"The United States is lurching toward neo-fascism with alarming speed, courtesy of President Donald Trump, who is using all the resources of the repressive apparatus of the U.S. state to stifle dissent and crush opposition to his extreme agenda. He is so keen on imposing his dystopian vision on the country that he has sought to criminalize anti-fascist struggle itself."- C. J. Polychronion, on Truthout today.
It's been a shock and major revelation for many to learn - two days ago - a bunch of Reeptard Incels was having a Hitler love fest heyday on Telegram. But thanks to Politico's exposure of these losers, citizens of the country now know just how debased these miscreants have become under the Trump 2.0 reign. A sampling of their fecal blather is shown in the top graphic - from Politico.
According to the piece:
"Leaders of Young Republican groups throughout the country worried what would happen if their Telegram chat ever got leaked, but they kept typing anyway.
They referred to Black people as monkeys and “the watermelon
people” and mused about putting their political opponents in gas chambers. They
talked about raping their enemies and driving them to suicide and lauded
Republicans who they believed support slavery.
William Hendrix, the Kansas Young Republicans’ vice chair, used the words “n--ga” and “n--guh,” variations of a racial slur, more than a dozen times in the chat. Bobby Walker, the vice chair of the New York State Young Republicans at the time, referred to rape as “epic.”
Miles Taylor, former chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security in the Trump administration, appearing on ALL In, referred to the wannabe Nazis and Hitler lovers as "being groomed for cruelty" by the likes of Trump and JD Vance. In his words:
"It goes all the way to the top. These guys like JD Vance and Trump are grooming young men in the Republican Party for cruelty. They're raising these weak, little loser incels to go attack people who are weaker. To attack people because of their race, because of their religion. That type of bullying displays total weakness but that's now because the core culture in the Republican Party has changed.
Those who used to be the rotting fringe are now the rotting core. And the rational people like me are now the fringe."
To refresh memories, Taylor was most famous as the author of the 2018 anonymous op-ed "I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration".
But one aspect Taylor overlooked is that the seeds of the "rotting fringe" were always there. No one should make the error of thinking this brand of fascism is novel. Indeed, author Russ Bellant (Old Nazis, The New Right and The Republican Party, South End Press, 1990), showed that fascist ideology in the U.S. Right was cemented decades ago
Bellant's research documented the Republican ties to Nazis via the GOP 1980s "Ethnic Division" and the then Republican Heritage Groups. As Bellant notes (p. 4):
"In a sense...the foundation of the Republican Heritage Groups Council lay in Hitler's networks into Eastern Europe before World War II. In each of those Eastern European countries the German SS set up or funded political action organizations that helped form SS militias during the war."
He cites, for example, that in Hungary the "Arrow Cross" was the SS affiliate. In Romania it was the "Iron Guard". In Latvia, it was the "Latvian Legion". And members from ALL of these - and others - obtained passage to the U.S. and found a home in various groups after the War. Under the umbrella of the Republican Heritage Groups Council and later its "Ethnic Division".
Their main purpose was in Republican campaign fund raising but they were also used for assorted "dirty tricks" against Democrats and may well have come up with the noisome plan to bargain with Iran to keep American hostages there, until after Reagan was elected (as opposed to Carter, in 1980).
Bellant was also among the first to identify the toxic, fascist connections of the "America First" bunch.
"The America First Committee was an organization founded in the early 1940s and whose charter and organization was dedicated to opposing all effort to aid Allies facing the aggression of Nazi Germany."
He also showed in detail how the propaganda and activist arm of the German Nazi party in the U.S. (the German -American Bund) was likewise active in building up sympathy for Hitler and the Axis powers. Indeed, prior to Pearl Harbor the zeitgeist had settled in among American Firsters that in the event of any war, the Axis needed to prevail. (Bellant, p. 34).
What we behold now, for those aware of history, is Trump and his supporters, hearkening back to the days when the Nazi party and Adolf Hitler were idolized by those screeching "America First". Maybe this is why - after the Charlottesville VA “Unite the Right” march in 2017, Trump praised the neo-Nazis as "some very fine people". It may also be why now young Reepos feel emboldened to go on Telegram and spew their proto-Nazi, pro-Hitler garbage. Which just proves what we knew all along: the MAGA Right are Nazi lovers and Hitler adulators. Miles Taylor's final remark on Trump confirms all that was said earlier, noting the latest Trump immigration plan - to let neo-Nazis and racist bigots pour in:
"Look no further than the president of the United States criminalizing criticism. He says people like me are guilty of treason. And yet his immigration policy leaked today would reward and provide safe harbor to those abroad who express racist and bigoted views in European countries - and are seeking refuge in the U.S.
You can't make this up. They are punishing people here for their free speech but saying to violent neo-Nazis overseas, "Hey! If you need a place to stay come to America! What does that tell all those young Republicans in America about what kind of nation he wants to build?"
See Also:
And:
Republicans Face Fallout From Racist and Homophobic Texts - The New York Times
Excerpt:
Over seven months, in 2,900 pages of messages sent over
Telegram, elected Republicans and the leaders of local groups for young party
activists in New York, Vermont, Arizona and Kansas routinely used racist and
homophobic language and glibly invoked Hitler and the Holocaust.
The texts, reported on Tuesday by Politico, were part of a “RESTOREYR WAR ROOM” chat of about a dozen Gen Z and millennial Republicans, some of whom held jobs in elected officials’ offices or in government posts. The exchanges mixed politics with personal matters, laced throughout with offensive language that was shocking for its volume and groupthink.
William Hendrix, the vice chair of Kansas Young Republicans,
used racial slurs against Black people: “Bro is at a chicken restaurant
ordering his food. Would he like some watermelon and kool aid with that?”
And Samuel Douglass, a state senator in Vermont, responded
to a chat about “a very obese Indian woman” with, “She just didn’t bathe
often.”
The texts, which The New York Times has not seen, have
created a firestorm, putting Republican leaders on the defensive. Many state
officials have condemned the texts, which occurred between January and August,
and some who participated in the chats have lost their jobs or have been called
on to resign.
But some top Republican leaders, including President Trump,
have not weighed in, and others have played down the text messages. Vice
President JD Vance compared
them to “anything said in a college group chat,” even though many came
from local party officials and not college students.
On the far right, some suggested that any condemnation of
the racist, sexist and homophobic discourse was a betrayal of the conservative
cause.
And:
Brane Space: NO! Nazis Merit No First Amendment Protections
And:
Opinion | I resigned from the Marine Corps because of President Trump - The Washington Post
And:
Trump Considers Overhaul of Refugee System That Would Favor White People - The New York Times
And:
Brane Space: The Dark Underbelly Of "America First"
And:
— from Foreign Policy In Focus
By Adil E. Shamoo and Bonnie Bricker
The slide towards bleak historical periods can be difficult to recognize in the moment — often it only seems obvious in retrospect. But it’s hard to miss in the U.S. in this early part of the 21st century.
Dangerous signs are everywhere. In the New Yorker, Robin Wright writes of a coming Civil War. Holocaust survivors are issuing warnings about the similarities of this period to the rise of the Nazi era.
While no two events are the same, there are lessons and events in history that can be used to shine a light on the present. Those lights, if we choose to follow them, can guide us to avoid the tragic errors of the past.
The presidency of Donald J. Trump, hoisted on the shoulders of white supremacists, is a glaringly dangerous period for our country. It’s important to recognize this dangerous mix of moral turpitude, dereliction of duty, and incompetence before we fall deeper into fascism and moral tragedy.
Similarities to Hitler
There are some similarities between both Hitler’s and Trump’s rise to power.
For starters, both rose to power with minority support. The Nazi party received just 3 percent of the vote in the 1924 parliamentary election; in the 1933 election, the party won 33 percent of the votes. At his peak, Hitler managed to muster just 39 percent. (Contrary to myth, he never won a popular election outright.)
Trump took over the Republican Party with a similar style of demagoguery and dumb luck, ultimately winning the presidency with 3 million fewer votes than Hillary Clinton due to the arcane Electoral College process.
Likewise, both Hitler and Trump used decrees as a tool for consolidating authoritarian powers and disorienting the opposition. Trump’s continual issuance of executive orders, starting from the first days of his presidency, has served to not only subvert the normal legislative process, but to destabilize opposition by scattering the efforts of the left. By comparison, Hitler issued more than 400 decrees against Jews over a six-year period, in a constant and brutal decimation of rights, and ultimately, lives.
And:
Europe debates free expression against hate speech and disinformation - The Washington Post
Excerpt:
President Donald Trump claimed that Europeans are losing
their “wonderful right of freedom of speech.” Elon Musk told a far-right rally
in London that Britons are “scared to exercise their free speech.” And Vice
President JD Vance warned that U.S. troops stationed in Germany could be jailed
for a “mean tweet.”
Amid such attacks by Trump and his allies, many in Europe
scoffed. This is a continent where pluralistic, parliamentary democracy is the
norm, rule of law is sacred, human rights are respected deeply, and cherished
personal liberties are balanced against society’s broader welfare, including
protection of minorities against hate.
The eye-rolling was all the more pronounced given Trump’s
apparent hypocrisy — with his glee over Jimmy Kimmel’s temporary suspension,
his swiftly dismissed $15 billion defamation suit against the New York Times, and
the efforts by his administration to control reporters who cover the Pentagon
and to prosecute political foes.
But behind Washington’s finger-pointing lies a difficult
debate that is roiling many European countries: Have governments gone too far
in curbing free expression when it comes to hate speech and intentional
misinformation — including political propaganda and election meddling by
foreign adversaries — or have they built more responsible tools to safeguard
democracy?
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