I think it’s worth setting aside terminological questions and asking instead whether, if he had ruled within a system that allowed him to perpetrate the same kind of evil that fascists perpetrated, Trump would have done it, and I think the answer is clearly yes.
https://twitter.com/HeerJeet/status/1350950978820964358
When people call Trump a fascist, and his most violent supporters fascists, that’s what they mean. And it’s a completely reasonable way to use language.
There’s a mishmash of folks who are being pedantic about this point for self-serving reasons—e.g. I’m not as hysterical as THOSE progressives throwing around the f-word. But they’re obscuring more than they’re clarifying. thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-i…
If Trump had the means at his disposal to encamp immigrants and shut down the press he would have done it. That’s an indication of the kind of profound evil and sociopathy many people associate with fascism.
Using the word “fascism” in an academically imprecise way in order to convey the depths of Trumpism’s capacity to do harm describes him and his most violent supporters more accurately than those who adopt softer language because Trump isn’t, like, a neo-Hegelian or whatever.
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