@jscalzi

"Learning to Kill

It's odd the way that societies change. Time and time again historians and sociologists are taken aback in wonder and confusion at the sudden, dramatic, and often dangerous transformations of a people’s basic nature and identity.

When this occurs in individuals we call it insanity, and often look for psychological or biological illness to explain the anomaly. When it occurs in societies we call it inhumanity, and have yet to address its root cause.

There are of course the classic and well known transformations of good societies into those which embrace darkness, such as the Germans adopting the ideals of the madman Hitler, or the Italians adopting his lesser counterpart Mussolini. But there are unfortunately many lesser discussed and equally tragic examples of a societies transgressions against its own mores. From the ancient Greeks and Romans, to the modern day Bosnians and Sudanese, societies have shown a great propensity for suddenly abandoning their most cherished beliefs and morals, and in their stead, learning to kill.

To be sure, these transformations do not occur overnight, but are instead attended by a slow, steady, but ever increasing drumbeat of misinformation, dehumanization, beratement, and ultimate hysteria directed towards any perceived enemy. The voices of reason and dissent are routinely suppressed and discredited, the rule of law abandoned, and any possible sense of guilt muted by vague and overt appeals to absolute nationalism.

And so we find America today.

In the midst of an election where the abandonment of our most basic precepts of humanity have nationally and internationally been condemned and repudiated, we dare not mention them. For all our candidates have repeatedly and enthusiastically voted for their abolition.

Learning to kill.

It's not as difficult as we thought."
SearingTruth

@jscalzi
Still timely –

"Unlike previous fascist leaders with their cult of war, Trump still offers appeasement to dictators abroad, but he now promises something much closer to dictatorship at home. For me, what Trump is offering for his second presidency will meet the threshold, and the label I’d choose to describe it would be 'isolationist fascism.'” – UNC History Professor Emeritus Christopher Browning
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/07/trump-second-term-isolationist-fascism/674791/ (July 2023) #fascism #trump #democracy #vote

@jscalzi @nytimes They want to replace Biden with Gavin Newsom, now that Biden seems more likely to beat Trump than before.

Newsom can’t legally use Biden’s campaign funds (Kamala Harris could) and if elected he will support anti-labor and anti-poor policies that Biden (and presumably Harris) will not support.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/02/gavin-newsom-biden-presidential-ambitions?utm_source=press.coop