I agree with much of your response ... and I appreciate the dialog. As you imply, there is a pathological problem with human nature that persists, the "ism du jour" notwithstanding. And yeah, there is a crunch coming (and it's kinda already here). The invisible hand of mother nature is holding the real trump card and we're bluffing our way to oblivion.
One quibble to start ... if you re-read my piece, you'll note that I framed "the joke" as a distraction. Instead, I transcribed a key portion of Trump's speech. That paragraph epitomizes the transition of his movement and the party it has absorbed. The second quibble is that you forced me to read Michael Tracey! Bleh. But I did and I get the argument. And I've been where you both are for many years. I could dial up a number of pieces I wrote for Bob Parry during the Obama Administration (I termed him "Obamadropper") and plenty more on the political sacrosanctity of the MIC and US empire. More to the point, I resisted using the overused "fascism" label since my graduate work on the topic. I've never believed the US was a "fascist" nation. For me, it's been a classical liberal-colonial empire. In fact, its the kind of liberal-colonial empire that spurred the rise of fascism in Italy, Germany & Japan. Fascism is, for me, a very specific thing ... it's a revolt against materialism ... a political religion rooted in identity that imbues adherents with a sense of meaning and purpose. I refused to call Trump a 'fascist' or MAGA 'fascism' for years. That changed about two years ago when I saw what I term "call-and-response fascism" emerging during his rallies ... and it emerged dialectically, which is apropos if you're familiar with Hegel and Giovanni Gentile's Actual Idealism (he was the official philosopher of the Italian Fascist state). My focus is on the rank and file's belief system (aka 'political religion') and the socio-cultural phenomenon it fuels. Fascism is a popular revolt. It is not "a spell" that's cast, nor is it "the merger of corporate power and the state" (an oft-cited Mussolini quote that he never said or wrote). It's an organic response that percolates in the middle and working classes. Ironically, it's driven by the impulse to "clear house" because the elites "are rotten to the core." I've liveblogged or watched at least one hundred rallies and that impulse is elemental to MAGA. And it predated Trump.
I could go on. And on. And on some more. I'm already afraid that I'm insufferably pedantic. I'm also on-guard against the impulse to evangelize. We don't have to agree on the definition of fascism to agree that the two-party system is a failure or that the military-industrial complex always seems to win.
Will you help make the #TrumpFascistClown song and hashtag go viral?
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/trumpfascistclown-wake-up-unwoke-business-mindsets-from-rick-botelho-uxede/
I agree with much of your response ... and I appreciate the dialog. As you imply, there is a pathological problem with human nature that persists, the "ism du jour" notwithstanding. And yeah, there is a crunch coming (and it's kinda already here). The invisible hand of mother nature is holding the real trump card and we're bluffing our way to oblivion.
One quibble to start ... if you re-read my piece, you'll note that I framed "the joke" as a distraction. Instead, I transcribed a key portion of Trump's speech. That paragraph epitomizes the transition of his movement and the party it has absorbed. The second quibble is that you forced me to read Michael Tracey! Bleh. But I did and I get the argument. And I've been where you both are for many years. I could dial up a number of pieces I wrote for Bob Parry during the Obama Administration (I termed him "Obamadropper") and plenty more on the political sacrosanctity of the MIC and US empire. More to the point, I resisted using the overused "fascism" label since my graduate work on the topic. I've never believed the US was a "fascist" nation. For me, it's been a classical liberal-colonial empire. In fact, its the kind of liberal-colonial empire that spurred the rise of fascism in Italy, Germany & Japan. Fascism is, for me, a very specific thing ... it's a revolt against materialism ... a political religion rooted in identity that imbues adherents with a sense of meaning and purpose. I refused to call Trump a 'fascist' or MAGA 'fascism' for years. That changed about two years ago when I saw what I term "call-and-response fascism" emerging during his rallies ... and it emerged dialectically, which is apropos if you're familiar with Hegel and Giovanni Gentile's Actual Idealism (he was the official philosopher of the Italian Fascist state). My focus is on the rank and file's belief system (aka 'political religion') and the socio-cultural phenomenon it fuels. Fascism is a popular revolt. It is not "a spell" that's cast, nor is it "the merger of corporate power and the state" (an oft-cited Mussolini quote that he never said or wrote). It's an organic response that percolates in the middle and working classes. Ironically, it's driven by the impulse to "clear house" because the elites "are rotten to the core." I've liveblogged or watched at least one hundred rallies and that impulse is elemental to MAGA. And it predated Trump.
I could go on. And on. And on some more. I'm already afraid that I'm insufferably pedantic. I'm also on-guard against the impulse to evangelize. We don't have to agree on the definition of fascism to agree that the two-party system is a failure or that the military-industrial complex always seems to win.