Strawman. Never did I say that the things you mentioned dont play a role in facilitating fascism.

Poor education, MIC, captured media, sure… all of these things facilitate fascism.

My point is that your analysis does not get at the heart of how fascism arises or why america is going full throated fascist in recent years. Why do we have poor education? Why do we have a bloated MIC? Why has our mainstream media been captured? Why is conservatism increasingly in fashion?

You’re not going to get to the heart of these questions by ignoring class. You’ll especially fail to answer these questions if you just blame some nebulous concept of “conservatism” wholesale. Youve correctly identified the symptoms, but you still need to take the next step w/ class-based, material analysis.

Honestly dog, this is exactly the right question. I get it. Shoutout to you for asking it. Truly.

From the liberal perspective, this is exactly how it goes. “I voted against fascism, yet fascism still festers. What gives?”

The liberal framework pushes the idea that electoralism is the be all end all form of political participation, but leftists refute this. Leftists say that you have a plethora of other tools at your disposal to express yourself politically: buy a gun, do mutual aid, join an organization, read theory, participate in local politics, etc…

If your question is earnest, I’d encourage you to read some Lenin.

Yup.

What we are seeing now is a critical inflection point for liberals: do they do honest introspection and start to apply real criticism to the history of the US, or do they cover their ears and claim Trumpism is an aberration for which they have no reasonable explanation.

To put it simply, liberals now have a choice between

“Damn, this is really the outcome of the american political project, huh? How did we get here?”

And

“Trumpist fascism is un-American, and I am clueless as to how it took hold, but I am going to continue to vote blue no matter who!”

If the amount of liberals on .world bizarrely harkening back to the “good old days” of the founders, Reagan, Obama, and even dubya is any indication, I suspect most of them have gone with the second option.

There are plenty of racists who aren’t fascist. There are plenty or countries with racism problems that aren’t fascist. There are plenty of dumbfucks who aren’t fascist. There are plenty of illiterate countries that aren’t fascist. “Stupidity” (im being careful here - i dont think illiteracy = stupid) and racism predates fascism.

Youve reached the limit of the liberal ideological framework and have resorted to explaining fascism as some sort of cultural pathology. This is what happens when your idealist politics prioritizes individual psychology and moralistic explanations over historical and economic analysis.

It’s frustrating seeing liberals watch the fascist devolution in real-time, and just throw up their hands saying “well i guess americans are just stupid! QED!”. It conveniently absolves them for their complicity in facilitating fascism, and it spits in the face of victims of US policy, both foreign and abroad.

No, I think you missed my point entirely. No amount of shame, facts and logic, or blasts will stop fascism.

Until regulatory agencies stop being captured, until people can own homes, until people can retire, until people can get healthcare, until people can get childcare, the fascist devolution will continue.

You’re still clinging to this ultra liberal idea that the “marketplace of ideas” is what ultimately turns the wheel of history and politics. It’s the idea that politics and history is driven by individuals taking ideological stances, and that the only way to change history is to change minds. This could not be more incorrect. I really encourage you to do some introductory reading into Marxism - which historically has been the greatest defense against fascism, as well as has the most comprehensive explanation of how fascism happens. Wage Labor and Capital is a great start.

For starters, understanding that American fascism is not the result of voters simply not being informed enough. The idea that, if all Trump supporters simply had access to better information, if they all had better education, if they were exposed to the right argument… then they’d see the light and turn into democrats - is a supremely liberal idea. We need to understand that no amount of epic slams, no amount of late night talk show roasts, no amount of facts and logic will steer us out of fascism.

As we devolve deeper and deeper into fascism, it has been frustrating watching liberals flail to try and understand how the devolution is happening: is it because people are uneducated? Is it because of Joe Rogan’s podcasts? Is it because of Russian spies? Is it because Trump has started a cult? Is it because Fox News? Is it because lead was used in gasoline 50 years ago? Is it because we use lead water pipes? Is it because of Ronald Reagan? All of this waffling to avoid the hard questions. I.e, “is it possible that fascism is the only logical conclusion a nation which was founded solely by white landowners to do wholesale on genocide on native Americans?”

If you fail to start thinking about this devolution into fascism in terms of history, class, and material conditions, you’re always going to be hopelessly confused about the structures and frameworks that allow fascism to fester.

Lot of boomer-like fist shaking in these comments.

Newer generations are going to find different things to excel at, and they’ll inevitably give up on some of the old ways.

And what would keep conservatism from sprouting once again in this scenario?

Conservatism is not the issue; the issue is capitalism. Put the capitalists against the wall.

What makes you say that? It has went over perfectly well for the Trump team, and it was honestly a huge success for them in legitimizing this push for supreme executive power.

Can’t wait till I’m hunkered in my basement with a shotgun and my last cans of food, all to see a mouse run by and realize I just got infected.

That playbook is literally how the US justice system has worked since pretty much the beginning. Our constitution explicitly enshrines the right to keep slaves.

And calling the Gulag Archipeligo a “first hand account” is laughable. That book is basically folklore and rumors.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Sankara

You may already know this, but if not, you should be aware that there is growing concern regarding the lack of oversight surrounding cadaver donations to science.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bodies-donated-to-science-largely-unregulated-cbs-reports/

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-49198405

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tn7egDQ9lPg

Yep, one has a donkey mascot and one an elephant. They are definitely different.

So an intern can spend all day clearing out a voicemail inbox? Unfortunately I think we are past peaceful phone canvassing. Nothing will meaningfully change until the owner class have fear in their heart.

Ukraine captured and publicly interviewed a pair of them.

Which, as the article states, Ukraine has kept from being interviewed by anyone other than the Ukrainian Presidential Press service.

I don’t see any evidence of DPRK soldiers from the grainy videos you’ve posted. For months now, we’ve been getting 1080p Ukrainian drone footage of hits on Russians with such clarity that you can make out the soldiers’ stubble. Why did this clarity suddenly disappear when Ukrainian and South Korean Intelligence started pushing the idea that DPRK soldiers were actively fighting?

If Costco believed that a move such as the one in the headline was a common sense, good for business strategy, then why did they draw it out over months and months of grueling union negotiations, probably spending untold millions on lawyers?

The union strong armed Costco into making this decision - as they should.

This is literally right off the back of Costco making these negotiations as difficult as possible for the union. https://teamster.org/2025/01/costco-walks-away-from-bargaining-table/

On top of that, this new move was so lackluster that a strike could still be on the table. https://www.npr.org/2025/01/31/nx-s1-5280640/costco-pay-raises-teamsters-union-threatens-strike

“Costco is still shorting their workers because nonunion workers lack the retirement security of a defined benefit pension plan and the job protections that come with a union contract,” McQuaid said in an email.

Companies are not things to love. The progress we see in this headline was because of the hard work of unions - NOT the goodness in Costco’s heartbeat