This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis. It was originally published at The Conversation.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1476062
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1476062
A fascism by any other name would stink the same: anti-LGBT is just the latest lodge sign.
Different backgrounds to be sure, even different philosophies at least in public, but these groups are coalescing around their hatreds like flies on shit.
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Sounds like a Republican wet dream. I am always amazed at how much autonomy people are willing to give up to put the “other” in their place. Truly sad.
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This will make Pootie even more of a dreamboat for DFG and his cultists.
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Not sure that I’m any happier seeing Putin’s image than I am about TIFG’s image.
These two will push authoritarianism into the world, to all of our destruction.
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Putin, Trump, and the MAGAts all like to incite and spread hate.
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No singly issue voters are more easily manipulated than those who hate others.
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Remember when the republicans kept insisting that we call al qaeda and isis out as “ISLAMIC terrorism” and not just “terrorism”? We pushed back because not all muslims were pro-terrorist. And not all Christians are fascist, either, but there is a point to be made that the combination of righteous religious certainty and modern electronic media is a recipe for horrors, and those horrors are coming fast.
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Why is it that those on the right equate seeking equal rights for everyone as a disaster?
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They need someone to piss on.
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Clearly. Because it certainly isn’t because those rights negatively affect them in any way. Allowing someone to picnic in peace or go to a movie or vote or attend school doesn’t infringe on their own ability to do the same in any way. And when everyone has a chance to prosper, the entire community benefits. Wish the bigots could see it that way.
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“The entire community benefits”
…but Republicans only prefer a tide that lifts all yachts.
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Many are criticizing Trump for his “blood poisoning” rhetoric, rightfully so as to its morality and mob or lone wolf inciting potential. But no one wants to just come out and admit it’s smart campaign language. The nation is a cesspool of xenophobes and racists and all Trump is doing is appealing to the people he’ll need in November to win. And there are tens of millions of them.
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So true, even the Founders assured everyone was equal in the very language of our founding documents. Oh, wait…
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And TRUMP spends his night PRAISING Putin, Orban and Kim Jong Un. What a couple of 'buddies;.
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Yachts only; no boats allowed.
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At certain points in the last century, the far right in certain countries figured out how to take power even under ostensibly democratic or benign governing systems. The recipe is pretty simple. For example, PM Orban’s hijacking of the EU agenda serves Putin perfectly and allows him to portray himself as powerful to his local constituency. Speaker Johnson’s decision to stop funding for Ukraine is also performance at an Orbanish level but with a focus on Christian Nationalist. The majority of Poland’s voters managed to hang on until they were able to end far-right rule, but in this age it is hardly a given. President Putin has been spectacularly incompetent with the Russian economy, but he can turn to low-cost irritants such as weaponizing migration. Weaponizing LGBTQ issues is super easy. Under Stalin, taking yourself out of the pool of potential procreators was seen as a disability that could be readily cured with the birth of a few children who could join Komsomol. Organization in the LGBT community would be seen as a political threat to traditional values. Like religious cults, it just requires “othering” and narrowing the definition of normal. Like we’ve seen in Poland recently, however, the supply of people who buy autocratic rhetoric is limited to start with and shrinks when the supporter base shrinks due to the inability of far-right parties to deliver on virtually anything that requires proper governance.
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“Social, sexual and racial purity.” Purity. Tell it to the blond blue-eyed Moms for Liberty lady. Or, fer god’s sake, Donald Trump. The real focus of “traditionalism” here is demonization of the supposedly “impure,” bogus grievance directed at them, as an excuse for persecution that makes sadism and murder into matter for group celebration.
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