Yes, It’s Fascism | Until recently, I thought it a term best avoided. But now, the resemblances are too many and too strong to deny.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/01/america-fascism-trump-maga-ice/685751/?gift=-nX0lDFWvdf76KdYy1EoSVV48d7KbS2SHboWWQWF9wIOpen linkView original on slrpnk.net222
Comments23
its not a 'resemblance' if its the textbook fucking definition. its called 'reality'.
for some reason the media refuses to note reality
(some reason hahah, we know)
US media is complicit. CBS is the prime example
If you want to fight this stop consuming, and organize a general strike.
Cancel everything - Netflix, Prime, Hulu, cable, iCloud. Don’t spend any money aside from necessities until this stops.
Most corporate media globally is complicit but yeah US media is astounding.
No, no — only America bad. C'mon, don't inject nuance into this — say it with me: America bad.
I mean yeah but the real puppetmasters are the modern robber barrons.
12 Early Warning Signs of Fascism
Powerful and continuing nationalism
Constant flag-waving, slogans about “greatness,” and framing dissent as unpatriotic.
Us-vs-them thinking (scapegoating)
Blaming minorities, immigrants, or internal “enemies” for social or economic problems.
Disdain for human rights
Justifying abuses as necessary for security, order, or national survival.
Identification of enemies as a unifying cause
A shared fear or hatred is used to rally the population and suppress debate.
Supremacy of the military or security forces
Excessive glorification of police, military, or “law and order,” often alongside expanded powers.
Rampant sexism and rigid gender roles
Hostility toward feminism, LGBTQ+ rights, or non-traditional family structures.
Controlled or attacked media
Journalists labeled as enemies, “fake news,” or pressured through legal, financial, or political means.
Obsession with national security
Fear is used to justify surveillance, emergency powers, and erosion of civil liberties.
Religion intertwined with government
A dominant religion is used to justify laws, policies, or moral authority.
Corporate power protected, labor power suppressed
Close alignment between the state and favored businesses; unions and workers’ rights weakened.
Disdain for intellectuals and experts
Attacks on universities, scientists, teachers, and “elites,” often paired with anti-education rhetoric.
Erosion of democratic norms
Undermining elections, courts, or checks and balances while claiming to represent the “true will of the people.”
12/12 by my count.
Was this list compiled before Trump existed? Or was it compiled recently in order to describe him? Honest question.
The list is from two political scientists writing, separately, in the 1990s: Laurence W. Britt and Umberto Eco.
King of the gaslight
I was calling it out for years, warning about what was coming. People said I was hyperbolizing.
I couldn't understand how people didn't see this. It was plain as day, since at least January 6th 2021.
FUCK YOU (author not OP)
Trump has been a blatant, Hitler loving fascist since he announced his run for presidency in 2015.
The last decade of warning people was completely hindered and wasted because of stupid motherfuckers like this author.
Every single time Trump and his goons were called out as fascists, a mob of "WeLl AcTuAlLy" dipshits would follow to spam fuck lies and irrelevancy to everyone to completely tune out the valid warnings.
Pieces of shit like this author want to come off as "its a mistake anyone could have made" BUT NO. YOU ARE THE DUMB MOTHER FUCKER. THE WARNINGS WERE THERE FROM THE BEGINNING.
YOU ENABLED FASCISM. FUCK YOU AND EVERYONE LIKE YOU.
It took zero time into his first cabinat picks to go, oh thats just pure fucking evil. Like his cheif of stratagy, famous for his platform for the alt right, had his platform describe the alt right as "intellectual skin heads". He then order a the imprisonment of anyone (women, children, infants, the eldery, etc) for potential paperwork errors. They then found, after his cruel reign, that there was scheme being allowed to forciable sterlize some of those women.
Little late to the party
Fucking enablers of fascism suddenly decided that it's gone too far. What a joke.
Peacemaker!
What a joke!
And they wonder why their readership is declining? Welcome to where the rest of us were a year ago.
Welcome. We've been waiting for you to catch up
I'm glad that more people are waking up, but It's depressing how far things have to go for media types to finally admit what has been obvious since 2015.
Anyone who saw the golden escalator speech where he ranted about Mexico sending murderers and rapists over the border should have known what the end game was supposed to be.
Fascism is a reactionary ideology, and the right has been stoking the hatred for a generation to be able to reverse the gains made since the civil rights era. This didn't start with Donald Trump, he just didn't even attempt to put a lid on the kettle and instead wanted it to boil over.
The author complains about people's use of the word "fascism" when the right is restricting abortion, and still doesn't see that it's all a part of the exact same movement. They don't seem to understand that fascism doesn't arrive like Godzilla all at once; rather, it's raptors testing the fences and getting away with whatever they can. They still don't understand the reactionary right.
Mass incarceration of black men was the new Jim Crow and we all ignored the growing for profit police state, the unequal education based on property values and the complete defanging of government entities like the EEOC. We fund universal healthcare, free education, free college and endless military equipment to Israeli colonialists while they have been committing a systematic genocide. I think what’s happening here is the machine is finally doing to us what we’ve been ignoring it do to others for generations.
Guy I used to work with, older, retired cop, generally a sweet person and upstanding citizen with more progressive ideas than the average person his age, presumably voted for Trump over Hilary in 2016, and at the time, one of our mutual coworkers, a woman with a mixed-race son, was sobbing the next day at work after Trump won the election. He didn't laugh in her face, but did chuckle to himself and another teacher later on in the day, because he couldn't believe anyone would have such a silly, extreme reaction to something as run-of-the-mill as your candidate losing the presidential election.
I never asked but I get the feeling he voted for Trump again in 2024.
Anyway, I think about him chuckling about her fear back then. It's only been 8 years and everything she and I worried about is coming at us like the stupidest, clumsiest, yet still deadly freight train, at a speed even we didn't entirely anticipate.
Saying "we told you so" gives me no satisfaction. With how clear it was for years, the only reason to deny it until now would be malicious compliance, or an amout of ignorance and naivety that should disqualify from ever taking a job as a journalist.
It is awesome when people realize what was right in front of them the whole time. It is like opening your eyes for the first time.
Keep opening them wider, the whole world is fascist