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Jennifer Mercieca Profile picture
@jenmercieca
Jul 4, 2020 • 6 tweets • 2 min read • Read on X
Y’all! The secret of his success: Donald Trump's six weird tricks for authoritarian rule salon.com/2020/07/04/the…
So grateful to @PaulHRosenberg for such a careful read of my book and the chance to do this interview! #teamrhetoric
I love this: "Her book provides a coherent, objective, pro-democracy framework for seeing through his barrage of attacks on the democratic accountability he seeks to avoid."
"'Demagogue for President' should be a must-read for every political reporter in America, if they hope to finally hold Trump to account. Since they may well fail to read it, all the more reason you should read it, too."
If you read the whole interview you'll get a really good overview of the points in my book. Thank you again @PaulHRosenberg!
It's on the homepage! (giddy, sorry, I'll stop) Image

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More from @jenmercieca

Jennifer Mercieca Profile picture
Aug 24
Expect that Trump won't "debate," he'll be there to humiliate. What does he think will humiliate Harris the MOST? He will call her names, distort her record & policies, try to make her cry, try to intimidate her & attack her heritage. He'll say she's a dumb silly girl & a whore.
He will spew so many lies (Gish Gallop) that no one is able to refute them. Do not try. This isn't a "debate," do not try to debate facts. Weirdify: expose, critique, and mock. Explain Trump's weak-sauce strategies to the audience--
"Well, that was about 20 lies right there. I'm not going to waste the short amount of time I have here refuting them (it's on my website-post factchecks). Trump lies a lot, some of the worst lies he tells are about how this nation isn't already and hasn't always been great..."
Read 13 tweets
Jennifer Mercieca Profile picture
Aug 23
This is a large part of our collective trauma. We lack civic spaces, can't find the time to join, never go to the park or library, and can't say we have friends we can count on. For some of us it's much worse than it is for others of us. We all suffer. This neoliberal life.
Here's the full report: americansurveycenter.org/research/disco…
And once you read it, you'll see why so much of what I recommend about saving democracy is about connecting with one another and building trust:
Read 5 tweets
Jennifer Mercieca Profile picture
Aug 13
"Trump promised that the papers proved that he and his businesses wouldn’t profit off the presidency, but when reporters asked to examine the evidence, the folders and papers appeared blank. Not for the first time nor the last, Trump had offered props instead of proof."
Trump is America’s Authoritarian P. T. Barnum zocalopublicsquare.org/2021/01/07/pt-…
In Turbulent Times, Showmen Can Distort Reality and Make Suckers of Us All zocalopublicsquare.org/2017/10/27/gre…
Read 7 tweets
Jennifer Mercieca Profile picture
Aug 11
Weird. 😂
Image
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This might be locked for y'all, I can't tell: sciencedirect.com/science/articl…
Sometimes called "carnivalesque" and sometimes called "tactical frivolity" and sometimes called "culture jamming"--humor has been taking down repressive regimes since ancient Greece:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnivale…
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tactical_…
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_j…
Read 11 tweets
Jennifer Mercieca Profile picture
Aug 7
I've been writing a little lately about "reflexive control"--the strategy Russians use to get their targets/adversaries to do what the Russians want, but think it's their own idea (Russia's goals become your goals). It's really effective, and the point of their information ops.
So thinking about reflexive control--creating a context, feeding the information environment to create the conditions by which your adversary makes the choice you want them to make--and the last few weeks. Biden/Harris have completely inverted Republicans' control over the race.
Republicans didn't think it possible, could not conceive of a world in which Biden willingly gave up power (so much so that Trump was tweeting today trying to make Biden recant his decision 😂). All Republican plans were designed to control the outcome of the race against Biden.
Read 6 tweets
Jennifer Mercieca Profile picture
Jul 29
More about the #weird strategy: fascists use language strategies that create the conditions for fascism. Part of that is creating fear & hate objects & then defining "normal" & scaring folks into defending/policing the new normal. When we make fascism weird, it loses its power.
The current iteration of the "weird" strategy is genius because it shows how isolated the right-wing media ecosphere is. Most folks don't know wtf they're talking about. The OFoxMax crowd is a small % of the US population, but a large share of cable news viewers.
They only talk to themselves. They don't try to solve problems or even cover actual news. It is pure outragebait all day and all night. That outragebait is good for keeping an audience, but it turns them into weirdos. No one cares about what they care about.
Read 7 tweets

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