Radical acceptance. This is not the time to look away. From the personal to the global, the first step of resolving any problem in life is to accept that it is there and real.
Note Chris Hedges' quote at the top of that part of the post:
"You can't maintain a democracy if you destroy your middle and working class. You can't. It's impossible and that's what we've done and so now we are facing the specter of this rolling kind of fascism and people vote for it out of rage. Out of anger. Out of desperation.”
When people are scrambling to survive and see neighbors and friends falling behind and collapse into poverty there is a growing sense of desperation, fear and looking for someone to blame. People in that state are looking for someone -- anyone -- to come and make things better. They want a strongman with some connection to some cultural and pseudo-religious connection to get society back to the "way things used to be". The far-from-perfect Trump is a perfect example.
Note Bin-Ghait's comments on the authoritarian exploitation of a God-cult ... the first quote. Desperate people are in survival mode. They are in a reactive state of mind and don't have the time or bandwidth for parsing competing political arguments or parties. They want relief and they want it now and they want some kind of street justice for those who have been labeled the cause of their suffering -- immigrants, racial/ethnic/religious minorities etc. The perfect trash pile from which fascism sprouts and grows.
Why do people keep using the term oligarchy (rule of a few), when the correct term is plutocracy (rule of the rich)?
There's also 'kakistocracy' ... rule by the least qualified, most venal and stupid. Perfect description of who's in charge.
Thanks for that clear explanation Mark, certainly looks like many proto-fascist boxes have been ticked already 😳
So why can’t the main stream join those dots? You don’t mean to say the media is in on this too?
The media? The media is objective, right? Yeah, right.
* inserts flying pig gif
How does it serve the fascists to create hardship
Note Chris Hedges' quote at the top of that part of the post:
"You can't maintain a democracy if you destroy your middle and working class. You can't. It's impossible and that's what we've done and so now we are facing the specter of this rolling kind of fascism and people vote for it out of rage. Out of anger. Out of desperation.”
When people are scrambling to survive and see neighbors and friends falling behind and collapse into poverty there is a growing sense of desperation, fear and looking for someone to blame. People in that state are looking for someone -- anyone -- to come and make things better. They want a strongman with some connection to some cultural and pseudo-religious connection to get society back to the "way things used to be". The far-from-perfect Trump is a perfect example.
Note Bin-Ghait's comments on the authoritarian exploitation of a God-cult ... the first quote. Desperate people are in survival mode. They are in a reactive state of mind and don't have the time or bandwidth for parsing competing political arguments or parties. They want relief and they want it now and they want some kind of street justice for those who have been labeled the cause of their suffering -- immigrants, racial/ethnic/religious minorities etc. The perfect trash pile from which fascism sprouts and grows.
Got it. Well said. Disastrous.