It's not that Americans themselves are getting more fascist, more hateful. If anything, Americans are becoming more tolerant.

It's that a small set of extremely rich people is getting bolder about funding extremism, bolder about supporting coups, bolder about buying courts.

@alexwild I listened to an interesting interview yesterday that relates to this. Barbara F. Walter is a political scientist who studies the factors that lead societies to civil war and terrorist violence. She discussed how similar America is to other countries where demographics had shifted to put the historic majority into the minority and the anger of the old majority escalates into extreme rhetoric and violence towards "other-ed" groups. She compared us to Rwanda and Orban's Hungary, among others.

One thing that struck me about her interview was her discussion on public figures who stokes fear and used inflammatory language to rile up a base to do their bidding. She calls them "ethnic entrepreneurs" and she put people like Rush Limbaugh and, of course, Donald Trump in that category.

She's worth looking into as she has written so much on this topic. I can send you the podcast link as well, if you are interested.

@AnotherDayInHell @alexwild I'd be interested in that link as well!

@martinlentink @alexwild

Here you go. I hope you don't mind Rick Wilson. I try to listen to liberals and former Republicans to get multiple perspectives on issues. He is the Lincoln Project guy. Anyways here you go.

https://resolutesquare.com/podcasts/428evAYKbcrekUPvAQCATa/exploring-ethnic-entrepreneurship

Exploring Ethnic Entrepreneurship and Political Polarization with Barbara Walter - Rick Wilsons The Enemies List Podcast on Spotify

Rick Wilson talks with Barbara Walter, author of "How Civil Wars Start: And How To Stop Them." They discuss conditions that lead to modern civil wars, the role of ethnic entrepreneurs, and political polarization vs political violence.

resolutesquare.com