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Ed The Fascism Checklist, Trump 2025

Overt power or influence is rarely exercised, but a lot goes on behind the scenes. A recent example is when Boris Johnson tried to prorogue Parliament. This required the assent of the Queen, which would have involved her in political manouvering. Quiet talks were held, and it was made clear to Bojo that the Queen could, if pushed, refuse his request, leading to a political crisis. Johnson was forced to back down, not by the use of actual power, but by the quiet threat of it.
You are right, and it is a very good example of this power. I think it will work when the king (or queen) has the support of the people which Johnson would not have in that situation. The Danish king in 1920 knew that it was not just the politicians that would be enraged by his move, but the people. In fact, at the time, just after the Russian revolution, every politician feared a communist takeover.
The Spanish king Juan Carlos prevented a coup in 1981, and this was probably not because he had the support of the people, but rather because the coup was led by officers who professed an allegiance to the king.
 
....and there appears to be no way of countering it.

With the likes of Fox and TwiX having a huge megaphone to spread lies and disinformation and the mainstream media having an obligation (and/or desire) to report on the lies because *balance*, the lies get a huge platform to be spread.

Here in the UK, Musk is actively undermining our democratically elected government by spreading lies about our government and especially its role w.r.t. a right wing demagogue who goes by the alias of Tommy Robinson. The government appears powerless to counter these lies. Acknowledging them only legitimises them and ignoring them just allows them to be spread uncontested.

How many Americans believe that Haitian refugees were (a) in the country illegally and (b) eating cats and dogs ?
Worse yet, the more they lie, the more they normalize lying. For everyone. Every time I see a particularly stupid idea get actual traction, like that you shouldn't use sunscreen because it causes skin cancer, I think about how the postfact society makes people more succeptible to, well, lies and conspiracy theories.

The far-right probably loves lying about everything, because they don't realize that the more they do it, the higher the chance gets that other people will invent lies that hurt them.
 
I wonder if they consider Warren Buffet a lefty, after all, he's endorsed democrats in the past. He didn't endorse anyone this time, but did criticize Trump quite often.
i think that's more of a statement on how insane right wing economic theory is than being supportive of leftism
 
So Trump's Johnson won the speakership, not in the first vote, but in vote 1.02. Two individuals that didn't vote for Johnson changed their minds after Trump talked to them. I can imagine that Trump complimented them on how nice their families are and how it would be awful if something were to happen to them.............
 
Already many corporations forbid employees from talking politics in the workplace, for their own "safety."

Uhhh, most corporations prohibited employees from talking politics at work long before Trump came along. This has been standard practice for many decades now. Similarly, federal employees have been prohibited from talking politics on the job for many years now. I'm guessing you've never worked in a corporate office or for the federal government. I've done both.

You folks live in some kind of paranoid woke alternative reality. You see demons and threats in Trump and MAGA where none exist.
 
Uhhh, most corporations prohibited employees from talking politics at work long before Trump came along. This has been standard practice for many decades now. Similarly, federal employees have been prohibited from talking politics on the job for many years now. I'm guessing you've never worked in a corporate office or for the federal government. I've done both.

You folks live in some kind of paranoid woke alternative reality. You see demons and threats in Trump and MAGA where none exist.
Ah yes, the vaunted "free speech" of the USA.
 
Uhhh, most corporations prohibited employees from talking politics at work long before Trump came along. This has been standard practice for many decades now. Similarly, federal employees have been prohibited from talking politics on the job for many years now. I'm guessing you've never worked in a corporate office or for the federal government. I've done both.

You folks live in some kind of paranoid woke alternative reality. You see demons and threats in Trump and MAGA where none exist.
My irony meter just exploded. None is so blind as he who will not see.
 
Uhhh, most corporations prohibited employees from talking politics at work long before Trump came along. This has been standard practice for many decades now. Similarly, federal employees have been prohibited from talking politics on the job for many years now. I'm guessing you've never worked in a corporate office or for the federal government. I've done both.
So you can provide details to back this up.
You folks live in some kind of paranoid woke alternative reality. You see demons and threats in Trump and MAGA where none exist.
Define "woke" first.
 
Uhhh, most corporations prohibited employees from talking politics at work long before Trump came along. This has been standard practice for many decades now. Similarly, federal employees have been prohibited from talking politics on the job for many years now. I'm guessing you've never worked in a corporate office or for the federal government. I've done both.

You folks live in some kind of paranoid woke alternative reality. You see demons and threats in Trump and MAGA where none exist.
Yup! Just as I said, "Already."
 
Whenever someone says the US is a Republic and not a democracy, I usually reply "I don't drive a car, I drive an Audi!"

The US is a republic and a democracy.Norway is a monarchy and a democracy.
russia is a republic and a dictatorship.
Saudi-Arabia is a monarchy and a dictatorship.
The US is the first but not the second, because its leadership isn't selected on democratic principles. Neither party is really interested in the will of the people, just that of their paymasters.
 
I suppose this could go anywhere, but Trump has gone beyond his usual deranged rhetoric of calling for the arrest and imprisonment of his political rivals, and called explicitly for for the complete overthrow of civil society, using as his excuse that the Supreme court has granted him "absolute immunity."

“We should throw Jack Smith out with them, the mentally deranged people. Jack Smith should be considered mentally deranged, and he should be thrown out of the country,”

Exile? The government declaring its opponents mentally unfit and thus unprotected by law? It may be apocryphal that Trump had the speeches of Hitler on his bedside table, but whatever he did have it was sure as hell not The Gulag Archipelago!
 

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