Tag: American Fascism

‘Surprise Me’


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

First, let me say I have no revealed truth. I have no idea what is going to happen. But, for all my rambling about why I think Blue States could “win” a Second American Civil War if need be, I just don’t think the conditions are there for us to get that far.

The conditions are there for Trump to brazenly steal the election (one way or another) and get away with it. We’ll lurch into an American interpretation Putin’s Russia (at least on a political level) and that will be that.

Surprise me.

It seems to me that just like a lot of people were worried there might be a civil war in the collapsing Soviet Union and then it all happened rather abruptly and rather peacefully, the same thing is going to happen in America. But instead of ushering in an era of unprecedented freedom as happened in Russia, America is going to lose its freedoms one by one.

All the talk about civil war on the part of Right Wing agitators is more along the lines of such chatter in the closing days of the Weimar Republic rather than the Soviet Union. The Right is just nervous they won’t be able to consolidate power, and so they talk really loud about knocking heads. But things will never get that far because Americans are so politically docile that, lulz, what a joke.

Surprise me.

The momentum is on the side of the Bad Guys on this one. It seems to me the question is how far down the spectrum of tyranny do they manage to get before they realize they’ve done too much and pull back a little bit? I’m thinking we’re going to slowly drift towards the politics of modern Russia. In fact, the center-Left is so excruciatingly weak in the United States that nothing, in real terms, might even change immediately.

Any belated attempts to halt our sild into autocratic rule will be punished severely by Barr. The fascist response to events in Portland has already been normalized to such an extent that we could very well know that the practice of snatching people off the street has been taken nationwide and nothing, in real terms, happens. They could even add pushing people (like me!) out of windows and, again, it’s all a luz.

Something truly out of character for the average American — who would decide our fate — would have to happen. They would have to care. They would have to have an opinion.

Surprise me.

Trump: American Norodom Sihanouk


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

There has been a lot of hysterical talk on the part of the center-Left that Trump is some sort of “American Hitler.” And I will be the first to admit that I have engaged in a lot of that talk myself. MAGA people chuckle at this and simply grunt something about “orange man bad” in reply.

Well, I used to think that maybe Trump himself wouldn’t be an American Hitler, but it would be one of his younger, more organized successors.

I’m beginning to doubt that assesement.

The reason is: Qanon.

It’s very easy to see a situation where Trump consolidates power after the Russians steal the election for him and ultimately the worst crimes don’t even happen because of him. It would be a situation similar to King Norodom Sihanouk in Cambodia.

Once OANN owns CNN and The New York Times has been nationalized and then given to Rupert Murdoch (and so forth) there simply won’t be anyone to notice that MAGA and Qanon have fused and they’re rounding people up to be murdered in American Killing Fields.

What’s more, the U.S. Military will be so concerned with not interfering in domestic politics that what starts off as a general attack on liberal elites turns into a mass emptying of the cities and American Killing Fields. This sounds surreal and bonkers, I know, but that’s an angle we haven’t really thought about before — Trump himself doesn’t order the American Killing Fields, but he doesn’t do anything to stop it, either.

Besides the whole mass murder thing, the other element of this that is gravely concerning is who is going to save us if this happens? It definitely seems as though once the country implodes that’s it.

I can’t think of how get out to the other side.

This is all a delusional fever nightmare at this point. But it’s definitely something to think about since apparently the fix is in when it comes to Russians hacking directly into our election systems.

Countdown To American Fascism: ’96 Tears’



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

During the 2016 campaign, I half-heartedly did something on YouTube called “High Information Voter.” I would go back to that name, but, alas, it has an unfortunate abbreviation. So, I think I’m going with Countdown To American Fascism. I may change this, however.

There are now 96 Days until Trump steals the 2020 election in a rather brazen fashion. The key thing we have to appreciate it what Trump wants is to throw so many different obstacles to a free and fair election into the mix that we’re overwhelmed by them all and, in the end, can’t point to one specific one that really did the deed.

So, if it’s not slowing the mail down to a craw, it’ll be the Durham Investigation indicting someone extremely close to Biden (or Biden himself.) If it’s not the Russians hacking directly into our election systems with Trump’s knowledge and support, it’ll be Little Green Men working to make sure somehow the polls themselves don’t feel safe. The list goes on.

Literally the only things holding back Trump from saying, “Fuck it, let’s just consolidate power now” is he’s a deranged moron, barely holding on to his sanity and the thin red-white-and-blue line that is American self-perception. Everyone, even people who “don’t have time for politics,” would be jarred if Trump is too brazen in his stealing of the election. Not that it really matters, however, it’s just too late.

The ultimate piviot of MAGA and people who “don’t have time for politics” will be to tell people like me, “This is the world we live in now. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll be quiet.” Since, by nature, I will never shut up about what a fucking cocksucker fascist Trump is, well, we all know how that is going to turn out.

One interesting thing is, while all signs point to Trump stealing the election in a way that lets conservatives who are not MAGA get to sleep at night, he keeps doing things that will make him after to ram that stealing down our throats a little harder.

Take, for instance, the $600 extra unemployment that people are getting that is largely propping up the American economy right now. It’s now apparently set to expire. If the American economy is in complete free-fall around election time, Trump may be so unpopular that when he steals the election in a forceful way because he has no choice, people might get really, really mad.

And, yet, even that won’t be enough.

The thing about fascism is all it cares about is power. That’s it. Power. It doesn’t matter how a fascist keeps power, as long as they do. They have no shame and will tell any lie, warp any law, threaten any person to keep it. So, in the end, Trump will still be in power even though everyone — EVERYONE — knows he stole the election.

By that point, however, lulz.

What are we going to do about it? Starting from the moment he feels safe about staying in power, he will rapidly consolidate he control over the country. Absolutely nothing matters but power and greed. Our lurch towards a Russian style “managed democracy” will happen in fits and starts starting in 2021, but in the end it will happen.

The demographics just aren’t on the side of liberal democracy in the United States. And, really, at this point, the issue is how many of the presidents between now and, say, whenever the Graying of America crosses the Browning of America will be Trumps and how many won’t. Once Trump steals the 2020 election, I would guess we’re going to have a solid 40-odd years of fascist Republican rule until the last of the Baby Boomers finally drop dead and Zoomers revolt against House Trump and, I don’t know, AOC becomes president.

Or, put another way, things are dark. America is a fascist state. It’s all over but the shouting at this point. We need to stop trying to score identity politics points on Twitter and begin to think, in practical terms how we’re all going to survive in a fascist state.