🔹Traditional (monarchy)
🔹Charismatic leader (fascism)
🔹Rule of law (democracy)
For #2, today we’d say cult leader or demagogue.
2/ Rule of law requires a shared truth (@timothydsnyder uses the word ‘factuality.’)
Fascism or demagoguery is based on myth, and can only exist if it destroys factuality.
So fascism (leadership cult) is always trying to destroy truth.
3/ Here’s the part that is hard for people to grasp: The GOP doesn’t want a democracy. They want fascism. They're trying to destroy truth.
That, of course, explains Fox, Trump, and the GOP. They are actively trying to undermine factuality.
They’re not goofing when they lie.
4/ “But wait!” people say. “Fascism is un-American!"
That depends on how you look at our history.
Yes, the founders set up a democracy based on rule of law. Yes, Hamilton warned against demagogues.
But in the system they created, relatively few white men held all the power.
5/ So you see, we have both in our national DNA.
As democracy has expanded to include minority communities, a lot of people don’t like it. They want to go back to the way things were.
That’s literally what MAGA means. Go backwards.
6/ To go back, they have to destroy dismantle much of the federal government.
Trump promises to do that.
Moreover, democracy is grinding work. A lot of people don’t like it.
Checks and balances and division of power means that change happens slowly.
7/ Democracy requires give and take and compromise. Some people hate that, especially when they are compromising with people they don’t think should be in power in the first place.
An autocrat has a lot of appeal: He can bring about swift changes. He doesn't have to compromise.
8/ Dismantling the federal government put in place since the New Deal (largely to create fairness and to allow democracy to expand) can either be done slowly, or with a wrecking ball.
Trump is a human wrecking ball.
9/ Answering ⤵️
I think they might be embarrassed when he can’t answer a simple question and sounds like a moron, but they won’t speak out because the alternative for them is worse.
10/ I don’t think he misunderstood⤵️ He honestly doesn’t think there is a race problem.
In his answer to this question, MAGA people will hear truth.
Barr said the same thing when he said yes, Blacks are treated differently in the criminal justice system, but there is no racism.
11/ Here’s how I understand these comments: Trump and Barr believe in a hierarchy. They believe white men naturally inhabit the top and Blacks are naturally inferior.
So, in their view, if Blacks don’t have it as well, that’s because of nature, not racism.
12/ On the other hand, in their view, anti-discrimination laws are racist because they focus on race.
Affirmative action singles out race, so they think "racism!"
They think it's unfair to whites, infringes "liberty" and tampers with the natural order.
13/ Trump is aware of anti-discrimination laws because he’s gotten in trouble for breaking them.
He avoided talking about making America great "again" for blacks.
Trump essentially answered the question by saying, “Why are Blacks complaining? Look how much better it is now.”
14/ Yeah, I know. 🤦♀️ But it makes sense to people who believe nature naturally forms a hierarchy, and white men belong at the top.
This is what the GOP believes, so this town hall will not change their views.
15/ Mindy also asked whether anyone believes Trump's blatant lies. I talked about this earlier when commenting on how Kayleigh McEnany repeated Trump's lie about the existence of a new health plan, so I'll just put the link in the next tweet.
But I have given up thinking anything is going to cause the GOP leadership to jump ship. If Operation Ukraine Shakedown didn't do it, and the response to COVID, didn't do it, I think they are fully committed.
For years I was perplexed by what I was seeing on left-leaning Twitter, political blogs, and partisan reporting.
I had the feeling that, in its way, what I was seeing was comparable to Fox: Lots of bad information and even unhinged conspiracy theories.
2terikanefield.com/invented-narra…
Of course, if I suggested that, I was blasted for "both-sidesing."
Then I discovered an area of scholarship: Communications and the overlap between communications and political science.
Another contradiction: when people demanded indictments RIGHT NOW (in 2021 and early 2022) the reason was, "Everyone knows he's guilty! Look at all the evidence!"
We saw the J6 committee findings.
Trump isn't saying "I didn't do it." He's saying, "I had the right to do it."
2
We all know what he did. The question is, "Do people want a president who acts like Trump?"
A lot of people do.
People show me polls that a guilty finding would change minds.
I say rubbish. Use common sense. He lost in 2020 and he lost the popular vote in 2016. . .
3/
. . . because it is designed to keep people hooked. People need to stay glued to the screen for hour after hour.
But to hook people, you need to scare them. The Facebook whistleblower testified that content that produces strong emotions like anger gets more engagement.
2/
Fox does the same thing. There is a few minutes of news, but the facts get lost as commentators and TV personalities speculate and scare their audiences.
Before you yell at me for comparing MSNBC to FOX, read all of this:
If I write another blog post addressing the outrage cycle here on Twitter and in the MSNBC ecosystem, it will be to explore why so many people who believe they are liberal or progressive actually want a police state.
1/
Today alone, a handful of people who consider themselves liberal or progressive told me that the "traitors need to be arrested and prosecuted."
In 2019, back when I wore myself out tamping down misinformation, I explained the legal meaning of treason.
2/
Back then, I now realize, people asked politely: "Can Trump be prosecuted for treason (over the Russia election stuff).
I explained that wouldn't happen.
Now it's different. It's more like fascist chants.
3/