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36 sats \ 13 replies \ @kepford 8h \ on: Trump Demands That Intel CEO Resign Politics_And_Law
I'm curious. Do you consider FDR a fascist?
Good question. I always thought of him more as a communist, but the ideologies do meet when the circle closes. The whole national socialist thing.
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I remember learning more about FDRs actions during the war and how he "nationalized" some many aspects. His youth groups seemed very similar to Hitler's (though noble to Americans?). He altered the economy with massive abuses of presidential power. But the people seem to have supported him as the Germans did of their leader. Fascism as an idea was pretty popular in the US prior to the war and honestly I think the US was probably a major influence on the rise of Fascism in Europe. I'm of the opinion that the US adopted many of the same approaches to public / private partnerships that were in place in Germany too. We just don't call it that nasty name. I used to wrestle with this and then I just realized that there isn't really clear and uniform agreement on what fascism even is. Its kind of a useless term.
Today it even seems to be losing its shock value as WW2 becomes a more distant memory. I think the weakest argument against it is the racial one. You can remove the racism and its still rotten. And we've seen many different systems use racism to justify terrible things.
As far as Trump? He may be a fascist but I kinda don't think that's a helpful way to think of him. I don't see him as ideological at all really. He is no where near Hitler in how he thinks/acts. To me he's more of a strongman figure. Tough guy. Business mindset without the ideology. He seems to have some good instincts but also very easy to influence by those around him.
The thing that concerns me is the culture that led to his rise to power. He has always been more of a symptom of rot than source to me. I think the US could have a much much worse President. We are entirely divided in ways I don't see changing and a really smart politician could use this to crazy things. Things MUCH worse than the stuff people are losing their minds about. And this guy could be from the extreme left or right.
I'm thinking of the Return of the Strong Gods again.
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Really good answer. Thanks. You obviously gave this much more thought than me with my flippant characterization. I agree with your take on Trump. He almost has the attitude that might be held by a child when thinking about the presidency. He is the boss who gets to decide what to do. Kids learn about separation of powers later.
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separation of powers
Quite the opposite, he's illustrating how that's all a fugaz, theater to give the regime deniability.
Every government is controlled by a shadow government, this is just the first taste of regime change to remove any doubt that we were under occupation.
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You're right about the western world pre WW 2. The British monarchy. Lindbergh. Henry Ford. I think we probably look at this history through a postwar lens.
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Yeah, we can't help but do that. Culture is just the lens through which we view the world and we rarely are aware of how it is affecting us. Lately I've been seeing this in my sons and how they view some cultural things differently than my wife and I. Its kinda funny because on the topic I'm thinking of they are more restrictive and conservative than we are...
Great note. I can’t quite believe this site is (almost) free to use!
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Is that a real book title? If not, someone should write it haha
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