It seems to be a pitfall of the thinking “it can’t happen here.”
“when fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross” - Sinclair Lewis
Fricken spot on. I say this quote a lot when I see what’s happening.
Especially because there’s a gun store near me and their logo is the American flag hanging on the cross. Not joking.
As a German, on the contrary, it was blindingly obvious. Starting with your massive(ly overblown) patriotism. No insult intended.
As a Black American the number of white people saying “Who could have known” what we have been screaming at them is infuriating.
As a leftist, the people who said we were overreacting about the Patriot Act 25 years ago (and continuously since) are now saying that we devolved into fascism quickly.
Lots of insult intended. More insult than you can imagine. If you’re reading this and you have been complacent, it’s time to get into the streets.
When I was getting really nervous that Obama and the Dems, when they had a trifecta, back a decade ago now… when they had that, and they were not going to repeal the Patriot Act?
My other white ‘leftist’ “friends” called me racist for being too critical of Obama.
Oh lordy do I still feel the rage at their immense, performative, entitled hypocrisy.
It’s painful to watch. And aware it’s always been far worse for you. I’m sorry. You lost the birth lottery (edit to make it clearer: in the eyes of some assholes).
(I did too in biological ways critically btw, but I still ‘enjoy’ the German health system and white privilege)
I did not at all lose the birth lottery. Being Black is fucking awesome. I just need the rest of y’all to act like you have some sense.
I agree. (except for the obvious of course, that a lot think different)
Yeah, as an Australian, when I learnt as a teen that they do the “pledge of allegiance” everyday in school, I kind of wondered how easy it would be to hijack that into something evil.
They slipped “God” into it in the 1950s. So probably a sizable factor in why we have Christian nationalists now
I’m not sure how many classrooms do this, but it is becoming less common.
I remember doing it in elementary school, but not later on. I can say that as a kid it doesn’t mean shit. It’s just an annoying chore you have to do to start the day.
Nah this was predicted decades ago. First quote i remember talking about it was “when facism comes to america it will be drapped in an american flag carrying a bible”. And thats pretty much exactly how it happened.
I was in college in 2004 when my philosophy 101 professor said with confidence that fascism was on the horizon for the US and that it would happen in our lifetimes.
Fucking Plato predicted this. And I argued with him like a jackass.
To quote Judd Hersh as Julius Livingston: We knew! We knew then! And we did nothing!
What the fuck are you talking about. Hunter S. Thompson wrote about it, Punk rock has spoke about it since it’s inception, I’ve been worried about the fascist threat since I became politically aware during the end of Bush 2 saying we’re just waiting for a Caesar.
“Coming of age in a fascist police state will not be a barrel of fun for anybody, much less for people like me, who are not inclined to suffer Nazis gladly and feel only contempt for the cowardly flag-suckers who would gladly give up their outdated freedom to live for the mess of pottage they have been conned into believing will be freedom from fear.
Ho ho ho. Let’s not get carried away here. Freedom was yesterday in this country. Its value has been discounted. The only freedom we truly crave today is freedom from Dumbness. Nothing else matters.
Hunter S. Thompson
“Germany lost the second World War, fascism won it.” - George Carlin
No offense, but Americans were (or still are) literally the only ones oblivious to this. Fascism in the USA did not start with Trump’s second term. It did not start with his first term either. This has been progressing practically ever since the declaration of independence.
Most at least slightly educated people saw this clearly decades ago. Most weren’t saying anything, because we had bigger problems.
The main issues here consist of:
- lack of an at least semi-functional education system
- ubiquitous propaganda
Nothing about the current state of the USA is surprising whatsoever to most people who weren’t born there. Americans have been exploited and manipulated for generations, and this is the effect. As pointed out by other commenters, there are countless books, essays and works of fiction discussing this phenomenon.
Right-wing politicians are also on the rise everywhere else. So while Murica is cranking fascism up to 11 like they do with everything else, it’s not isolated to here.
Canada is right behind you, fucking embarrassing. If we don’t elect a fascist piss baby next election I’d be very surprised.
From my perspective, right-leaning politicians aren’t necessarily a problem by themselves. It’s good to have a mix of various opinions and backgrounds. The problem is that ‘right-wing’ in the year 2025 is almost always just fascism. It’s like every single person associating with the right is extreme right and never anywhere in the middle.
Nobody thought? Carl Sagan did. Many did.
So, you’re telling me 'Murica, the place known for:
- putting money above EVERYTHING
- exploiting half of the world’s countries
- supporting coups and bloody dictatorships
- invading countries using shitty excuses when the real reason is money
- never hunting down its own extremist “good” terrorists like the kkk
- school shootings
- exporting their propaganda to all aligned countries
- being super xenophobic
- being a fucking chicken because “muh freeze peach!” when it comes to glorification of nazi ideals
Wasn’t expecting fascism to grow from within???
But we’re the good guys. :(
Anyone thinking “it can’t happen here,” wasn’t paying attention in history class. It has always been a part of us from the very start.
In fact America was founded on the genocide of natives. The founding fathers were such hypocrites, preaching about freedom while owning slaves
I think plenty of media actually depicted that. Watchmen the tv show is a clear example. I also think Captain American Winter Soldier have that topic.
Those are some recent popular ones, surely there are more.
Star Wars the prequels sort of dealt with the subject, although it framed the fascist leader as an exceptionally skilled statesman puppeteering behind the scenes and not the reactionary populist personality cults they usually are.
Lol.
LMAO, even.
This particular downslope has been around for 20+ years, and it’s been arguably more like 50 years.
Hell, the only reason we have the small amount of gun control we do is because Regan was afraid of black people owning guns.
Fascism has been festering for a long time, most people only notice now because it’s finally affecting them.
People were calling George Dubya a Nazi. Reagan’s entire economic plan was “make the rich richer because they’ll give poor people money.”
The fact of the matter is, most Americans have been propagandized into thinking communism is the greatest threat they face. Fascism isn’t even on their radar. That’s why they get more upset about people calling others fascists than they do about fascists - they don’t have any concept of the legitimate threat, and quite a few think that authoritative power is the only thing that can fix society.
I told my mom in 2021 that I thought the next major threat the US will face is from right wing groups, because I was seeing a sharp rise in alt-right ideology and meme pages on Instagram. She just looked at me like I was crazy and said, “Really?”
It also took me way too long to wake up. I didn’t start calling it fascism until last year, and I certainly didn’t see the warning signs in the first Trump term - I just thought he was an asshole.
But it’s been going on for a while. Since Reagan at least. “Give your people bread and circuses, and they will never revolt.” Except now we have ultrabread delivered to your home and megacircuses in every living room. 70s-90s America, especially, were kind of a paradise for the middle class. Even in the 80s, when people were upset at having to work corporate jobs, consumer products were being cranked out nonstop and affordable to boot, and you could own a house. We’ve just had it too good for too long, and we didn’t notice the structure of it all eroding until the floor fell out from under us.
The general understanding of experts on fascism after figuring out what the hell went wrong in Germany was that America was particularly vulnerable to it and it would use the flag and the cross to gain influence.
Hell Hitler and his crew got a lot of his ideas from America at that time. Plenty of our rich elite supported it to. Including Ford.
Hell Hitler?
Adolph’s cousin, who was a big proponent of raw fruit diets.
He hated juice.
The Handmaid’s Tale depicts fascism rising from within America
Its not like it just started over night.
But news and social media are turning everyone against eachother, which is a perfect environment for fascists. It also doesnt help that we have Trump in the white house.
