The consequences: Never before has a former president who is as flawed a candidate as Trump — an individual some have called cognitively challenged and psychologically unstable and who believes in nothing other than himself, his appetites, his instincts and his autocratic ambitions — evidenced, according to major polls, a 50% chance of reelection.
Never before has such an individual commandeered a major American political party, garnered the loyalty of its most radical and/or opportunistic power-players, and forced its moderates to choose between cowardly silence or the termination of their political careers.
Never before could such an individual, if reelected, stand so thoroughly empowered to reject experienced advisors who are faithful to the Constitution — reject “the adults in the room” who might rein in his most authoritarian impulses — and instead appoint loyalists who will do his bidding. In addition those loyalists will enact the fusion of executive-branch dominance, faux-libertarianism and Christian nationalism mapped out in Project 2025.
Never before would such an individual, if reelected, be so thoroughly insulated against criminal indictment and prosecution — all due to the wide-ranging and much criticized presidential-immunity decision rendered by six conservative justices of the U.S. Supreme Court.
For those of you who like to use the bad faith argument that Democrats fear monger every 4 years. THIS IS NOT NORMAL AND HAS NEVER HAPPENED IN OUR COUNTRY.
VOTE! Our lives literally depend on it!
Yep. I’ve been saying it for almost a decade, since I saw what appeared to be focused data-science-driven PsyOps campaigns across SM and reddit — emanating from the conservative cinematic universe — well before scandals like the Cambridge Analytica one aired.
I believe MAGA is an intentional, concerted, malicious effort by the corporate shadow-plutocracy to formally overthrow American democracy, utilizing the pre-existing religious indoctrination and psychological weaknesses instilled in the population via decades of intentionally poor education and anti-intellectualism. They already achieved a functional takeover long ago, by simply funding 90+% of state and federal politicians, and ensuring the candidates most likely to win on every ballot are in their pockets… but the democratic systems are still in place, and candidates who can’t be bought like Bernie and AOC represent a significant risk to their future control and profits.
You want evidence? Literally everything that has happened the last decade… Why is Trump not serving life in prison? Why has he slipped through everything all the while being guilty as sin? Why is he a week away from potentially seizing control of the gov he tried to overthrow? Why did all the insurrectionists get a slap on the wrist? Why was the capitol so poorly and incompetently guarded after MAGA had spent weeks blanketing SM with their plans to storm the capitol? Why have most corporations and wealthy donors continuously funded Trump, MAGA, and Republican candidates right through tearing off the mask and going full-fascism? Why is it a week away from the election, and the richest man in the world — a foreign national — is allowed to openly campaign for the traitor and donate millions of dollars to him, after being offered a job regulating his own businesses? NONE of this is freedom. It’s blatant corruption by a plutocracy who possess zero morals or ethics, and want to rule you like a king. A system by the rich, for the rich. They feel zero need to hide any of it anymore, because they’re banking on the mentally ill, indoctrinated cult they’ve been crafting; if it fails, there’s always next election. They’re confident they will never face any consequences, because they are the system; they are the rule of law.
I just want to highlight how important it is to have an incredibly weak and feckless opposition party for the above strategy you outlined to work.
Literally all of this is solvable if the Democratic party had a spine or some cajones. But decorum, tradition, and “norms” mean more to the Democratic Party than they do anything else. The DNC is all about maintaining their entrenched power at the cost of all else. And its exactly why the MAGA movement was able to take hold. The DNC are blatantly corrupt, and completely disinterested in the will of their voters.
Combine that with Jesus camp. And here we are.
Edit: https://watchdocumentaries.com/jesus-camp/
Tech bros, health bros, hydro homies, Peterson bros, Rogan bros, crypto bros, proud bros, apostolics and evangelicals (NAR and 7MM), etc. And especially libertarians.
All finely targeted avenues that arrive at the same destination.
The destination they almost arrived at in 1933.
Which is about where we are in the rhyming scheme of history.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot
Hydro homies? The people that like water a lot?
Wtf do hydro homies have to do with this?
What do video games have to do with fascism?
Directly, nothing.
But things like gamergate and the like evolve in these communities.
Often a group or figurehead or a narrative emerges. It isn’t accidental.
The individual pipelines to fascism are narrow and focused, the pool is wide.
Homies nowadays may not be the best example. Granted.
It’s not the homies themselves, (as in many other communities) but malicious actors exist to guide people who seek the belonging of groups.
PS. Hydrohomies started as r/waternwords (The original name of the sub is an auto removed here so I’ve changed it)
BTW, I drink water, and I don’t use Arch.
Fascists co-opt other groups and movements constantly because fascists don’t create, they only take and destroy. But hydro homies is well past it’s incredibly edgy start and is now just the liquids equivalent of Linux users - never shutting up about how superior they are for doing a minor thing.
Fascists definitely love the in group-ness of it, but there’s no “only soda” group that’s fighting them and therefore no one to point to as an “other” to forward fascist ideals. Hydro homies is extremely low on the priority for the fascist pipeline. They are incredibly obnoxious when they leak out though.
Also, I vote the potential only sodas group to be called the “soda jerks”