Democracy dies with half the country cheering

One important lesson of the Nazi rise to power and the Holocaust is that Nazis characterized their enemies as disgusting rather than scary.

Disgust is a different feeling than fear, and it leads to different responses. Hitler used imagery of infection and disease to describe not only problems in society but eventually groups as well. This talk of filth and infestation laid the emotional groundwork for the “purge” solution.

If we want to avoid another Holocaust, we need to be wary of analogies like rot, cancer, infection for describing people and points of view.

Not an expert but it seems to me the most important thing is education. In the U.S. they’ve been chipping away at that since at least the eighties. I’m not “handing it to them” but the right has put in the long term work to get us where we are today, with only feeble liberal centrist pushback.

There comes a point where “marginalized white men” fight back and can become dangerous. There is then a false narrative that we are under attack, and bringing back the Old Ways will fix everything. And who doesn’t like safety? Easy selling point.

That’s why Trump won in 2016 and why he can win again. He knows that’s what gets him the votes. And the media plays into it too.

That it’s very easy for far-right parties to win under bourgeois democracy. That the center (right or left) will always side with the fascists. That the ruling class will quickly change to their side at the first sign of a mass left movement. That mass campaigns of violence against minorities will be overlooked, and far-right militias and mobs will be allowed to enact their own twisted justice on minorities, while authorities look to the side.

I… feel like I’m describing basically what is happening right now all over the “west”. So… yeah. It’s not something we can stop until we take power. The people in power will always side with the fascists, against us.

I’d warn against the idea that Hitler was somehow indispensable to the movement.

I think MAGA is instructive here. Do you think Trump is an evil genus, or just a lucky blow-hard carried by the worst impulses of the right? Fascism is popular, and we need to stop acquitting the societies that nurture it.

To answer your question, I’d ignore the fascist leader and the rabid followers. I’d find a scheme to impose social and financial costs on those who don’t support fascism, but are wiling to tolerate it for their own interests.