And normalization proves surprisingly easy as institutions like the media, educational institutions, religious bodies, corporations and the business community, get on board with what they see happening — the wave of the future, they tell themselves, the winning side.

One way fascism normalizes itself — always — is by pretending to be all about the economic betterment of economically oppressed people.

#Trump #fascism #cruelty #future
/2

Once institutions like the media get on board with that claim and spread it further through the population, people begin to think that what really drew them to the shock-and-awe spectacles with their rejection of norms and frank celebration of cruelty was all about economics in the first place.

It's never about the thrill of cruelty, of targeting demeaned others. It's always about the price of eggs.

But, of course, it's not about that at all.

#Trump #fascism #cruelty #future
/3

"Explaining the rise of Trump as a consequence of economic forces battering the working class is not a new approach. In 2016, we were told the culprit was globalization and the related 'China shock' that destroyed 1 million or so manufacturing jobs. This analysis pegged generally pro-trade mainstream Democrats (and Republicans) as a gang of cosmopolitan elites uninterested in the fortunes of blue-collar Americans."

~ Eduardo Porter

#Trump #fascism #cruelty #future
/4

washingtonpost.com/opinions/20…

"Just like today, this analysis misses the forest for the trees. Twice already, more or less half of American voters have elected a guy who promises to overthrow the liberal world order — to do away with democratic institutions, values, and norms, trample on human rights, blow up the economy — and to bend the nation, and the world, to his will."

#Trump #fascism #cruelty #future
/5

"For all the polls demonstrating Americans’ grim assessment of the economy, consumers have kept up spending as if they have few worries in the world. For all the gripes about the cost of living, real wages for typical American workers have been rising faster than inflation."

#Trump #fascism #cruelty #future
/6

"In a NORC survey in 2017 that focused on questions related to American identity, almost half of respondents said that illegal immigration amounted to a threat to 'the American way of life.' Seventy-one percent of respondents to that poll said the United States was 'losing its national identity.'

This unease extends to other dimensions, such as religion and sexuality."

#Trump #fascism #cruelty #future
/7

"Overall, 52 percent of respondents to a poll last year by the Public Religion Research Institute and the Brookings Institution thought that America’s best days are behind it. Fifty-five percent, including three quarters of Republicans, said the country’s way of life has mostly changed for the worse since the 1950s.

Altogether, three-fourths of Americans today believe the United States is headed in the wrong direction."

#Trump #fascism #cruelty #future
/8

"Voters who ignored the facts about the economy and used them as an excuse to vote for Trump weren’t people who wanted a change. They were people who, actually, didn’t want any change at all. They didn't like new policies advanced by the Biden-Harris administration, a more inclusive vision of America where traditionally marginalized people had equal opportunity. They didn’t want a new generation of leadership."

~ Joyce Vance

#Trump #fascism #cruelty #future
/9

joycevance.substack.com/p/givi…

"Giving Up Is Unforgivable"

I’m not certain it’s possible to understand what happened in the 2024 election this close to it, beyond the undeniable outcome: Donald Trump will be the next president of the United States.

^{Joyce Vance (Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance)}

"They wanted the 'old stability,' the patriarchy that has run the country for generations. In many ways, that's what’s at the heart of the conservative coalition. It's not a rejection of the established order; it's an embrace of it."

Voters may be in for a shock, though, when they see what they ACTUALLY get:

"The Trump presidency isn’t a pick-your-adventure experience, where you can get some parts of Trump’s plan, but not all of it."

#Trump #fascism #cruelty #future
/10

“If Donald Trump says tariffs work, tariffs work. Because Donald Trump is really never wrong. Think about it. He is never wrong.”

~ Texas Rep. Troy Nehls (R)

#Trump #fascism #cruelty #future
/11

maxburns.substack.com/p/can-do…

Can Donald Trump Do That?

Unpacking the facts in a time of constitutional uncertainty

^{Max Burns (The Third Degree)}

"Christian Reconstructionism is now at the edge of power in the United States, and the attitude of the relevant people towards the female body and indeed towards rape is an essential element of what is happening and what is likely to happen. Both-sidesism, prudery, and euphemisms are keeping much of the media from bringing this story together in time."

~ Timothy Snyder

#Trump #fascism #cruelty #future
/12

snyder.substack.com/p/men-and-…

Men and Women Perform

Handmaid Fails, 1/3

^{Timothy Snyder (Thinking about...)}

As Wajahat Ali points out, we're being told that "Americans voted for Republicans because they were promised a better economy, cheaper eggs, security, and the romanticized promise of becoming 'great again.”'

Yet, we immediately see them as victors roll out stepped-up attacks on trans people.

How do those attacks address the price of eggs? And what did Americans who say it's all about eggs REALLY want when they voted for Trump?

#Trump #fascism #cruelty #future
/13

thelefthook.substack.com/p/how…

How Will Bullying Trans People Get Us Cheaper Eggs? On Nancy Mace and the GOP’s Crusade of Cruelty and Division

Since Republicans have no solutions for Americans seeking better economic opportunities, they resort to their cruel & divisive strategy of scapegoating the trans community. It's time we say, "Enough."

^{THE LEFT HOOK with Wajahat Ali (The Left Hook with Wajahat Ali)}

"Trump’s cabinet appointments are agents of his contempt, rage and vengeance. … Wrecking the government is not only Trump’s technique for gaining submission and compliance, but is his ultimate purpose."

~ Sidney Blumenthal

#Trump #fascism #cruelty #future
/14

theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

Trump’s cabinet picks are agents of his contempt, rage and vengeance

With them, Trump will tear down any person or institution that tried to restrain his worst impulses or hold him accountable

^{Sidney Blumenthal (The Guardian)}

"One of the reasons those of us who’ve been paying attention were devastated by the results of the 2024 election is because we know not only how cruel my uncle and his supporters are, but just how cruel they intend to be. …

In the last two weeks, Donald has made it clear through his cabinet picks that he—and they—intend to cause as much pain as possible to their perceived enemies and to the most vulnerable among us."

~ Mary Trump

#Trump #fascism #cruelty #future
/15

marytrump.org/p/cruelty-as-tac…

Cruelty as Tactic

Who traffics in identity politics?

^{Mary L. Trump (The Good in Us by Mary L. Trump)}

"Trump is … an atavist, inviting citizens to satisfy all of their hungry drives, all of their libidinous instincts: His America is a place for malign energies to express themselves in action. There’s a certain pleasure in that, perhaps, a kind of psychic relief—to lose oneself in a radical movement and to express feelings normally prohibited by society."

~ Elizabeth Bruenig

The cruelty is the point.

#Trump #fascism #cruelty #future
/16

theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…

Freud Is Having a Moment

Who else but Sigmund Freud to help explain?

^{Elizabeth Bruenig (The Atlantic)}

"Beyond all the hot takes of who was up and who was down compared to the last election, the clearest answer to why Trump will be returning to the White House is that white Christians, more than any other religious group, returned to the polls to put him there."

~ Robert P. Jones

#Trump #fascism #cruelty #future
/17

whitetoolong.net/p/the-rest-of…

The Rest of the Story: White Christians and the Second Coming of Trump

Sharing my interview with Jennifer Rubin at The Washington Post and Chauncey Devega at Salon.

^{Robert P. Jones (White Too Long by Robert P. Jones)}

"Trump once more owes his victory entirely ... to the votes of white Christian nationalists, people who frankly overwhelmingly favor strong leaders. They want someone to be the victor against evil. They want someone to crush their enemies."

~ Jennifer Rubin

#Trump #fascism #cruelty #future
/18

youtube.com/watch?v=4lDifr-Fn-…

"They want someone to impose their Christian values on the rest of us and they take a dim view, frankly, of the ast 50 or 60 years of progress for women minorities anyone who isn't a white male."

#Trump #fascism #cruelty #future
/19

"The biggest thing mainstream analysis refuses to comprehend is the continued power of a politics of racial grievance and religious nostalgia among white Christian Americans."

~ Robert P. Jones

The media comprehend this. They just do not intend to admit it, because tax cuts for their super-rich owners and managers count more than anything, and admitting the price of getting those tax cuts is shameful.

#Trump #fascism #cruelty #future
/20

salon.com/2024/11/15/the-ultim…

The ultimate answer to why Donald Trump won: White Christians

The "religious nostalgia" that unites White Christians under Trump has propelled his rise since the beginning

^Salon.com

"The answer to the question on so many Americans’ lips — 'How did we get here?' — is straightforward. That answer won’t be found in the margins of which group shifted toward Trump between 2020 and 2024. It is right in front of us. White evangelical Protestants, along with other conservative white Christians, were the principal actors who baptized, defended, rehabilitated and sustained Trump’s candidacy."

#Trump #fascism #cruelty #future
/21