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Paul Mason

7 Jan, 9 tweets, 2 min read

The fascist danger is not over: a thread. 1/ What's important is that Trump incited the attack; the administration did not stop him; the chain of command protecting the legislature evaporated; and he is still in office inciting objections to the result...
medium.com/mosquito-ridge…

2/ The Proud Boys led this, but the militias were largely absent. 45% of Republican voters *support* the attack on Congress. This is what Fox, Parler and the talk radio shows have created: a mass fascist network prepared to overthrow the US Constitution...

3/ There are similar moments in the 1930s... Hitler's Schluss Jetzt slogan in 1932 - "end the republic now" - and Paris 6 Feb 1934, when a fascist mob stormed parliament...

4/ The key is to demand the police do their job while preparing for them to break under pressure and via collusion. That's what let Mussolini's thugs march to power and, in the late stages, allowed the SA to run riot in Germany...

5/ I want all liberal and democratic politicians to say, today, "I am antifascist" - it's a moment to choose: you can't ignore them anymore. We have to fight them as in the 1930s... an alliance of the centre and the left...

6/ The left has stood virtually alone in the USA, alongside black communities and the labor movement, in opposing and naming what this is: fascism. Trump stigmatised Antifa - right out of Mussolini's playbook, as I show in HTSF (forthcoming)...

7/ The Democratic victory on 3 Nov, and also yesterday in Georgia, was an example of the left and centre making tactical alliances to defeat the right/far right - but now it has to go to the streets... as in France 1934-37

8/ All politicians, everywhere: stop avoiding ideological confrontations with the conspiraloons, fascists, QAnon, Plandemic - they're all one movement now. They won't be dissuaded. We have to defeat them on the streets....

9/ Finally this is a moment of acute geopolitical danger. The dictators and oligarchs of the world are laughing at America. One nut job in fascist cosplay outfit, radicalised on Parler, is a more effective weapon than a long-range missile... medium.com/mosquito-ridge…

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More from @paulmasonnews

Paul Mason

@paulmasonnews

8 Jan

A short thread on the Nazi/Trump parallels, drawn from research from How To Stop Fascism (see bio): 1/ The modern far right grows from the same ideological rootstock as Hitler/Mussolini - Nietzsche, Sorel, Chamberlain - it's the same crap... but...

2/ In the immediate aftermath of WW1 the German far right was splintered, with the biggest action - not words - being perpetrated by the Freikorps, first against the Spartakist uprising (exactly 102 years ago), then Baltic States...

3/ ... then the Bavarian Soviet. So when Hitlers NSDAP took off it was as a magnet for all paramilitaries, militias, aristocratic fascists etc... but there still remained Trump-style authoritarian conservatives, some even "populist"...

Read 22 tweets

Paul Mason

@paulmasonnews

8 Jan

Trump backs down - on transition, on prosecuting MAGA rioters, on links to far right. Why? Because a felony was committed somewhere in the chain of command that led to the security failures at Capitol, and it will be traceable 1/ And everyone is resigning...

2/ Politically - in terms of mainstream politics - this is now a damage limitation exercise for the Trump family and the inner circle. He can pardon himself but not them. In terms of mass politics however...

3/ As I pointed out yesterday, fascists need Sorelian myths: the Storm/Kraken was a Sorelian myth and it fell apart between the SCOTUS judgement and 6 January... now they need a new Sorelian myth...

Read 11 tweets

Paul Mason

@paulmasonnews

7 Jan

We are all Antifa now! One day on from the Capitol coup... 1/ This will create a Sorelian myth for the US right: "next time with a million people".... medium.com/mosquito-ridge…

2/ This was a core of fascists, some dedicated MAGA people, but the militias stayed away in numbers... the danger is not over because only now do the MAGA millions realise they lost control of both houses, Pence, the GOP right etc... medium.com/mosquito-ridge…

3/ The most important thing was not that they seized the Capitol but that Trump incited them and the cops manifestly failed... that pattern will define the next 4 years of an anti-Biden insurgency... medium.com/mosquito-ridge…

Read 11 tweets

Paul Mason

@paulmasonnews

6 Jan

THREAD on the DC coup: 1/ It's a few thousand people, inadequately policed, but they pose a danger to life and limb for US lawmakers and currently control the Capitol...

2/ It will require an armed sweep and a security sweep of the building to get it under control. That Pelosi and Schumer called in the Virginia NG means DC and - worse - the DoD are not co-ordinating....

3/ Forget the theatre. Foreign governments will be asking: is there an unbroken chain of command? Everyone in security knows how fragile states are. The DC police, DoD have hours - not many - to get this under control. Trump is publicly absent, having incited it...

Read 10 tweets

Paul Mason

@paulmasonnews

29 Dec 20

By this morning it was clear there is an urgent case for a total lockdown, total schools closure and a new furlough scheme. What did the Tories do? Dithered. What did their outriders do? Demeaned the deaths over-60s with "conditions". By tonight - no action. Remember that...

... the exponential function does not wait for political kite flying, or for radio hosts to stop spewing lies, or for Xmas to be over... it doubles over time. Everything coming off the wards says it's horrendous now. HM Govt job is to take action...

Much as I want Wed 29/12 to be a debate about the Brexit deal it is totally secondary to saving lives. I urge MPs to stage a rebellion tomorrow unless the govt shuts all schools and imposes a new, urgent lockdown...

Read 7 tweets

Paul Mason

@paulmasonnews

29 Dec 20

In a functioning state today should be decision day on harder lockdowns and school closures. Both the figures and the anecdotal evidence from medics saying SE England hospitals reaching capacity and staff reaching limits of resilience BEFORE the effects of Xmas relaxation seen 1/

2/ But this is a sociopathic government: no empathy, self-aggrandising claims, continual lying and manipulation, narcissism... newstatesman.com/politics/uk/20…

3/ The decisions need to be taken sooner, not later. Schools and families need to plan; if the Nightingale shut-down has a logic, it needs to be explained. And there's no urgency in the public health comms...

Read 8 tweets

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