by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
While from first hand experience, I can tell you that fascism is very, very popular in the United States, the question remains, why? Why are millions of American chomping at the bit to give away their democratic birthright?
A lot is going on at the same time. Too much to really get into in a blog post, but in general, there are a few things to focus on.
One is, I think we’re probably going through something akin to a “Soft Singularity.” Technology is changing society so fast, that we can’t keep up. We don’t really think about it being a Singularity because we aren’t, like, uploading our minds into a big database, but the issue of technology shifting society fast remains.
This Soft Singularity has caused the usual generational changes in expectations to happen far more abruptly than we’re used to. What is the “woke cancel culture mob” but really the difference between what Zoomers expect and what the Olds like me expect. Throw in the changing nature of gender roles, growing income inequality and how expensive a good education is these days and you have a lot of angry white Christian men who are ready to be Red Pilled.
And, I think if we were honest with ourselves –which, of course, Americans never are these days — I think we would understand that the vast majority of people who support fascism in America these days don’t even realize what they want. All they know is they are alarmed by the “woke cancel culture mob” and the only through watching Fox News and listening to Right wing podcasts can they get some understanding as to what to think about it all.
These very same people conflate the soft power of the “woke cancel culture mob” with the hard power of the state where MAGA continues to grow in strength. And if we had a functioning democracy, then probably many, if not all, of the problems we have at the moment could probably be sorted out without a civil war, military junta or a MAGA-themed autocracy.
But we’re not even a democracy anymore, we’re an “anocracy.”
So, in short, we’re fucked. Fascism is acendant and sooner or later — probably in late 2024, early 2025, we’re going to have to figure out if we’re going to slide peacefully into a fascist MAGA-themed autocracy, or not. Are we going to lose our American democratic birthright, or are we going to have a National Divorce?
At the moment, I just can’t tell you. Good luck.
