,
11 tweets,
2 min read
Read on Twitter
So. I'm studying fascism for a project right now and it's making me completely reconsider how I look at it and our political moment. We have to reconsider how we cover Donald Trump, the Republican Party, and how we perceive the news of the day. 1/
I think like a lot of people, I always thought fascism was this concrete thing, that there was an ideology that was steadfast and was being enforced by might and violence. But...it's actually the complete opposite. It changes, constantly. It contradicts itself, constantly. 2/
One day, fascism is in favor of Bolshevism. The next moment, Bolshevism is the worst thing in the world. The truth is, it's completely malleable, save for the denigration of a group of minorities, usually immigrants or an endangered group. 3/
Fascists CONSTANTLY contradict themselves, sometimes within seconds of issuing a statement. Contradictions and hypocrisies don't matter because people can be made to forget what was said, whether it's through control of information or by threat. 4/
BUT, here's the big thing: we make the mistake of looking at it as if it belongs on a political spectrum. Left or right. But it's completely off the spectrum. Traditionally it's right, but it can take parts of the left when it needs to, especially when it helps the power group 5/
What defines fascism isn't that it's an ideology, because it isn't steadfast or permanent at all. What defines it is that the fascists are concerned with maintaining or gaining power at any and all costs. Principles are nonexistent outside of the principle of wanting power. 6/
Right now, covering Trump, we have a news organ that just constantly points out that Trump contradicts himself. That Republicans contradict themselves. That doesn't matter for anyone WITHIN the sphere of the group. What matters is that they can move based on the moment. 7/
We have to move beyond just pointing out gotcha hypocrisies because they simply don't matter. We have to start examining WHY the hypocrisy happened, what power it gained, why the winds shifted. We have to give context as opposed to simply marking down a nonexistent point. 8/
The truth is that fascism isn't a political movement. It's a power movement. It's a reaction movement. It's about a group that's in trouble of losing power consolidating power through violence, force, intimidation, and constantly shifting narratives that are weaponized 9/
It's not enough to say, look, Republicans were against deficits here, they're for spending here. We have to look at who is getting the spending, who is getting the favors, and how and why the coalition is being created. We have to move beyond how we cover politics now. 10/
We have to understand that hypocrisy only matters when people have shame, when they fear being exposed. Fascists aren't afraid of exposure because there's nothing to be exposed. They're a shadow that appeals to emotion, not logic. We're covering them the wrong way. 11/11
