Thomas ZimmerMar 3, 2025

We need to trust our eyes.

Nazi salutes, racist purges, an ambush on the Ukrainian president by a far-right regime. If what we see aligns with what we know and is also in line with an established track record, our default assumption should be that what is happening is actually what it looks like.

Show threadThomas ZimmerMar 3, 2025

In every single interview I’ve done since Friday, I have been asked some version of: “But couldn’t this perhaps somehow *not* be what it looks like if we stipulate that Trump and Vance are not who they have repeatedly proven they are?”

I really wish we could stop doing this.

Show threadThomas ZimmerMar 3, 2025
I am not even talking about straight-up rightwing propaganda. I mean the pervasive tendency in the mainstream political discourse and in polite society to look for ways to sanitize what is happening, to come up with ways to make it seem “respectable” or “reasonable” or “normal.”
Show threadThomas ZimmerMar 3, 2025
But the thing is: When the guy who rose to political prominence as the birther-in-chief took over the GOP as he was raging against the first Black president, and when he was re-elected after the most aggressively racist major-party campaign in modern history, that was mostly what it looked like.
Show threadThomas ZimmerMar 3, 2025
When a bunch of rightwing extremists marched in Charlottesville yelling “Jews will not replace us,” waving swastika and confederate battle flags, and they all put their hopes in Donald Trump who declared there were actually some “fine people” among them, that was what it looked like.
Show threadThomas ZimmerMar 3, 2025
When Elon Musk and leading figures on the Trumpist right – people who have a long track record of racist, eugenicist positions, who have been propagating extremist conspiracy theories – repeatedly greet adoring crowds with Nazi salutes, that is exactly what it looks like.
Show threadThomas Zimmer
When the Trumpist regime purges women and people of color from all the major institutions and all positions of influence and power, declaring their presence fundamentally illegitimate, all under the banner of “meritocracy” and fighting back against “DEI,” it’s exactly what it looks like.
Mar 3, 2025 at 6:44pmIvory for iOS
Show threadThomas ZimmerMar 3, 2025
And when Donald Trump, who has very consistently sided with Putin and foreign autocrats, and JD Vance, who channels the broader NatCon, nativist, and ethno-nationalist desire for a new world order, try to publicly humiliate and delegitimize Zelensky, it is pretty much exactly what it looks like.
Show threadThomas ZimmerMar 3, 2025

I am not telling you there is no need for nuance and complex analysis. The above is indeed not the be-all and end-all of our situation.

But too often, the polite discourse isn’t actually looking for nuance, it demands we sanitize and obscure. It’s a big reason why we got here. It needs to stop.

Show threadChrisMar 3, 2025

@tzimmer_history Thank you for this thread and please allow me to emphasize that yes, it is what it looks like. Many of us have been trying for years to bring awareness to #corporate #fascism as well as the alignment between US republicans, Russia, and accelerationist neo-Nazis.

We are way past the time when we should speak any other way than honestly and plainly. Self censorship and apologizing for abusers is how they continue to succeed. Speak truth now while we still can.

Show threadManniCalaveraMar 3, 2025
@tzimmer_history
You are right of course.
A minor point, slightly ot:
"elected after the most aggressively racist major-party campaign in modern history" matches exactly the german election, which is horrible given the context of your thread and the future of Germany.
Show threadWye Knotts Landing EarMar 3, 2025

@tzimmer_history Agreed, and well-said. If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck...

The correct conclusion doesn't have to be complicated.

Show threadKevinOnEarthMar 4, 2025
@tzimmer_history
My only beef about this is that, yes, it is what it looks like... SO FAR.
If we have got here in just 6 weeks, we have to broaden our minds & push our imagination beyond what we *want* it to look like: it is going to get worse; FAR worse.
Only when enough of us accept that can we begin to conceive of how to curtail it.
Show threadDon ThompsonMar 5, 2025
@tzimmer_history
Too many news ‘analysts’ vying for attention, implicity asking for their view on the situation to be given the audience’s attention. It waters everything down to just another ‘oh dear*’ moment for the public.
Oh Dearism, Adam Curtis.
Show threadLiminal witch 🧙‍♀️ SarahMar 3, 2025

@tzimmer_history @GreenSkyOverMe Romans used to do something similar, it was called decimation. Just Air Force is ~21% women, they would have to do two rounds of it.

That doesn’t sound like an adequate punishment