Congratulations, America! You’ve transitioned to full idiocracy. This wasn’t quite completed in 2016-2020, but is now complete. The transition to fascism is also nearly complete.
You elected a guy who promised he would kill your “enemies from within”, so you don’t need to worry about having to argue your position or even hear a different position ever again.
Sorry, this is gonna be a long one. There’s not enough space in a post to flesh out and back up each detail of my argument, but I hope you can make it through, and I hope it makes some sense. Try to read it even if you disagree.
In my experience most people are not aware of the definition of fascism, so I lose them at this point. It’s worth reading the textbook definitions, and see if there’s anything missing in Trumpism. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism#Definitions
IMO, it’s all there. A right wing nationalist strongman to lead the supreme race, the majority, into prosperity and power, out of the decline inflicted by the “other”. Immigrants, liberals, undesirables, Puerto Ricans (but definitely not the rich – they can do no wrong). Deals in fear, victimhood and scapegoating. Violence is celebrated, and is a legitimate, even necessary means to an end (punching protestes in the face, putting political opponents in front of a firing squad, unleashing the military on our enemies from within, etc.). The economic system is based on state control (what companies should produce and who they can sell to – trade war) and vice versa, the state being controlled by industrial interests in a symbiosis of corporatism (Musk, the industrialist, and world’s richest man, deciding who gets what money from the state – I’m sure he’ll cut the space program and other subsidies all of his companies benefit from, to save your tax dollars… right).
Electoral democracy is likely over. Republicans, including the Supreme Court, have no interest in it, as evidenced by their support of a coup leader, denying impeachment or any legal repercussions to fomenting a coup, instead nominating and electing him again. Republicans have been openly scheming ways to override the results of elections already in 2020, and in 2024 (this time it turned out to be unnecessary, but they were prepared). Best case we end up in a Hungary/Russia style autocracy where no one from the left will have a chance of getting into office, at least at the highest levels of government. They have the presidency, the judiciary, and both houses of congress, and a well articulated 920 page plan in Project 2025 that everyone’s on the same page on. That’s all you need to change all of the rules in your favor, never to be changed again. “Four more years” is wishful thinking by liberals. Better get used to “forever”.
How did we get here?
Crappy candidates and policies from Democrats, and brainwashing.
The Internet as the main form of media is a huge brainwashing machine much different from traditional mass media. It runs on algorithms whose goal is to maximize individual engagement, and its byproduct is extreme polarization and misinformation. Everyone is in their own algo bubble, and if you stray even a little, you get sucked into rabbit holes that are near impossible to get out of. Seen it happen to many around me. Even if you don’t go off the deep end, your world view is influenced by targeted disinformation, and a couple of percent shift at the margins is all that’s needed for victory. Most people don’t have the capacity or the drive to fact-check. The algorithmic targeting is extremely well tuned by now. On top of the AI doing its thing figuring out the best ways to influence each individual, you now have someone named Musk literally turning the knob on the algorithm manually to the right. This misinformation and polarization is coupled with (and condtributes to), a general breakdown of human connections, that’s been declining for decades, made even worse since Covid. People interact less in the real world and live more of their lives in the digital, neighbors barely exist anymore, kids are not allowed to play outside, so we interact less and it’s harder to empathize with those outside our information bubble and social bubble. When we lose empathy and understanding, hatred and violence are easy next steps. Fascism becomes an easier sell.
And what do the Democrats have to sell? Nothing. Status quo. They keep fielding useless, far center candidates with no platform, like Hillary, Biden and Harris. Obama was the last one who had something to sell, hope and change, even if it was bullshit. The only thing the last three candidates had to sell was “we’re not trump”. It barely worked for Biden, when Trump was presiding over a near depression, even then only won by a hair. Hillary lost by a hair, but should have done much better against a brazen charlatan. If she had a platform, and didn’t have the proven neoliberal track record (even neoconservative on foreign policy). Sure, disinformation also played a huge role already back then, from Russia and the far right. Harris completely collapsed, managing to even lose the popular vote – a first in 20 years! And why? Sure, there was a lot of disinformation. But all she was selling is “not trump” and “more of the same”, when Americans are squeezed economically, weary of wars, the overblown perception of immigrants, homeless and crime, etc. Most of these effects are caused by Democrats doing the opposite of their messaging and tacking to the right in deeds for decades.
There is almost no daylight between Democrats and Republicans in practice. They hand ever more wealth to the wealthy, allow the hollowing out of the working class and middle class, add almost as much debt and inflation, do practically nothing on climate change and produce even more fossil fuels than the Republicans, do little on jobs and infrastructure, nothing visible, they treat immigrants about as badly (Obama and Biden each deported more than Trump), and pursue wars (hot, cold, proxy and trade wars) and imperialism with at least as much gusto as Republicans. The only differences I can see are: less racist messaging, LGBTQ and abortion. So that’s most of their messaging push. It’s clearly not working for them. Better on unions, but that’s not even mentioned. Try to cancel student debt (but not make college affordable). What am I missing? Fundamentally people’s lives are not getting better. Inflation adjusted median income has been stagnating since Reagan. Definitely not keeping up with productivity gains. The only ones whose conditions have been improving are the top percentiles, ie: rapidly increasing inequality since Reagan. He was the great deregulator before Trump. Conditions are not improving for the working class, even declining, and they make their voices heard. They lash out, and clutch at any promise of salvation, even if it’s irrational. They have nothing to lose. Those of us in the higher income brackets, who have enjoyed at least some improvement over the decades, are like “What are those working class folks complaining about? Things are not so bad, see, GDP is growing, I can afford a new car once in a while, I feel OK”. We don’t understand them, we don’t advocate for them, and they lash out. They blame their problems on whoever they’re told to scapegoat.
What is the alternative? Fielding actual progressive candidates and following through on progressive policies that get at the root issues of economic insecurity and inequality. Instead of shoveling money to the rich constantly through subsidies and wars, address the conditions of normal people. Living wages, affordable healthcare (Obamacare is not that), education, child care, etc. The money is there, other countries can do it, it’s just a question of priorities. Do you favor only the rich, or average people? Yeah, the rich are really hurting for cash, we need to give them more subsidies and wars. Address climate change and infrastructure with real investments, as this country has done in the past, incentivized and regulated by reasonable laws, rather than making money disappear with no visible results. That requires reducing corruption, which there is plenty of even in Democratic administrations. And why would politicians clamp down on politicians making money?? We the people need to put people with principles in leadership roles, like Bernie. His policies are popular, and he gets stuff done. He won his senate seat again by a landslide. But he was explicitly sidelined by the DNC machine in favor of useless candidates who lost (Biden didn’t lose initially, won by a hair, but was too useless to even run for a second term, ultimately losing and ushering in fascism). But the DNC will never learn. They’re forever beholden to their corporate handlers, forsaking the interests of the people.
If we have no principles, no courage, and don’t hold our leaders accountable, this is what we get. I was told by friends I must vote for Harris – no questioning, no accountability, just blind approval, in a state where my vote doesn’t even matter. Muslim voters were supposed to swallow their pain and vote for her anyway. Well, guess what. How our politicians act while in office matters. They DO need to be held accountable, or they lose their way and drive us into the arms of fascism by displeasing all sides.
If we allow our (social)media system to degenerate into a cesspool of disinformation, this is what we get.
I doubt we’ll get another chance to fix it.