My brothers and sisters in Christ…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guantanamo_Bay_detention_camp
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1985_MOVE_bombing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Wetback
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supermax_prison#United_States
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Crow_laws
We’ve always been here.
What these scholars are finally stumbling into is our age-old horrifying authoritarianism directed at upper-middle class gender normative white people. But to believe the nation that’s been indulging in plantation farming and zero-hour contracts, bloated national security institutions and public-private surveillance plans, institutionalized misogyny and evangelized genocide for practically every year of its near-250 year history wasn’t already authoritarian…
Who knows. Maybe now that the current administration is no longer carving us apart and harvesting from the national body like a surgeon and just coming at us with a rusty machete we can find some kind of intersectional unity. But the way I see people freaking out because pretty blonde girls and middle-aged white men are running afoul of a police force that was exclusively fixated on the epigenetic underclass a few of presidents ago makes me think this is still a nation of white supremacists who feel betrayed because the Supremacist In Chief is simply doing a clumsy job.
That’s awfully absolutist of you not seeing the huge difference in scale, the blatant ignoring of checks and balances, states rights, and the resulting constitutional crisis. Never before have so many government leaders so blatantly committed so many acts of corruption while holding themselves above the law. Never before have we so intentionally cut so many services and intentionally disrupted the economy so much. Never before have we done so much harm to the US’s stature in the world, damaged our future so much. Previous attempts to ruin education for religious or other malicious reasons have been mostly local, never before has there been such an attempt to control education across the board, everywhere, at every level
the blatant ignoring of checks and balances, states rights, and the resulting constitutional crisis
You’re describing any number of prior administrations. The phrase “Constitutional Crisis” absolutely echoed through the Bush 43 administration, as his bureaucracy was constantly ignoring court orders (FISA most famously) and end-running legislative constraints through EOs and Signing Statements.
Never before have so many government leaders so blatantly committed so many acts of corruption while holding themselves above the law. Never before have we so intentionally cut so many services and intentionally disrupted the economy so much. Never before have we done so much harm to the US’s stature in the world, damaged our future so much.
Everything is glaring in the moment. But all of Trump’s malfeasance is just an extension of the breaches of decorum, precedent, and law executed by prior administrations. Our status as world leader wasn’t single-handedly wrecked by Trump. It has been systematically distorted and eroded since at least the Reagan Administration.
This isn’t a Never Before situation. It is a long continuation of horrible policies.
It’s like you skimmed their reply and didn’t get it. You certainly didnt refute anything.
If you can’t see the massive, massive upswing in all these “existing” authoritarian behaviors that has happened in the last 4 months, that is entirely on you.
All y’all are fighting the wrong people in this thread. We all agree it’s a bad situation and there’s no prize for “best degree of historical nuance in an opinion”. We all agree the enemy is present in the moment.
If you can’t see the massive, massive upswing in all these “existing” authoritarian behaviors
Explicitly on the college/professional classes, sure. It’s abundantly clear that the Imperialism of the Periphery is returning to the Core as a Fascist tendency. We’re treating Mahmoud Khalil like he’s Sandra Blande. We’re treating Professor Steve Tamari like he’s Rodney King. We’re losing our ability to distinguish between neighborhoods in the US and those in Baghdad or Tripoli. That’s unforgivable, because that’s not how we’re supposed to treat the Professional Managerial Class in this country.
Exactly. One glance at the list of countries by incarceration rates will confirm that the US has been a police state for a while now; it’s just who is being targeted that is changing.
nicely put!
Every commenter here: "As a Linux user, I knew that this was coming since before the American Revolution. "
And we were right! Finally some recognition.
took the words right out of my mouth…
Every GOP legislator is complicit. What do think is going to happen? Pretty soon DOGE will cut them.
Every current AND former
It doesn’t take a scholar to say that.
Millions of voters missed it
You don’t have to be a scholar to know that.
And everyone in power is complicit.
You know what comes next. Right?
Not to worry! Until there are laws on the books it’s not fascism according to Donald Musk. So as long as there are no laws saying it’s authoritarianism there is nothing to worry about!
