Over the last 3+ decades, I've watched the Republican party bring fascism to the brink of victory again, a mere 60 years after its defeat in WWII.
Aided, hand-in-hand, by the post-communist, mafia-state apparatuses of Russia & China - countries the GOP spent the last 100 years using as bogeymen against US voters who wanted better services from their own national government - & by the multi-national corporations that funded the GOP & were rewarded with dismantling of anti-monopoly & FCC laws.
Obviously fascism has still been around, operating in the US and around the world.
I think of "defeat" of fascism more in terms of the way our bodies defeat staph infections or other bacterial overgrowths. Our skin lives with these harmful bacteria always, but a healthy system uses healthier bacteria to keep them in check, at a low enough level that it doesn't kill the whole body.
As Biden's response to Gaza & the GOP's racist border provocation shows, we don't have enough good bacteria.
I'm stunned at the lack of society-wide pushback this has received, within my lifetime. Nazis were loathed by everyone I knew except my uncle, who my mom told me used to be her favorite brother until she realized he was a secret Nazi sympathizer.
*But here's the point, guys: In the world I grew up in, he had to keep it a secret in order to maintain a social existence.*
I'm 100% certain that the pivot point was Murdoch's creation of FOX as a GOP propaganda outlet in the 1990s.
I don't think things could have moved this fast without FOX.
Side note: Don't go on FOX. Legitimizing it as a debate stage hurts the fight against fascists.
You have to find other ways to reach that audience. If you believe they are reachable.
In another sense, though, fascism is another face/evolution of the Frankenstein's monster of white supremacy & profits-driven colonialism by corporations, which begin in the early 16th century.
It's a killer staph infection that we all create by refusing to fight the everyday battles that we can, against racism & corporate domination of people.
@jud
Yes, 1964 was key for sure. But in my opinion, the turning point within the GOP (& the "party realignment" of the Southern Strategy) was made at least a decade before the 1964 nomination. They had already invested in a strategy that focused on recruiting white "Negrophobe" voters in the 1950s. I believe the Dixiecrat rebellion within the party in response to Truman's civil rights commission in 1947 was the start.
2020 thread on this here. https://twitter.com/chargrille/status/1321743483472814081
@xan_desanctis Nixon’s GOP strategist, in 1970: "From now on, the Republicans are never going to get more than 10-20% of the Negro vote...The more Negroes who register as Democrats...the sooner the Negrophobe whites will quit the Democrats & become Republicans. That’s where the votes are."
@Vonskinnback @chargrille And Murdoch has a maybe even bigger influence here than in the US. Here is the complete list of UK-wide votes that have been lost by the Murdoch-backed side since at least 1979:
* end list
@chargrille I agree, and this showed up in popular culture. From 1945 to Indiana Jones, the bad guys were Nazis. Then there was a brief period where they were Russian Mafia (at least in US-centric popular culture) and then after September 11 until today the go-to bad guy was a Muslim from Somewhereistan.
(leaving aside the blip in the late ‘80s where the US was terrified of Japan)
@chargrille Around-about 2004 I remarked idly to a frothy Russia-hating colleague that we seem to hate the most the countries with which we share so much in common.
Him, a Fox alcolyte, furiously: In what way????
Me, raised expat, baffled: Our media?
He settled down then.
But continued to refer to the "Clinton News Network." Again, 2004! Dude update your dang-ol material.
Also warned me off of living in "that neighborhood with all the fruits." It took many tries to realize he meant Montrose
@chargrille like dude I WISH I could afford Montrose, what are "the fruits" doing for a living and how can I get in on that action?
Is it feet pics? Because if so this little piggie going to the MARKET
Before Fox these ideas were spread through the midwest on AM radio. I was watching it grow via the evangelical (fundamentalist) churches and through institutions like Bott Radio Network. I think the divorce from reality and distrust of science became normalized for many through opposition to the theory of evolution.
Reagan's Admin enabled #FAUXNews.
#FAUXNews enabled #DrunkUncaDonaldDuck, #MAGAts & #GQPDeniosaurs.
#DrunkUncaDonaldDuck denied CoViD, weakened NATO, enabled #PutinsWar, failed democracy & the world - but now, is imploding American society
The true #GOP needs some serious self-reflection or it will cease to exist.
--->
Cont'd
Each of the #TrumpTaint gang face discovery, charges, justice.
Who's next to dish on #DrunkUncaDonaldDuck - SNL'S "Drunk Uncle" (barfly repeating lies or rumours to be popular) & Donald Duck (once loveable toon now selfish abuser with anger management issues.
The world needs the USA to enact #Amendment45
@chargrille There were avowed Nazis in the 1960s - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Lincoln_Rockwell.
They famously marched in Jewish neighborhoods and such, but they pretty much went underground after LBJ emasculated Barry Goldwater in the 1964 election.
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