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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsIf We Don't Act Now, Fascism Will Be on Our Doorstep, Says Yale Historian.
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https://www.alternet.org/activism/if-we-dont-act-now-fascism-will-be-our-doorstep-says-yale-historian
How close is President Donald Trump to following the path blazed by last century's tyrants? Could American democracy be replaced with totalitarian rule? There's enough resemblance that Yale historian Timothy Snyder, who studies fascist and communist regime change and totalitarian rule, has written a book warning about the threat and offering lessons for resistance and survival. The author of On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century talked to AlterNet's Steven Rosenfeld.
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We think about democracy, and thats the word that Americans love to use, democracy, and thats how we characterize our system. But if democracy just means going to vote, its pretty meaningless. Russia has democracy in that sense. Most authoritarian regimes have democracy in that sense. Nazi Germany had democracy in that sense, even after the system had fundamentally changed.
Democracy only has substance if theres the rule of law. That is, if people believe that the votes are going to be counted and they are counted. If they believe that theres a judiciary out there that will make sense of things if theres some challenge. If there isnt rule of law, people will be afraid to vote the way they want to vote. They'll vote for their own safety as opposed to their convictions. So the thing we call democracy depends on the rule of law. And the things we call the rule of law depends upon trust. Law functions 99 percent of the time automatically. It functions because we think its out there. And that, in turn, depends on the sense of truth. So theres a mechanism here. You can get right to heart of the matter if you can convince people that there is no truth. Which is why the stuff that we characterize as post-modern and might dismiss is actually really, really essential.
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The same thing goes with Mr. Trump. The things that he might do that some people would like, like building a wall or driving all the immigrants out, those things are going to be difficult or slow. In the case of the wall, I personally dont believe it will ever happen. Its going to be very slow. So my suspicion is that it is much easier to have a dramatic negative event, than have a dramatic positive event. That is one of the reasons I am concerned about the Reichstag fire scenario. The other reason is that we are being mentally prepared for it by all the talk about terrorism and by the Muslim ban. Very often when leaders repeat things over and over they are preparing you for when that meme actually emerges in reality.
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TS: Yes. The point of the book is [that] we are facing a real crisis and a real moment of choice. The possibilities are much darker than Americans are used to considering. But at the same time, what we can do is much more important than we realize. The regime will only change if the gamble of the people in the White House is right: That many of us despise many others of us and that most of us are indifferent. If it turns out that there are emotions and values that are more numerous and more vibrant than indifference and hatred, things are going to be okay. That depends on us. That depends on us making certain realizations. It depends on us acting fast. In that sense its a test, not just collectively. Maybe theres no such thing as a collective test. But it is a test for us individually.
Most Americans who havent been abroad haven't been faced by something like this. And hopefully they wont be faced with it again. But we are faced with it as citizens and as individuals. And I think, five or 10 years from now, no matter how things turn out, well ask ourselvesor our children will ask ushow we behaved in 2017.
dalton99a
(81,515 posts)But several reliable, well-informed sources confirmed the idea that Hitler's anti-Semitism was not so genuine or violent as it sounded, and that he was merely using anti-Semitic propaganda as a bait to catch masses of followers and keep them aroused, enthusiastic, and in line for the time when his organization is perfected and sufficiently powerful to be employed effectively for political purposes.
A sophisticated politician credited Hitler with peculiar political cleverness for laying emphasis and over-emphasis on anti-Semitism, saying: "You can't expect the masses to understand or appreciate your finer real aims. You must feed the masses with cruder morsels and ideas like anti-Semitism. It would be politically all wrong to tell them the truth about where you really are leading them."
lastlib
(23,248 posts)Snyder lays it all out--if we allow Dwump to continue on his path, democracy Will. Be. DEAD! IMPERATIVE that we toss him out on his fat ARSE--ASAP!!
Also encourage reading this: The Fourteen Defining Characteristics of Fascism Lawrence Britt identifies the traits of fascist ideas through recent history, and EVERY. One. of them fits Cheetolini to the tee! It's on our doorstep, folks--we MUST fight it here and now, tooth and nail! Those who do not FIGHT this enemy ARE the enemy!
notdarkyet
(2,226 posts)smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)People always say it can't happen here. I say it can and it will if we don't stop it. This is not a drill people. This is serious stuff.
Eliot Rosewater
(31,112 posts)Initech
(100,080 posts)Otherwise Russia will do it for us!
Eliot Rosewater
(31,112 posts)so SICK of that SHIT
elocs
(22,582 posts)The GOP depends on the Left breaking off from the herd in the general election.
The time to change the direction of the Democratic Party is during the primaries, not the general election. I ALWAYS vote for the Democratic candidate in the general election.
MariaCSR
(642 posts)"Using fear to try and manipulate me won't work".
Ugh.
Hayduke Bomgarte
(1,965 posts)30 years ago. A "bottom of the barrel Dem" is far more preferred that the "best rethuglicon", what ever best means.
Initech
(100,080 posts)And they talk directly to Trump, since they know he's watching 24/7 and pretty much live tweets whatever they say.
erronis
(15,303 posts)from the same handlers.
While donnie-boy needs to be given visual cues (blonds) to understand the real news and then to twit about it, the rest of the upper-level apparatus is already in tune.
Initech
(100,080 posts)What kind of sick assholes Rupert Murdoch set us up with. This is a direct bullshit pipeline. If we were to cut it off at the source I don't think it would stop the bullshit but it would certainly have an impact.
DFW
(54,405 posts)These people have been at this game a long time, and they adapt to new situations and technology very rapidly. Our having better ideas and bigger numbers will not always win out over that unless our numbers are too overwhelming for their fraud to overcome.
The "you-can't-make-me-vote-for-Hillary" crowd may have a point, but the time to make it is before the primary season is decided. Once the outcome is obvious, it is time to adopt a for-or-against stance, because it's all that stands between us and the end of our system of government as we used to know it.
kentuck
(111,103 posts)Totally.
triron
(22,007 posts)Putin installed Trump.
StevieM
(10,500 posts)Kurt V.
(5,624 posts)Poiuyt
(18,125 posts)Coming to a bookstore near you on April 10.
"A personal and urgent examination of Fascism in the twentieth century and how its legacy shapes todays world, written by one of Americas most admired public servants, the first woman to serve as U.S. secretary of state"
Bernardo de La Paz
(49,007 posts)defacto7
(13,485 posts)Meowmee
(5,164 posts)Is already on our doorstep
shadowmayor
(1,325 posts)It's been here for decades. Our real fight is to undo the Wall Street - Military Industrial Complex, neo-liberal economic model espoused by Thatcher and Reagan. It's already here, few like to admit it, and we need to fight the good fight to undo that which has slowly permeated the fabric of our republic. The wars we are engaged in are fought without protest, and our teachers have to protest to simply get their fair share. And now we're putting soldiers on our border again.
jalan48
(13,870 posts)Money that could be used for social ills in our country is being gobbled up by the MIC. These powerful, entrenched interests seem to remain regardless of which party is in control of the government.
notdarkyet
(2,226 posts)Another of Orwells warnings. Money would be wasted on expensive military weapons, so it could not be used to help the people.
Locrian
(4,522 posts)They love how trump is destroying the gov and weakening opposition, normalizing chaos and corruption.
Even when trump goes, there is still a gigantic war to be won.
The fact that is has to be so blatant of a power grab with trump before people wake up (and some not) - makes me really nervous about the chances for success.
Kurt V.
(5,624 posts)yonder
(9,666 posts)Locrian
(4,522 posts)The level of support he has (dismal as the numbers are in general) is still astounding.
High levels - massive corruption, loyal brownshirts.
It DEFINITELY can and will happen if we do nothing.
Anon-C
(3,430 posts)dameatball
(7,398 posts)We have been fortunate enough over the decades that most of them failed to get elected and those that did were curbed by more patriotic members of other areas of our government. Things have changed. We have a Republican controlled Congress that allows the ongoing coup and a right-leaning SCOTUS that is either illegally or immorally tied to corporate interests.
It is up to us to defend and rehab what is left of Democracy.
coeur_de_lion
(3,680 posts)He's sitting on the sofa watching faux news and he just made himself a sandwich.
appalachiablue
(41,145 posts)K & R
rownesheck
(2,343 posts)for a Jonestown type situation for the orange assmunch and his 30 percenters. I would volunteer to clean up the mess. Nice way to thin the herd as well. We're overpopulated as it is. The collective IQ of the nation would immediately spike. Go on kool aid man. Crash through that wall. Oh yeah!