende’s elected government in 1973, ushering in a reign of torture and repression that involved tossing political enemies from helicopters.

Pinochet-inspired helicopter memes have been common in the MAGA movement for years. And as the historian David Austin Walsh wrote last year, there’s long been a cult of Franco on the right. Nevertheless, it’s extremely unusual for a candidate for vice president of the United States to openly align himself with autocratic terror.
. . .

I am mystified that the title of this book and the author isn't being spread as far and wide as the danger of project 2025.

Unhumans goes so much farther down the dystopian authoritarian path.

By blurbing this book, Vance, Carlson, and Don Jr. are endorsing the glorification of the reign of murdering facists like Franco and Pinochet nd endorsing a vision of DT/Vance leading a similar purge.

We can keep the focus on the message of hope and joy, but we CANNOT ignore the implication of this book and how utterly horrifying the premise and "solutions" offered are.