"When the dust settles, I expect the people who assess elections will tell us disinformation was key in 2024. It wasn’t the economy, it was the disinformation about the economy. ...

It requires education and discernment to separate fact from fiction, and often that's lacking. That’s the problem: educating people so they can make judgments about what’s true."

~ Joyce Vance

#Trump #Republicans #fascism #cruelty #future #disinformation
/1

https://joycevance.substack.com/p/the-importance-of-information

The Importance of Information

When the dust settles, I expect the people who assess elections will tell us disinformation was key in 2024.

Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance

A lot of people who chose to vote for Trump are now in for a rude awakening. They made their choice thinking that only someone else is going to be hurt.

They're about to find out otherwise. And this includes all those superior beings who think want to waste time now pretending that the Democratic party is the problem, and not the party determined to bring us fascism and the voters who have chosen to give the party free rein.

#Trump #Republicans #fascism #cruelty #future
/2

'An important lesson from Nazi Germany: Dumb people are more dangerous than evil people. Ignorance will destroy America like it destroyed Germany during the Nazi era."

~ Oliver Markus Molloy

Molly quotes W.E.B. DuBois:

"Either the United States will destroy ignorance or ignorance will destroy the United States."

#Trump #Republicans #fascism #cruelty #future
/3

https://badchoicesmakegoodstories.substack.com/p/an-important-lesson-from-nazi-germany

An important lesson from Nazi Germany: Dumb people are more dangerous than evil people.

Ignorance will destroy America like it destroyed Germany during the Nazi era.

Bad Choices Make Good Stories

"The defining feature of Trump's campaign was its appeal to racism, misogyny, and white supremacy. He pushed those themes despite pleas from his advisers to focus on the economy. Having campaigned on themes of hate and division, he won decisively. The most compelling inference from those facts is that Trump's campaign themes appealed to a broad swath of the voters who supported him."

~ Robert B. Hubbell

#Trump #Republicans #fascism #cruelty #future
/4

https://roberthubbell.substack.com/p/sunday-morning-break

Sunday morning break

November 10, 2024

Today's Edition Newsletter

"But the media is (again) sane-washing Trump's depravity. Rather than acknowledge—or even mention—his dominant campaign themes in analyzing his victory, the media insists that Trump won because Democrats are ;elitists; who somehow ;alienated' major portions of the electorate or that Democrats lost because Kamala Harris and her advisors refused to run her campaign in the manner demanded by the legacy media."

#Trump #Republicans #fascism #cruelty #future
/5

The media have done this persistently for some years now. By trotting out their tired (and mendacious) refrain that the Democrats are out of touch with "real Americans," the media absolve themselves for pre-emptively obeying fascist dictators in the making and abdicate their responsibility to educate us. And they have lots of willing tools among the many pretend-liberals eager to pounce on the Democratic party while pretending fascism is not the real threat.

#Trump #Republicans #fascism
/6

"Choosing to write stories that 'blame elitist Democrats' ignores the real story of what happened on Tuesday. That distraction normalizes the grotesque, existential threat of Trump's electoral victory. Trump could not buy more favorable and helpful coverage if he paid for those stories with Elon Musk’s billions."

~ Hubbell, ibid.

#Trump #Republicans #fascism #cruelty #future
/7

As Don Moynihan notes, while the media and their fellow travelers pile on in a big gloat fest accusing Democrats of losing support because they're too "woke" and promote identity politics,

"You will never guess who did run on trans issues: Donald Trump."

As the Harris campaign bent over backwards to de-emphasize identity politics….

#Trump #Republicans #fascism #cruelty #future
/8

https://donmoynihan.substack.com/p/who-is-allowed-to-practice-identity

Who is allowed to practice identity politics?

When the right does it, its just politics

Can We Still Govern?

"This is a lazy pre-existing [corporate media] narrative to be sold, not because of any actual analysis of the electorate. These are writers who for various reasons have committed to an anti-woke narrative. And once you have committed to that narrative, you are determined to force it into every story, no matter how misleading."

#Trump #Republicans #fascism #cruelty #future
/9

"What is true: Trump, and the right, are very good at taking basic respect and empathy for other humans, and portraying that as dangerous: social justice, wokeness, diversity, equity and inclusion have all been converted into terms of mockery. Trump did not win because someone you were on a zoom call with used pronouns, or Latinx, or some college grad corrected you for using the word homeless."

#Trump #Republicans #fascism #cruelty #future
/10

"As Hitler, so Trump; as Nazi, so MAGA. …

Dorothy Thompson made the same mistake many of us, myself very much included, made in her assessment of the resident strongman: she believed the German people would be sophisticated enough to see through Hitler’s grotesque lies, just like we all believed the American people would be sophisticated enough to see through Trump’s."

~ Greg Olear

#Trump #Republicans #fascism #cruelty #future
/11

https://gregolear.substack.com/p/sunday-pages-who-goes-nazi

Sunday Pages: "Who Goes Nazi?"

An essay by Dorothy Thompson.

PREVAIL by Greg Olear

Josh Marshall agrees with a TPM reader who says that "digesting the mechanics of campaigns were sort of beside the point now." As he notes, "The problems and the roots of Democrats’ defeat ran far deeper." And "the recriminations conversation" is a colossal waste of time.

He writes,

#Trump #Republicans #fascism #cruelty #future
/12

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/a-follow-up-about-harris

A Follow Up About Harris

In response to today’s BackChannel longtime TPM Reader LS wrote in to say that while she generally agreed with my evaluation of Kamala Harris’s campaign she thought digesting the mechanics of…

TPM - Talking Points Memo

"Joe Biden owned the hardships of the post-pandemic — principally but not only economic — and the public simply rejected his presidency because of that. That’s very similar to what has happened when almost every other incumbent party in the West came up for reelection in the post-pandemic era. ...

Harris and Harris’ campaign are a distraction from this necessary conversation, a form of denial."

Of course, always easier to blame women, no?

#Trump #Republicans #fascism #cruelty #future
/13

"What is going on?

I am starting to see editorials and analyses that are blaming the second coming of the convicted felon on Joseph Robinette Biden. It seems like there is a determined campaign to trash his legacy. ...

We haven’t reached the point yet, like that seen under Stalin, where history would be rewritten and photos edited to remove unpersons who had fallen out of favor and been purged.

Not yet."

~ xaxnar

#Trump #Republicans #fascism #cruelty #future
/14

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/11/9/2284913/-What-is-with-all-the-Biden-hate

What is with all the Biden hate?

What is going on? I am starting to see editorials and analyses that are blaming the second coming of the convicted felon on Joseph Robinette Biden. It seems like there is a determined campaign to trash his legacy. I could believe the idea is to not...

Daily Kos

"Never mind that his administration has been largely scandal free. Never mind that he surrounded himself with some really competent people. Never mind that he took an economy in shambles and turned it around. Never mind that he restored international relations that had been crippled and turned them around, including NATO expansion. Never mind that the infrastructure bill was an incredible accomplishment given the Congress he had to work with."

#Trump #Republicans #fascism #cruelty #future
/15

"Never mind that he was the most pro-union president we’ve ever had. Never mind he is a fundamentally decent man; his character is not in question.

It wasn’t enough apparently. …

Biden didn’t fail America — America failed him."

#Trump #Republicans #fascism #cruelty #future
/16

"From now on, there are no more excuses, no apologies, nothing. A good half of American voters did it again, fully aware, enlightened and well-informed: They re-elected Donald J. Trump as president of their country, knowing everything they needed to know about this man.

~ Thomas Assheuer

#Trump #Republicans #fascism #cruelty #future
/17

https://worldcrunch.com/eyes-on-the-us/nationalism-democracy-germany-trump

"They knew he was a convicted criminal, a nefarious liar, a miserable rabble-rouser and a vindictive demagogue, as well as an advocate for the rich and powerful. The land of the free has elected an enemy of freedom; a putschist who cheered the storming of the Capitol and kneels before despots.

Yes, the truth is brutal. Trump was not an industrial accident, not an episode in the history of the United States. He came to stay."

#Trump #Republicans #fascism #cruelty #future
/18

Speaking as a woman, that is to say, someone who will be right in the sights of the Trump regime when it takes office, Jess Piper writes,

"I have been listening to what the opposition has in store for us in the next few years. I don’t need to make up scenarios. I have read Project 2025. I am not wearing a tin-foil hat or espousing conspiracy theories. I am reading and listening."

#Trump #Republicans #fascism #cruelty #future
/19

https://jesspiper.substack.com/p/barbie-and-the-beast

Barbie and the Beast

“In 48 hours, we will have a government of the Ken, by the Ken, and for the Ken.”

The View from Rural Missouri by Jess Piper

"This must be a difficult time for the historians.

You’re not crazy. Neither am I.

Kamala. Kamala. Kamala.

What did she do wrong? What did the Democrats do wrong? Why is this her fault and how can we prove it is her fault rather than seeing the angry and often ignorant electorate that is staring us back in the face.

I’m tired of it. I don’t want to hear one more person talk about what she could have done."

#Trump #Republicans #fascism #cruelty #future
/20

Some of us have the luxury to play those armchair political games. Some of us may even pretend that when the crackdown begins after he takes office, it won't affect us.

Some of us have no choice except to face what's coming, and for us, the armchair game-playing is a huge distraction from reality. It demands privilege and insulation we can only dream of having.

Some of us are ALREADY being taunted with chants of "Your body, my choice."

#Trump #Republicans #fascism #cruelty #future
/21

Some of us are ALREADY receiving text messages instructing us to return to slavery.

Yet the Democrats are the problem?

What if the problem is your lack of solidarity — your insulation by privilege that is so thick you think you have the luxury to play ugly rhetorical games — while others of us are being targeted, and you could use that wasted energy to stand with us against the real enemy and not the pretend one?

#Trump #Republicans #fascism #cruelty #future
/22

@wdlindsy

The #Democrats do have a problem unifying themselves. Too many factions who all think they know what's best for the rest of us. So not only do they refuse to listen to us, they refuse to listen to each other.

Gotta hand it to the #GOP; they always fall in line behind whomever's in charge.

#PurityTest

@KathyLK @wdlindsy And that illustrates the problem right there: the belief that there still are parties. MAGA was the movement that won, not Republicans. The opposition to MAGA was a collection of people from the progressive movement, academics and intellectuals who recognize that Trump's economic plan is terrible, traditional Republicans who don't embrace Trump's extremist views, women and abortion advocates, and traditional Democrat voters. Misinformation shielded MAGA supporters from joining ANY of the groups supporting ANY of the causes that united people against MAGA.
Democrats deregulated telecommunications, funded genocide in Gaza, bailed out the banks instead of the people during the Great Recession, etc. A huge number of liberal and progressive people recognize that the Democratic party's behavior does not represent their beliefs: those are the informed ones. The uninformed ones voted MAGA.

@ix9 @wdlindsy

If the banks and the auto industry had not been bailed out, what do you think would have happened to workers in the auto industry and to the "little" people with mortgages, 401Ks and so on?