American Fascism
Amcerican fascism is here and a majority of Americans accepted it with open arms.
January 25, 2025
Trump lost the election in 2020. Trump spent his final months in office perpetuating lies of a stolen election--lies that were repeatedly struck down in court and easily proven false.
Trump participated in schemes to illegally and unconstitutionally overturn the election for which several of his co-conspirators have been sanctioned, charged and/or convicted.
Having lathered up his supporters into a violent froth, Trump invited them to the capital to intimidate those tasked with overseeing the peaceful transfer of power. He told them they needed to "fight like hell" or they would lose their country.
When his supporters violently invaded the capitol during the constitutional proceeding, he further fueled their rage by tweeting that his VP did not have the courage to unilaterally overturn the election, something he had pressured him to do in the days leading up to electoral vote confirmation. He then stood by and watched the violent rioting rage on for 3+ hours before asking them to relent, resulting in multiple deaths and the hospitalization of 140 law enforcement officers.
Over 1,500 rioters were prosecuted in accordance with the laws of our nation, convicted by juries of their peers. Trump promised on the campaign trail that he would overturn this constitutional process as well and pardon these violent offenders.
He did just that, and the majority of Americans are either fully on board or accepting of it. Now these violent criminals (along with Trump-aligned congress members) are promising retribution against those who upheld the law, and very few bat an eye.
We have lost our collective f***ing mind. It's utterly insane that this horrific attack on our constitutional order was not disqualifying.
We have always been led to believe that America is exceptional and uniquely noble. We are a nation of laws where justice is blind, unlike other countries where demagogues place themselves above the law.
This turned out to be a lie. The majority of Americans simply lack the fortitude and principles to uphold such an ideal.
And now here we are casually talking about taking over the territory of other sovereign nations. We are following the Nazi Germany arc all too closely, except it only took the price of eggs and efforts to be more inclusive to historically marginalized groups to drive America to full fascism.
But it's not just republicans who spit on laws designed to uphold higher principles. The Democrats largely got in line behind the Biden administration when it decided to break U.S. laws and supply weapons knowingly being used to carry out war crimes. Biden explicitly admitted to this in his final interview as president. They also violated U.S. law and international agreements concerning asylum seekers to prove that they too could be "tough" on immigration.
It's the one thing that is bipartisan in our country. Leaders can commit serious crimes out in the open against democracy and humanity and face no consequences because a majority of Americans do not really care about these things.
They don't care if we are rolling back civil rights protections or reproductive rights or LGBTQ+ rights, just as long as they are personally comfortable in the present moment. We'll see how long that lasts since the official stance of the federal government is now "climate change is a hoax" and "stop renewable energy".
I guess America is exceptional, just not in a flattering way.
Despite a problematic past, I really did have hope that America could live up to the ideals it purported itself to represent. But a majority of Americans have welcomed fascism with open arms. They chose prejudice over principle and self-indulgence over a sense of responsibility to the planet, the people, and future generations.
When ecological responsibility, fundamental human rights and the rule of law are trivialized, things will not end well, including for those who cheered it on. I certainly hope to be wrong about this, but when the most consequential nation on earth commits to being this moronic, calloused and corrupted, I don't see how we can reasonably expect otherwise.
