Fintan O'Toole: Trial runs for fascism are in full flow

[trof]

Babies in cages were no ‘mistake’ by Trump but test-marketing for barbarism
- Fintan O'Toole, The Irish Times

To grasp what is going on in the world right now, we need to reflect on two things. One is that we are in a phase of trial runs. The other is that what is being trialled is fascism – a word that should be used carefully but not shirked when it is so clearly on the horizon. Forget “post-fascist” – what we are living with is pre-fascism.

It is easy to dismiss Donald Trump as an ignoramus, not least because he is. But he has an acute understanding of one thing: test marketing. He created himself in the gossip pages of the New York tabloids, where celebrity is manufactured by planting outrageous stories that you can later confirm or deny depending on how they go down. And he recreated himself in reality TV where the storylines can be adjusted according to the ratings. Put something out there, pull it back, adjust, go again.

Fascism doesn’t arise suddenly in an existing democracy. It is not easy to get people to give up their ideas of freedom and civility. You have to do trial runs that, if they are done well, serve two purposes. They get people used to something they may initially recoil from; and they allow you to refine and calibrate. This is what is happening now and we would be fools not to see it.

Read on:
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/fintan-o-toole-trial-runs-for-fascism-are-in-full-flow-1.3543375

[dhill926]

1. K & R to infinity.....

nails it...

[trof]

4. That's exactly what I thought.

And Brexit seems to be part of the plan.

[spanone]

2. K&R...A MUST READ

and scary as hell.

[alwaysinasnit]

3. Thanks for sharing this.

This article solidified my suspicions. I will be sharing it and urging everyone I know to pass it along. We have already seen the hateful and vicious reactions to the caged children by tRump supporters.

[Achilleaze]

5. k and r

[Faygo Kid]

6. +1

[defacto7]

7. Indeed

K&R

[lame54]

8. I don't think Trump is a genius...

He is getting an incredible unexplainable pass that anybody doing exactly what he does would be taken down by now

Several Republicans started to be more Trumpy and were taken down

I don't accept genius as an explanation

Hitler gave better speeches in dire times

Trump inherited a healthy economy and says the stupidest shit imaginable(and not on purpose)

there is something else going on here and it's not genius

[Comatose Sphagetti]

10. "there is something else going on here and it's not genius"

Agreed.

I think this whole mess is being orchestrated somehow...

By whom I don't know, but there seems to be a plan and it is being implemented right in front of our eyes.

[world wide wally]

11. Too many Americans who love to say "freedom" are just cowards dying to be told what

to think and do by an authoritarian strongman.

[Comatose Sphagetti]

12. Yep

I don't understand the desire of right-wing authoritarian followers to blindly follow.

Wait... Yes I do. I read Altemeyer's, "The Authoritarians."

[Scurrilous]

9. K&R

[Enoki33]

13. Somewhat unreal to see so many of my fears so logically laid

bare. l also agree tRump is no genius, and that something else is going on. That something else likely is that his handler Putin is the real grand master manipulator and the one with the fiddle. That is the tune the GOP traitors and Fox News dance to. What is going on is way past the point of mere conjecture. We are in real peril now. Tomorrow may be too late.

[diane in sf]

14. Putin and the Koch bros and friends here, interestingly they're all pushing fossil fuels.

[nuxvomica]

15. Kicking for visibility

I posted the same link on another thread and got responses suggesting it should be it's own thread.

[trof]

16. Thanks. Scarey stuff.