Our understanding of authoritarianism and fascism is clouded by misunderstandings and myths that gift dangerous men like Donald Trump cover to consolidate power.
We have to recognize authoritarians are incompetent and fascists are inherently weak.
1/
themuckrake.com/main/authorita…
We have to recognize authoritarians are incompetent and fascists are inherently weak.
1/
themuckrake.com/main/authorita…
What we see now with Trump is an authoritarian, a tragically insecure man who protects himself through delusion and displays of hyper masculinity meant to camouflage his weakness. This is the bully’s gambit. This is why even the slightest slight sends him into a rage.
2/
2/
The Trump Administration is an extension of Trump and its dysfunction is typical for an authoritarian regime. It’s a circle of sycophants the leader pits against one another for competitions for his love and approval. They’re dangerous, destructive, and achieve very little.
3/
3/
The truth is that authoritarian regimes are inherently incompetent. Authoritarians like Trump destroy every organization they’re a part of. They undermine experts for fear of being exposed as weak or ignorant. They destroy institutions as they flail.
4/
4/
What we’re watching with Trump’s failure in the pandemic is textbook authoritarianism. Authoritarians create crises because of their incompetence. These crises are then blamed on political opposition, conspiracies, and vulnerable populations.
5/
5/
Authoritarians always seize power as their failures mount. They blame institutions and checks on their power. They blame their limited power and then take it in order solve the crises they’ve created themselves. This is a predictable cycle.
6/
6/
The myth that authoritarians and fascists are competent is a result of American foreign policy relying on strongmen to keep other nations in line and working for American interests. They’re seen as cruel but effective while their cruelty hides their incompetence.
7/
7/
As well, the idea that authoritarians have a strict ideology is completely fabricated. Like cult leaders, authoritarians constantly contradict themselves, often in the same breath, only for their followers to be left navigating the contradictions and hypocrises.
8/
8/
Trump’s chronic lying fits into the authoritarian mold, as does his malleable ideology. One morning they can be avid capitalists, the next obsessed with government control. The shift is a result of the cycle of megalomaniacal delusion and tragic insecurity.
9/
9/
The authoritarian society creates a fabricated reality where the leader is consistent. Media and party leaders work overtime to edit the world and past to fit the leader’s whims. This is how the pandemic is a hoax and then an invisible war.
10/
10/
The truth is that fascists and authoritarians hide inside the damaged, corrupt parts of society, hiding behind symbols and eradicating truth until one day it’s as if they’ve always been there and it’s like nothing has ever happened.
11/
11/
What we’re watching now with Trump is a slide into an authoritarian society and this pandemic is only quickening the slide. This war on truth and reality, mixed with scapegoating conspiracies and enemies, the wild shifts and obvious incompetence, all fit into the cycle.
12/12
12/12
