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In one of the worst crises in human history, we're still looking at everything the wrong way: it's not liberal democracy vs. rising fascism. It's faux-liberal democracy vs. rising fascism, and it's that distinction that makes the crisis possible in the first place. 1/
I was reading something today that characterized Russia as championing itself as "anti-liberal," but that's not true. Outwardly, it presents as a liberal democracy, but it's so obvious that everyone knows it's not. That facade is the problem, and we have the same issue. 2/
We wouldn't be seeing the rise of authoritarianism and fascism if liberal democracies were real. What we ACTUALLY have right now is an aristocracy that is described as a liberal democracy, a wolf in sheep's clothing. That distinction is why this country is in so much trouble. 3/
In its founding, America was designed to be a system that supported the wealthy while placating the rest of the civilization. That fact, along with our institutionalized racism and misogyny, meant we were going to have a liberal democracy. We had an aristocracy with features 4/
Because of that, our "liberal democracy" was only going to last as long as the peoples' belief lasted that it was a fair and humane system. Time and time again America's lost the trust of its people and its in these times where the risk grows. 5/
We have a world now where there are strict hierarchies. The wealthy have a direct hand in how the government operates. It isn't a meritocracy, and we're not free to pursue our lives the way we want. It's rigged, and that has eroded the faith. 6/
Our government has been bought and sold over and over in our history. There have been times where the populace took action and reformed it, but the game has always played the same way. Now, we have a body that doesn't work. So people are going to look for authoritarians. 7/
We make a mistake by looking at Russia as being so far removed from us. Communism was just another form of this faux-liberalism. Life after the fall of the USSR shows us what happens when the facade falls apart. The people lose faith in the government and institutions. 8/
If you compare the rise of Donald Trump to Putin, it's all there, right down to the propaganda and the white nationalist groups that hold him up, not to mention the fetishizing of a history that never existed. This is what happens when the lie of faux-liberalism collapses. 9/
In order to get out of this with a measure of freedom and not watch this thing crater, we need to change how we see our history and place in the world. Outside of America, it's well known that this system has been a dangerous, hierarchical contradiction. 10/
The lie of our founding, and how our government has governed and treated others, needs investigated and understood if we're going to even start grasping what's at stake. We can escape the death spiral of fascism, but first we have to understand how we got here. 11/
The way out of this crisis is by realizing a true liberal democracy, a society where it's fair and humane and people are valued over the wealthy and accumulation of power. It isn't enough to preserve, because that order was just aristocracy hidden behind rhetoric. 12/12
