Trump is a FASCIST!

[stanfr]

I want to see an example of his painting skill first before I vote.

 

[Trebuchet]

Changing course a tad, do you consider the Iranian ayatollahs to be Fascist? Because that's the kind of government Ted Cruz wants.

 

[TubbaBlubba]

I want to see an example of his painting skill first before I vote.

To begin with, his hair is a work of art unto itself. And Trump is a bit more post-modern and less classicist than the devil of old; he's more into performance art, and no-one can call into question his abilities there.

 

[TubbaBlubba]

Changing course a tad, do you consider the Iranian ayatollahs to be Fascist? Because that's the kind of government Ted Cruz wants.

The Iranian governmental structure is unique with a lot of competing elements and its stability is questionable. The idea of a leader cult is strong, but it's unclear to what degree it is in fact a "strong leader state", compared to more of a military-run state.

I don't really think that's what Ted Cruz is after; I'd say he's more of a Saudi Arabia kind of guy.

(Incidentally, an Ayatollah in Twelver Shia Islam is a kind of "bishop"; a mullah who is considered enough of a scholar to be an Islamic judge. It is not actually the title of Iran's supreme leader. But Ruhollah Khomeini's status as Grand Ayatollah led to him being known as "Ayatollah Khomeini" and the nomenclature stuck. The Iranian title of the Supreme Leader is "Velayat-e faqih e-Iran", roughly "The Guardian Judge of Iran", with 'Guardian' more in the sense of a parent-child relationship than a gatekeeper. Apart from being Commander in Chief, the Supreme Leader is not actually the executive chief of Iran; he's the chief of the judicial branch. But obviously, the executive branch is controlled by the judiciary.)

 

[BobTheCoward]

I think I would rather leave that open to your interpretation. I've spelt out my own idea of what would make him a fascist. He doesn't meet that criteria.

You tell us what definition to use, and we will tell you if he meets it or not.

 

[angrysoba]

You tell us what definition to use, and we will tell you if he meets it or not.

I've already told you the criteria I am using. You are free to agree or disagree. There's no need for you to feel you have to be told what to do.

 

[Cleon]

I want to see an example of his painting skill first before I vote.

He can paint an entire apartment in one afternoon. Two coats!

 

[Darat]

Donald Trump: We're going to 'open up' libel laws



It's also apparently pretty common for the press to be bullied and demonized at Trump rallies. I've heard someone describe "holding areas" where the press is sort of roped off at his rallies, where Trump will point to them and whip the crowd into a frenzy of booing and jeering at the reporters. It all seems very unnerving.

He really is a cry baby.

 

[Puppycow]

Donald Trump is a Fascist

One of the most-read takes on fascism comes from Italian philosopher and novelist Umberto Eco in an essay for the New York Review of Books titled “Ur-Fascism.” Eco emphasizes the extent to which fascism is ad hoc and opportunistic. It’s “philosophically out of joint,” he writes, with features that “cannot be organized into a system” since “many of them contradict each other, and are also typical of other kinds of despotism or fanacticism.”

With that said, it is true that there are fascist movements, and it’s also true that when you strip their cultural clothing—the German paganism in Nazism, for example—there are common properties. Not every fascist movement shows all of them, but—Eco writes—“it is enough that one of them be present to allow fascism to coagulate around it." Eco identifies 14, but for this column, I want to focus on seven.

They are: A cult of “action for action’s sake,” where “thinking is a form of emasculation”; an intolerance of “analytical criticism,” where disagreement is condemned; a profound “fear of difference,” where leaders appeal against “intruders”; appeals to individual and social frustration and specifically a “frustrated middle class” suffering from “feelings of political humiliation and frightened by the pressure of lower social groups”; a nationalist identity set against internal and external enemies (an “obsession with a plot”); a feeling of humiliation by the “ostentatious wealth and force of their enemies”; a “popular elitism” where “every citizen belongs to the best people of the world” and underscored by contempt for the weak; and a celebration of aggressive (and often violent) masculinity.

I'm with Cleon. He's close enough for the label to be appropriate.

Sounds pretty close to spot-on to me.

Yep Putin in my view is what an actual fascist leader looks like.

Another politician I've heard Trump compared to is Silvio Berlusconi. I suppose that wouldn't be as bad Putin, but Trump would be president of a nuclear-armed military superpower, not just Italy.

Donald Trump is not a joke: A warning to Americans from an Italian who survived Berlusconi

But there’s an even more troubling parallel between Berlusconi and Trump: People love to laugh at them.

Trump is very easy to laugh at–and I do mean at, rather than with. Berlusconi was too, with his terrible jokes, terrible Italian, and terrible hair. What he said wasn’t taken seriously, and he willingly played the buffoon role, all the way to the Palazzo Chigi. Remember when he called Barack Obama “tanned” (twice)? When he posed making a horn sign with his hands in a European Union leaders meeting? I remember every single one of these incidents—so hilarious to the foreign press. Trust me: it’s a lot less funny from the inside.

Like Trump, Berlusconi consistently seemed too absurd to be true. And yet he was. He won elections again, and again, and again, thriving off any and all attention. People didn’t take him or what he said seriously. Then one day we woke up to find our government overrun by criminals, our economy destroyed, and our cultural mores perverted to the extent that the objectification of women was commonplace. There was no more laughing left to do.

Don’t let Trump troll his way to the presidential candidacy. He may not even be the worst candidate on the Republican side—as far as I can tell, that’s a very, very close race—but in any case he needs to be taken seriously. What he says is worrisome and has enabled and indeed normalized some of the darkest and most racist beliefs of his base. (Nearly 20% of his supporters in South Carolina believe slavery shouldn’t have been abolished.) The time for voyeurism and condescension and exclamations of “You won’t believe what he said!” has long passed.

 

[Norman Alexander]

I'm prepared to see Ann Coulter as Goebbels. Or she may even be in Streicher territory.

Goebbels, no. Streicher, possibly. I suggest Roland Freisler, and let's hope for the same outcome too.

 

[gabeygoat]

I don't think he's actually a fascist, but he's certainly running a fascist campaign, and is supported by people who would tend towards fascism

 

[Skeptic Tank]

Where's my option for "He's not really a fascist but I wish he was and I am voting for him because he's the closest thing to one in the race." ?

 

[TubbaBlubba]

Where's my option for "He's not really a fascist but I wish he was and I am voting for him because he's the closest thing to one in the race." ?

Stay classy

 

[Manopolus]

Changing course a tad, do you consider the Iranian ayatollahs to be Fascist? Because that's the kind of government Ted Cruz wants.

Theocracy and Fascism are distinct from each other.

 

[angrysoba]

Where's my option for "He's not really a fascist but I wish he was and I am voting for him because he's the closest thing to one in the race." ?

Well, if you are voting for him...

 

[applecorped]

Another unintentionally funny as hell thread. Well done!

 

[angrysoba]

Another unintentionally funny as hell thread. Well done!

How do you know I never intended it to be funny?

 

[Trebuchet]

Theocracy and Fascism are distinct from each other.

Agreed, but there's a lot of overlap in the way the mullahs are implementing it. Lots of executions for "thought crimes", for instance, encouraging neighbors to rat out neighbors, etc. Cruz's model state, just substituting fundy Xianity for Islam.

 

[varwoche]

How We Fooled Donald Trump Into Retweeting Benito Mussolini

I thought about starting a contest to see who here could troll a Trump re-tweet.

 

[Blaster]

How We Fooled Donald Trump Into Retweeting Benito Mussolini

I thought about starting a contest to see who here could troll a Trump re-tweet.

So the story is that Trump doesn't care where content comes from, (or at the least doesn't check), or that he likes quotes that people like Mussolini, as well Malala Yousafzai, have used?



#stumped