Thread by @JYSexton

As Trump grows more desperate he's trying everything, including spreading dangerous conspiracy theories that have inspired massive terrorist attacks.

We have to examine the history.

For the whole disturbing story, check out my book AMERICAN RULE.

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penguinrandomhouse.com/books/611439/a…

This appeal that Trump is now using everywhere that Biden will "take away your guns and your god" has a basis in the fascistic conspiracy theories that have led to mass slaughter and killings, including in America.

He's going to get people killed.

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https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1318538086201032705

Every poll, internal or public, shows that Trump has a narrowing chance of victory, and as that window closes he's going to try more and more dangerous techniques to hold onto power.

What we're talking about is fascistic appeals that regularly inspire terrorism.

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What Trump and Republicans are doing is peddling a version of the "Knife in the Back" conspiracy theory that motivated fascism in the 20th century.

It is a potent lie that uses countries with strong nationalism in hard times to gain power and legitimize murder.

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Let's be very clear.

What Trump is doing and what fascists have done is to propagate myths from the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, an antisemitic forgery that gifts fascists power to attack their opponents.

We're watching another cycle of this right now.

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The Elders of Zion conspiracy was embraced by Adolf Hitler as a means of explaining Germany's failures in the early 20th century, just as Trump is now using it to explain his failures in his first term and America's struggles in the 21st century.

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There is an American connection that gets hidden - before Pearl Harbor there were major fascistic movements in America that pushed the Knife in the Back mythology, primarily headed by Charles Lindbergh, who called on Americans to reject "puppetmasters" and join Hitler.

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The deranged memes and conspiracy theories we see now are continuations of the Knife in the Back myth.

It works like this: puppetmasters, or Jewish people, are manipulating the world with help from traitorous liberals and people of color who are being manipulated.

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This is always the story and it is white supremacy personified.

The triumvirate of Jewish puppetmasters, traitorous liberals, and manipulated people of color form the basis of every one of these fascistic movements that scapegoat the failures of the country.

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To understand the modern iteration of this fascistic mythology, we have to move to the relationship between Ronald Reagan and the Evangelical Right, a relationship that pushed America into a supernatural era tinged with battles between "Good and Evil."

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The Evangelical Right is actually a white supremacist, Neo-Confederate movement that worships a racist god and believes in the need for a white-led aristocracy.

They carried on the tradition of the Confederacy and tried to reestablish it in the modern age.

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We tend to think of religion as simply religion, but what we're suffering through now is a political, fascistic movement that has distanced itself from Christianity in general as Civil Rights leaders used Christianity as a means to appeal for equality.

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For his part, Ronald Reagan appealed to the Knife in the Back mythology by reframing Vietnam, a lost war, as a battle that could have been won had America not been betrayed.

It was a wildly successful appeal that shifted the tone, tenor, and mythology of the country Right.

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The occult aspects of Reagan's beliefs, mixed with the Evangelical insistence that America was an ordained country doing battle with Supernatural Evil, created a society that believed satanic cults, demons, and pedophiles lurked around every corner and were in every town.

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It became a booming business for the Evangelical Right to sell apocalyptic, satanic panic to its believers, resulting in massive bestsellers that teased the possibility that Americans were engaged in a battle right out of the Book of Revelation.

Reality shifted.

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Reagan played the role of revivalist preacher, warning Americans they might be facing the End Times while convincing them that the country was chosen by god and above any criticism or reproach.

His mythology was so successful it was nearly impossible to escape.

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Reagan's appeal was so strong that the Democratic Party believed their only means of winning elections was to embrace Reaganism and become "Republicans with human faces."

The party moved right and rarely troubled the Reagan mythology that had taken over the country.

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When Bill Clinton ran for president, he did so by running to the left AND the right of George H.W. Bush, borrowing catchphrases and slogans from Reagan, all while attempting to paint himself as Reagan's actual heir.

It was a moment of political consensus.

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While Republicans and Democrats differed on social issues, largely they aligned on market solutions, meaning that Reagan's reign as president had shifted the country so far right that the DNC had no choice but to follow.

It should have been a moment of bipartisanship.

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Clinton would eventually push the North American Free Trade Agreement over the line, a project that was dreamed up by Reagan, negotiated by George H.W. Bush, and approved mostly by Republicans in Congress.

It was a bipartisan idea, but it spurred a massive conspiracy.

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Newt Gingrich and a new breed of Republicans saw the narrowing gap between Democrats and Republicans as dangerous to the GOP's electoral chances.

Instead of working together, Gingrich pushed the idea that Clinton was a wild-eyed socialist, embracing conspiracy theories.

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This fearmongering was also popular with the NRA, who painted Clinton and the Democratic Party as a fascistic takeover obsessed with taking American guns and handing the country over to the UN in a massive coup.

It raised tons of money and sold a ton of guns.

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As Reagan had deeregulated media, far-right pundits like Rush Limbaugh used the fearmongering to build giant audiences, using the paranoia to frighten white Americans into believing they were subject to a giant criminal conspiracy to destroy them.

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The combination of evangelical and white supremacist paranoia, mixed with the supernatural elements of the Reagan/Falwell era and the rise of globalism, created the New World Order conspiracy theory.

It convinced Americans their government had betrayed them.

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The problem with fascistic conspiracy theories is that people believe them. And when they believe they're subject to invisible wars, they tend to act as if their soldiers in that war.

The Right created an environment where a domestic terrorist would kill hundreds.

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Men like Timothy McVeigh believe they are soldiers in an invisible war with the New World Order. They believe themselves, their families, and everything they love are under attack.

If you believe this, it legitimizes the need for preemptive, mass violence.

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The Deep State is the rebranding of the New World Order conspiracy theory since the NWO brand has so much baggage.

It's the same story. Puppetmasters, traitorous liberals, manipulated people of color.

It IS fascistic in design and purpose.

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Over the years Fox News has broadcast 24 hours a day a carefully curated and focused New World Order conspiracy theory to its viewers that tells them they are under attack by this Knife in the Back conspiracy.

They have radicalized millions of Americans.

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The message is clear. The Democratic Party, like the Clinton Administration, is betraying America in order to destroy it and profit off the destruction.

It's the exact same story, beat for beat for sad, demoralizing beat.

It is fascism. White supremacist paranoia.

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Meanwhile, wealthy and powerful figures like the Koch Brothers have used this white supremacist paranoia to their advantage, creating artificial movements like the Tea Party to move the GOP further Right and convince their voters to accept dangerous corporate libertarianism.

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Just as the New World Order turned into the Deep State, the Tea Party became the "Reopen Movement," funded by billionaires like Betsy DeVos.

Like the Tea Party, we again saw radicals plan a domestic terrorist attack, this time kidnapping and possibly executing a governor.

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We've already seen the consequences of this manipulation. Right Wing conspiracy mongering inspires violence.

Their followers send bombs, plan kidnappings, shoot people at protests, plan the overthrow of the government itself.

There are consequences to fascistic appeals.

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Radicalized people watching Fox News and swimming in these conspiracy theories believe they are soldiers in an invisible war, just like Timothy McVeigh.

They bomb buildings and pick up semi-automatics in order to "defend" their way of life.

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Trump's conspiracy mongering isn't just tasteless, it's incredibly dangerous. His followers have murdered multiple people, have engaged in wanton violence in public, and have planned massive terrorist attacks.

His growing desperation with Biden only makes this more likely.

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I keep trying to tell people, defeating Trump in November is one thing. Getting him to leave is another. But these fascistic, paranoid appeals will hound us for years, even if he leaves.

Extremists will believe they're under siege because of his lies.

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To tell people for years that Democrats are traitors and engaged in a massive conspiracy to take guns and ban religion will salt the earth for any administration to come. And the extremists Trump's inspired have grown in numbers, strength, and organization

It's a tinderbox.

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The radicalization of the Right won't simply disappear if Trump is beaten. Their reality has been fortified and intensified these past five years, and that pressure doesn't just go away.

If we're not careful, we're looking at another Oklahoma City, or worse.

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These fascistic appeals have to stop and they have to be rejected in whole. The pressure and tragedies are mounting by the day, and Trump's desperation will only make it worse.

We are looking at a massive tragedy if we're not careful and the stakes couldn't be higher.

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