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.

@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