A chilling reminder that throwing Kristi Noem etal under the bus is another devious way to make us think the movement towards authoritarianism has been disrupted. I recently read a post about how Hitler used the Brown Shirts to terrorize people on the streets, but got rid of them when he needed the army to establish his power. As I understand it, ICE=Brown Shirts.
And there’s the Havel story of those under the Soviets who, out of fear, dissembled conformity with the correct signs. The all male Black Shirts in Italy preceded the brown ones. Progressively, we don’t gender discriminate. Stalin granted free speech for a while, I heard, so as to expose his enemies.
This is both an excellent and scary commentary on precisely what is happening! America needs to quickly wake up, speak up and fight to defeat the fascists before we lose our Constitutional democracy!
I have tried to speak with my significant other about this. I have tried to speak with my family and friends and acquaintances. I have, like so many others, been sounding the alarm going on a decade now. I have been called a crank, a doomsayer; I have been told "that can't happen here"; I have been scolded that Americans "have it much better" than people in other countries. I have been told if I don't like the way things are my vote can fix it. Ad nauseum.
I do not take any comfort at all in being "right" about every damn thing I warned of coming true. It wasn't a "prediction," and I'm no damn seer. I simply have eyes and ears and a brain capable of the most elementary critical thinking and processing. I blew up at somebody the other day who accused me of "talking politics." As if the shit going down is akin to "Butter Emails" or Obama wearing a tan suit. Surrounded by absolutely willingly blind people who believe none of this concerns them, or will affect them at all.
If I'm being generous, I can squint enough to understand these people who live in Missouri. But we are in a suburb of Kansas City, a Democratic run city that is primed for the ICE fist any day now. It's coming. I'm no fool, but I'm living amongst feckless tools, and I suppose I lost my mind several years back. I'm getting it back now, but it's supercharged and swarming with angry hornets.
I'm grateful for this site and the good people who subscribe and comment. Being able to log in and be amongst my tribe is a balm right now. Take care of each other.
Thanks for your company here Robb. Those “can’t happen here” blind you described are on one side of the sandwich, the supremacist fanatics on the other and we, the rest, like the cheese, in the middle. Watching the sandwich take shape is like seeing Godzilla swagger out of the ocean. Our collective epitaph will say, “We believed History did not apply to us.”
Jimmy Kimmel got fired, then people started cancelling subscriptions and the wealthy in control of that decision shit their pants and brought him back, with apologies. They understand money, they crave it like love and would probably ration their water if it meant getting more money and power. Stop giving them your money. Capitalism, at least in theory, works because we vote with our dollars. Let's test it out with concerted effort. If you want to give your money to Amazon and get really into using AI, then those businesses will get stronger. From the "tippy top," as our demented leader likes to say, for those with monopoly power over things we are addicted to, maintaining that is not seen as a choice, it is a religious conviction, a crusade. They will only move and act to get bigger and stronger, but they can be controlled and not allowed to further dominate our politics, unless we decide we will just sit back and let them.
Some of the infrastructure for organizing massive acts of resistance is already in place. It needs more. Just for the theater of it- let’s bankrupt the Adelson casinos or any other regime donor. Just for starters. A test case for voting with dollars. Meetings of Emergency Committees all over the place.
Excellent article. You, @Hamilton Nolan, consistently and succinctly have done an amazing job summarizing where we are at and what we might/can do to prevent Trump from implementing his diabolical immigrant free vision for the United States. Keep up the good work. Thank you.
"Those with the most power are always the most insulated from the direct effects of the government’s oppression. In order to use their power for good we must get them to overcome their natural cowardice and sense of self-preservation."
I hope that we can achieve this through whatever means we can, and I also take heart from this dictum by William Gibson about societies built by fascist grifters:
"Authoritarian societies are inherently corrupt, and corrupt societies are inherently unstable. Rule of thieves brings collapse, eventually, because they can't stop stealing."
The power and courage of ordinary people in the face of this thinly disguised authoritarianism to even risk and, subsequently, lose their lives is beyond inspiring. It is also proof positive that this administration will never see that top rung.
I think there's been a complete lack of long-term thinking from a lot of the corporate landscape. Billionaires and the monolithic corporations are chasing instant gratification, short-term profits, impossible quarter-over-quarter growth forever.
Yet their bending over for the current administration is going to lead to long-term blowback. Censorship of late-night hosts leading to drastic loss in viewership and large scale subscription cancellations. Aligning themselves with an administration that's forcing us further into isolationism with terrible foreign affairs and aggressive tariffs will reduce these corporation's own abilities to increase global trade and profitability. Constant mergers and conglomeration into the hands of those looking to censor and manipulate media/platforms the most, once again leading to a large exodus of their user base (they can only inflate numbers with bots to fool themselves into thinking things are healthy but for so long).
We're seeing the most feckless leadership class of corporate culture imaginable. As consumers, we have an obligation to stop shopping, cancel subscriptions, and speak out. The cracks will begin to show, and they'll have some terrible quarters eventually, and the bubble will burst. They could be Ben and Jerry's, but they're choosing the target on their back and it's time for us to X out the tab.
A chilling reminder that throwing Kristi Noem etal under the bus is another devious way to make us think the movement towards authoritarianism has been disrupted. I recently read a post about how Hitler used the Brown Shirts to terrorize people on the streets, but got rid of them when he needed the army to establish his power. As I understand it, ICE=Brown Shirts.
And there’s the Havel story of those under the Soviets who, out of fear, dissembled conformity with the correct signs. The all male Black Shirts in Italy preceded the brown ones. Progressively, we don’t gender discriminate. Stalin granted free speech for a while, I heard, so as to expose his enemies.
Thank you for that addition - we need to study their playbook to stay ahead of it.
Your Stacks are essential reading - especially now. Thank you.
“I expect little courage from the already-powerful, and, in aggregate, they have so far justified this expectation.”
This. All damn day.
This is both an excellent and scary commentary on precisely what is happening! America needs to quickly wake up, speak up and fight to defeat the fascists before we lose our Constitutional democracy!
Wake up and smell the nightmare.
I have tried to speak with my significant other about this. I have tried to speak with my family and friends and acquaintances. I have, like so many others, been sounding the alarm going on a decade now. I have been called a crank, a doomsayer; I have been told "that can't happen here"; I have been scolded that Americans "have it much better" than people in other countries. I have been told if I don't like the way things are my vote can fix it. Ad nauseum.
I do not take any comfort at all in being "right" about every damn thing I warned of coming true. It wasn't a "prediction," and I'm no damn seer. I simply have eyes and ears and a brain capable of the most elementary critical thinking and processing. I blew up at somebody the other day who accused me of "talking politics." As if the shit going down is akin to "Butter Emails" or Obama wearing a tan suit. Surrounded by absolutely willingly blind people who believe none of this concerns them, or will affect them at all.
If I'm being generous, I can squint enough to understand these people who live in Missouri. But we are in a suburb of Kansas City, a Democratic run city that is primed for the ICE fist any day now. It's coming. I'm no fool, but I'm living amongst feckless tools, and I suppose I lost my mind several years back. I'm getting it back now, but it's supercharged and swarming with angry hornets.
I'm grateful for this site and the good people who subscribe and comment. Being able to log in and be amongst my tribe is a balm right now. Take care of each other.
Thanks for your company here Robb. Those “can’t happen here” blind you described are on one side of the sandwich, the supremacist fanatics on the other and we, the rest, like the cheese, in the middle. Watching the sandwich take shape is like seeing Godzilla swagger out of the ocean. Our collective epitaph will say, “We believed History did not apply to us.”
because we have it much better here it means there is the capacity to have it much worse
The truth. Essential and grim. Thank you.
Jimmy Kimmel got fired, then people started cancelling subscriptions and the wealthy in control of that decision shit their pants and brought him back, with apologies. They understand money, they crave it like love and would probably ration their water if it meant getting more money and power. Stop giving them your money. Capitalism, at least in theory, works because we vote with our dollars. Let's test it out with concerted effort. If you want to give your money to Amazon and get really into using AI, then those businesses will get stronger. From the "tippy top," as our demented leader likes to say, for those with monopoly power over things we are addicted to, maintaining that is not seen as a choice, it is a religious conviction, a crusade. They will only move and act to get bigger and stronger, but they can be controlled and not allowed to further dominate our politics, unless we decide we will just sit back and let them.
Some of the infrastructure for organizing massive acts of resistance is already in place. It needs more. Just for the theater of it- let’s bankrupt the Adelson casinos or any other regime donor. Just for starters. A test case for voting with dollars. Meetings of Emergency Committees all over the place.
Excellent article. You, @Hamilton Nolan, consistently and succinctly have done an amazing job summarizing where we are at and what we might/can do to prevent Trump from implementing his diabolical immigrant free vision for the United States. Keep up the good work. Thank you.
"Those with the most power are always the most insulated from the direct effects of the government’s oppression. In order to use their power for good we must get them to overcome their natural cowardice and sense of self-preservation."
I hope that we can achieve this through whatever means we can, and I also take heart from this dictum by William Gibson about societies built by fascist grifters:
"Authoritarian societies are inherently corrupt, and corrupt societies are inherently unstable. Rule of thieves brings collapse, eventually, because they can't stop stealing."
The power and courage of ordinary people in the face of this thinly disguised authoritarianism to even risk and, subsequently, lose their lives is beyond inspiring. It is also proof positive that this administration will never see that top rung.
The shoe is not on the other foot (as the saying goes). Those at the top can either help to save their own skin or await their own turn.
On who gets to decide what’s true. À primer to oppose ‘because I said so’ ideology/fascism:
https://twvme.substack.com/p/an-american-guide-to-epistemics-epistemic?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=4211715&post_id=185785268&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=eov1&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
another great piece ty
I think there's been a complete lack of long-term thinking from a lot of the corporate landscape. Billionaires and the monolithic corporations are chasing instant gratification, short-term profits, impossible quarter-over-quarter growth forever.
Yet their bending over for the current administration is going to lead to long-term blowback. Censorship of late-night hosts leading to drastic loss in viewership and large scale subscription cancellations. Aligning themselves with an administration that's forcing us further into isolationism with terrible foreign affairs and aggressive tariffs will reduce these corporation's own abilities to increase global trade and profitability. Constant mergers and conglomeration into the hands of those looking to censor and manipulate media/platforms the most, once again leading to a large exodus of their user base (they can only inflate numbers with bots to fool themselves into thinking things are healthy but for so long).
We're seeing the most feckless leadership class of corporate culture imaginable. As consumers, we have an obligation to stop shopping, cancel subscriptions, and speak out. The cracks will begin to show, and they'll have some terrible quarters eventually, and the bubble will burst. They could be Ben and Jerry's, but they're choosing the target on their back and it's time for us to X out the tab.
Fascism is here, drug prohibition law,three strikes law,civil asset forfeiture without court's order etc
So true.