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IFightPolarBears t1_j02lnxm wrote

Reply to comment by Wxzowski in Mass. due $230 million in opioid settlement with CVS, Walgreens by ak47workaccnt

Literally by banishing the fascists from our countries government would push the country in the best direction.

We didn't have to go to a world war to shut our American fascist counterpart down. We just had to make sure we understood what that type of politics leads too.

Some will still cheer for the shootings of LGBT or jews. As they did in Germany in 1935+. We have to make an example of those that support that shit.

Fascists only care about gaining more power at all costs. They don't give a single fuck about people struggling with a heating bill, or food in the table.

The only way I can see us getting back on track is to follow the evidence. Mark Meadows had an inner circle of 35 government representatives that he felt comfortable discussing ways of destroying democracy in the US. I'd follow the evidence further. See who talks to who, who didn't rebuke conspiracies and the destruction of the US. And ban those from working for any government agency for life at the very least.

If you want to destroy democracy, you're not a representative that represents the people or their will.

Edit : read the death of democracy by Ben hett, how democracies die by Steven levitsky. We are walking down a path already well worn.

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Revolutionary-Toe789 t1_j037jhw wrote

You seem a bit on edge. Everything OK?

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IFightPolarBears t1_j03negd wrote

Reading history books while watching American flavored Nazis walk the path that Italian/German fascists did tends to do that.

Never mind tucker Carlson pushing ye, editing his Nazi shit out and pushing him.

Never mind all the right wing grifters try to profit off ye while their audiences listen to Nazi talking points.

Never mind the current gop leader dining with a number of Nazis.

Never mind the supreme court that's filled with partisans.

We have a major issue at hand, the 4th pillar of democracy is failing yet again to push back against fascist ideology.

All while the world is burning itself alive, which will lead to catastrophic disasters that authoritarian love.

Basically. We have to keep fighting against this nonsense in any way we can. Cause they ain't giving up.

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Revolutionary-Toe789 t1_j03oh8r wrote

Maybe turn off the TV and go for a walk in the woods. You seem stressed.

Life ain’t that bad if you don’t worry about assholes.

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IFightPolarBears t1_j03p8sn wrote

Hey bud. Did you even read what I wrote?

You think they talk about history on Fox news? On MSNBC?

Read a fucken history book, we're sleep walking into genocide.

The house speakers husband was attacked by a lunatic with a hammer. Literally a terrorist act. Members of the GOP laughed about it that night while pushing gay hate.

Do you think that makes assassination attempts more or less common?

Straight up, like, where do you think the types of politics that were seeing leads us? To a better working democracy? Or worse?

If it's worse. How bad should it be before you take note? How long should I not stress about 1/3 of the GOP thinking political violence is ok? What percentage should I start getting a bit worried?

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Revolutionary-Toe789 t1_j049smm wrote

I read it.

You will find what you focus on. There’s good in the world too.

If you look at data the majority of situations are better now than it was a decade ago. Less crime. Less murder.

But also less news back then.

I don’t watch or read the news. Yet I still know if anything important happens. Just don’t have to watch the same negative story on repeat.

Again, get outside and go for a walk or another activity that brings you joy.

There must’ve something you enjoy.

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IFightPolarBears t1_j04nbk7 wrote

Hi. I love my life.

You seem to love the current situation too. Why not maintain it? Why are you ok with walking peacefully through a meadow while the government is walking on a path that leads to death. The shire ain't gonna be there bud. Don't be a pippin.

https://youtu.be/KsiNVKzsf4o

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Revolutionary-Toe789 t1_j04o1yc wrote

Happy you like your life. Forgive my confusion based on your writing.

I just don’t think the country is on a path to death. It’s not perfect. But I don’t think it’s that bad.

Must admit to not knowing what you mean by pippin? The musical?

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IFightPolarBears t1_j0518kq wrote

>I just don’t think the country is on a path to death. It’s not perfect. But I don’t think it’s that bad.

That's why I suggest you read a history book. Fascist parties don't take long to take power. It took Mussolini five years after his first insurrection to become dictator and to start political purges. Hitler took longer but once he became chancellor, only one year.

Did you see the Jan 6 insurrection coming? I did. That was trump's first attempt. Mussolini screwed up his first 2 attempts. Hitler had 3.

Watch the YouTube vid, it's a lord of the rings reference.

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Revolutionary-Toe789 t1_j06eggc wrote

I’ve read a book or two in my day. Even took 3 history classes in college.

I think we are in agreement that fascism is bad. We just seem to disagree about how close we are to it. I feel the country made it fairly clear with their votes they don’t support right extremism. It’s most likely what prevented the (and forgive me as I hate the term) red wave.

When I see these idiots wearing 90’s Gap outfits I don’t see them getting much support. I think the crazies have always been there and that social media gives them an outlet to express themselves and allows them the opportunity to come together. But it is still just an outlier.

I can’t stress that crazy is gonna crazy.

Probably should have given Congress a heads up then.

Never saw Lord of Rings. Not really my bag.

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IFightPolarBears t1_j06u9i4 wrote

>fascism is bad.

Good.

>We just seem to disagree about how close we are to it.

I'd agree. You ever read Umberto Ecos essay? He famously list of descriptions of fascist beliefs. I ask you read through them and really think about the current GOPs beliefs. How many do you believe apply?

The cult of tradition. “One has only to look at the syllabus of every fascist movement to find the major traditionalist thinkers. The Nazi gnosis was nourished by traditionalist, syncretistic, occult elements.”

The rejection of modernism. “The Enlightenment, the Age of Reason, is seen as the beginning of modern depravity. In this sense Ur-Fascism can be defined as irrationalism.”

The cult of action for action’s sake. “Action being beautiful in itself, it must be taken before, or without, any previous reflection. Thinking is a form of emasculation.”

Disagreement is treason. “The critical spirit makes distinctions, and to distinguish is a sign of modernism. In modern culture the scientific community praises disagreement as a way to improve knowledge.”

Fear of difference. “The first appeal of a fascist or prematurely fascist movement is an appeal against the intruders. Thus Ur-Fascism is racist by definition.”

Appeal to social frustration. “One of the most typical features of the historical fascism was the appeal to a frustrated middle class, a class suffering from an economic crisis or feelings of political humiliation, and frightened by the pressure of lower social groups.”

The obsession with a plot. “Thus at the root of the Ur-Fascist psychology there is the obsession with a plot, possibly an international one. The followers must feel besieged.”

The enemy is both strong and weak. “By a continuous shifting of rhetorical focus, the enemies are at the same time too strong and too weak.”

Pacifism is trafficking with the enemy. “For Ur-Fascism there is no struggle for life but, rather, life is lived for struggle.”

Contempt for the weak. “Elitism is a typical aspect of any reactionary ideology.”

Everybody is educated to become a hero. “In Ur-Fascist ideology, heroism is the norm. This cult of heroism is strictly linked with the cult of death.”

Machismo and weaponry. “Machismo implies both disdain for women and intolerance and condemnation of nonstandard sexual habits, from chastity to homosexuality.”

Selective populism. “There is in our future a TV or Internet populism, in which the emotional response of a selected group of citizens can be presented and accepted as the Voice of the People.”

Ur-Fascism speaks Newspeak. “All the Nazi or Fascist schoolbooks made use of an impoverished vocabulary, and an elementary syntax, in order to limit the instruments for complex and critical reasoning.”

I think 10-11 out of 13 fit the current GOP. How many did you get to?

>I think the crazies have always been there and that social media gives them an outlet to express themselves and allows them the opportunity to come together.

You haven't been paying attention to all the shit storms that are out there. Facebook has contributed heavily to numerous genocides. They admit it themselves. In front of congress.

It's not just crazies getting together. It's craziest getting together and spreading horse shit. If you don't know, if your depressed, hurt, angry at the world. You'll swallow the horse shit. Literally changing the chemistry that your brain craves to the shit that requires your consumption of rage bait. Propaganda works.

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Revolutionary-Toe789 t1_j073jis wrote

I could possibly just be living in ignorant bliss.

I think the country erred in giving fringe bad actors a little too much tolerance and “freedom” recently and am glad that it seems that right extremism was soundly defeated at the polls and people are predominantly against it.

I just don’t think it has gotten close to a critical mass to be a major concern for me.

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IFightPolarBears t1_j07korm wrote

>I think the country erred in giving fringe bad actors a little too much tolerance and “freedom” recently

Could you explain this further? What specifically do you mean?

>right extremism was soundly defeated at the polls and people are predominantly against it.

...? Gerrymandering has our country down to like 15 districts in the nation that flop back and forth where it matters. I get that young voters turned out. But like...hey friend. Millions voted for the crazies. Crazies don't stop being crazy when they don't get what they want lol they ratchet it up out of desperation.

After the GOP lost, has trump gotten more sane? Or is he having dinners with Nazis?

After the GOP got slapped at the polls, did they reflect on their weak turn out and course correct? Or double down and vow to investigate Biden at all costs?

>I just don’t think it has gotten close to a critical mass

What is critical mass? Like, how would you know when you saw it?

Is it terrorists being cheered on by the largest "news network"? As we saw with pelosi's hubby?

Roaming groups of brown shirts beating people up? As we saw with the proud boys?

I understand you don't think it's gotten to critical mass, but like, what does critical mass look like?

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Revolutionary-Toe789 t1_j07uvet wrote

Fringe bad actors: the armed poll protestors took to long to get removed. The rioters during covid protest. The crime being mostly ignored. Bad actors on both sides I feel have been let slide.

Both sides gerrymander, so I see it as a wash. Ebbs and flows which side “does it better”

Maybe, but remember the tea party? Kinda nuts. Fizzled out.

Trump seems to have changed for the worse. But he isn’t getting any support and everyone he supported lost. Let him be blowhard. Who cares. He will fade to obscurity.

I guess I would say that when people doing crazy shit are left to get away with it and I don’t see a push back from majority. I feel there is a strong pushback out there.

Did the brown boys beat many people up? I feel they were/are morons, but there are cameras on them most places and when they broke the laws they got arrested, didn’t they?

In the end, I think the country is too strong for any fringe group to takeover. I am slightly right of center (maybe not but I have lived in Mass and San Fran so it may just be perspective) and think both sides have crazy people. But to win elections and remain in power in a two party country, have to mostly stay moderate to get enough votes to win. And over time I do feel that center has gotten slightly more left leaning, in mostly good ways.

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IFightPolarBears t1_j0834pt wrote

>Both sides gerrymander

I mean, up until the last 2election cycles Dems were pushing for neutral gerrymanders that are fair. GOP took it to court and had it throw out a long with the protections for African Americans that came with it. Courts protected the gerrymander as is and then Dems hard committed to gerrymandering in order to not give ground for free. Dems now gerrymander as hard as republicans do because they had to in order to keep up with republicans.

I hard disagree that Dems gerrymandered as hard as the redwave software that was used in 2006+(maybe 2008, don't remember)

>Maybe, but remember the tea party? Kinda nuts. Fizzled out

They didn't fizzle out. First off, the tea party was funded by billionaires from conception to what it became was all funded by billionaires.

Once the tea party had enough people that the GOP was bending over for corporations, the funding for the tea party dried up. And they went away. But the refusal to touch corporate taxes had remained. The tea party was retired once it did it's job.

Billionaires were fine with funding lunatics as long as they protected they profits.

Look at Peter theil, he's a billionaire that during interviews has discussed America being better off not being democratic, how it should be "run like a business", supporting a strong authority takes control of all branches of government. He doesn't say he hopes it's him, but he does stop just short. But he's in favor of a dictator at the head of the US. He's currently the one dumping cash into the craziest of the GOP. Now the Senate has people talking about Jewish space laser, going to white nationalist conventions. There are currently enough lunatics in the Senate that they can dictate who the head of the GOP is. And they are negotiating currently about how much power they'll have. They are as we speak demanding they have the power to recall the speaker at any point, by any person. That just means the craziest representatives have that much more power.

>Trump seems to have changed for the worse. But he isn’t getting any support and everyone he supported lost. Let him be blowhard. Who cares. He will fade to obscurity.

Right. But this ain't about trump. It's about the authoritarian fascist leaning of the GOP. Trump clearly has authoritarian dreams. Happy the republicans are seeing it. But...who is 2nd? Desantis is being whispered everywhere.

Desantis is also a fucken authoritarian lol so like, good on the GOP for catching up. But they aren't learning a lesson. The lesson they learned was trump lost us elections, keep the fascist part, drop the trash. As far as I can tell. Right?

Desantis used the power of government to punish a company because he felt like it was the right move politically. He used the power of government to punish brown people he didn't want in his state. And it was cheered on.

Again. I ask you, of the list of fascist government tendencies, how many did the GOP tick off for you?

>Did the brown boys beat many people up? I feel they were/are morons, but there are cameras on them most places and when they broke the laws they got arrested, didn’t they?

They did sometimes. Other times they were not arrested at all even if they were on camera. They learned masks work.

>In the end, I think the country is too strong for any fringe group to takeover.

Why is America so special? Why were other countries unable to resist fascism?

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Revolutionary-Toe789 t1_j08507o wrote

Both sides do questionable shit. In mass when the gov is Republican and senator dies, they change law so gov can’t pick senator. I have no affiliation to either party, and don’t think they are all that different. Both are self serving.

I have no issue with people becoming rich. I think it’s great if you can amass a fortune by adding value to society. But who cares what one guy wants? He can have his opinion. Whatever. I’m sure there is a poor person who would also like to be king of America. What does that matter?

As I have stated I don’t really watch the news, so I didn’t see videos or read about the morons beating people up and not getting arrested. Entirely possible it happened. They should get arrested if they assaulted anyone. Just like anyone that assaulted them should get arrested.

I do think America is special. But I support a democratic and capitalist society. So, if nothing else, there is too much money here for fascism or socialism to take over, IMHO.

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IFightPolarBears t1_j08a7rx wrote

>I have no issue with people becoming rich

Neither do I.

But we've allowed rich people/corporations to dump unlimited money into our government. That alone is one of the most corrupting forces in government.

>cares what one guy wants? He can have his opinion.

Well, neo nazis do. Nazis want what that guy is paying for. He's literally paying for neo nazis to get into government.

>I’m sure there is a poor person who would also like to be king of America. What does that matter?

Poor person can't pay for his views to be made reality.

>So, if nothing else, there is too much money here for fascism or socialism to take over, IMHO.

This is what was said about WW1 being impossible to break out due to how much money was being made. Lol if you think fascists care about money I've got a Kanye to sell you.

Also both Hitler and Mussolini had their major corporations taking over by supporters. So the money never really stopped flowing.

Also lol @ socialism taking over. What's that look like?

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Revolutionary-Toe789 t1_j08cwda wrote

There isn’t much left so say.

I guess one of us will be shown right. Either country continues on as is for a while longer, or a fascist takes over.

Time will tell.

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[deleted] t1_j04cimk wrote

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Revolutionary-Toe789 t1_j04ioiu wrote

Go fuck yourself. Is that a useful contribution?

Dude is ranting like a lunatic about events with low probability and doesn’t seem to be living his best life. I don’t care what he does. But whatever it it is doesn’t seem to working out too well for him.

More people will killed this weekend in Chicago than will be killed by all rightwing extremism and domestic terrorism in the previous and next five years.

(This was a false statement on my part. Looked it up and hadn’t considered the attack in Buffalo as right wing but should have. I stand corrected).

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[deleted] t1_j04xe7i wrote

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Revolutionary-Toe789 t1_j06cnf9 wrote

Bit chilly where I live. Can’t see grass right now.

Also not upset at all and got a kick out of your comment so I found it did add.

But whatever. I felt the guy went on a strange long rant that had little to do with the general topic being discussed. Legit thought he seems like he should talk to a professional. Didn’t seem well.

Maybe he is fine. At the end of the day your first post was right in that I really don’t care about him.

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