Category Archives: Extremism

Immigrants: the traditional scapegoat of the Fascist

American Fascism, Extremism, Hate, Populism, Right-wing Extremism, Trump, Tyranny and Fascism

 

 

Just like Hitler, Orban, and so many other fascists, Donald Trump has been scapegoating immigrants, both legal and illegal. I was shocked to see how popular such language was in the 2024 Republican Convention where Trump was endorsed as their candidate. I shuddered when I saw posters held high and proud which specifically demanded “Mass Deportation Now.” This reminded me of the fervour of ordinary Germans in the 1930 calling for abuse of Jews.

 

Very similar words were heard demonizing immigrants in Madison Square Gardens in the 1930s at a rally that could only be called a Nazi rally. That’s what it looked and sounded like.  The rally in Madison Square Garden again in 2024 was eerily similar.

As Anne Applebaum the author and journalist for The Atlantic said this about Trump (near the end of the campaign):

 “His talk of mass deportation is equally calculating. When he suggests that he would target both legal and illegal immigrants, or use the military arbitrarily against U.S. citizens, he does so knowing that past dictatorships have used public displays of violence to build popular support. By calling for mass violence, he hints at his admiration for these dictatorships but also demonstrates disdain for the rule of law and prepares his followers to accept the idea that his regime could, like its predecessors, break the law with impunity.

 

These are not jokes, and Trump is not laughing. Nor are the people around him. Delegates at the Republican National Convention held prefabricated sign: Mass Deportation Now. Just this week, when Trump was swaying to music at a surreal rally, he did so in front of a huge slogan: Trump Was Right About Everything. This is language borrowed directly from Benito Mussolini, the Italian fascist. Soon after the rally, the scholar Ruth Ben-Ghiat posted a photograph of a building in Mussolini’s Italy displaying his slogan: Mussolini Is Always Right.”

 

These similarities are deeply disturbing. The support of ordinary Americans for such words and policies is shocking. It is so much like the support of ordinary Germans for Hitler, or ordinary Italians for Mussolini. In both highly advanced countries there was stunning support for the fascist policies. It seems to me this is exactly what is now happening in the United States.  I hope I am wrong; I fear I am right.

It is really shocking to me that Americans continue to support Trump’s fascist policies. This is the really scary part.  Trump is Trump. We all know that. He does not hide his fascist tendencies. Why then do so many Americans support him?  I think the answer is also deeply disturbing.

This is what Anne Applebaum had to say:

“These phrases have not been put on posters and banners at random in the final weeks of an American election season. With less than three weeks left to go, most candidates would be fighting for the middle ground, for the swing voters. Trump is doing the exact opposite. Why? There can be only one answer: because he and his campaign team believe that by using the tactics of the 1930s, they can win. The deliberate dehumanization of whole groups of people; the references to police, to violence, to the “bloodbath” that Trump has said will unfold if he doesn’t win; the cultivation of hatred not only against immigrants but also against political opponents—none of this has been used successfully in modern American politics.

 

But neither has this rhetoric been tried in modern American politics. Several generations of American politicians have assumed that American voters, most of whom learned to pledge allegiance to the flag in school, grew up with the rule of law, and have never experienced occupation or invasion, would be resistant to this kind of language and imagery. Trump is gambling—knowingly and cynically—that we are not.”

 

Trump was clearly betting that he knows the American people will support him.  He hears a lot of applause at his rallies. It turns out he was right. More than half the Americans who voted in the recent election of president voted for him.   Were they voting for fascism?

 

 

Is it extremism to call Trump a fascist?

2017 Trip to Southwest USA, American Fascism, Evolution, Extremism, Populism, Right-wing Extremism, Trump, Tyranny and Fascism

 

Sometimes the truth is extreme. In Rwanda when Hutus launched genocidal attacks against the Tuttis minority in rhw  1990’s people were right to call it genocide. When Mussolini and Hitler launched their attacks on Jews it was right to call this fascism. These were extreme charges, but they were justified. They were fascists.

Yesterday, Donald Trump got angry at Liz Cheney. He sees her as a traitor. This is what Trump said at a rally in Wisconsin,

“She’s a radical war hawk. Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, OK let’s see how she feels about it, you know, when the guns are trained on her face.”

 

Trump is saying a political opponent who disagrees with him which of course she has the right to do, should be put in front of a firing squad. Is that not fascism clear and simple?  It is admittedly an extreme thing to say that Trump is a fascist.  But is he not nailed by his own words? He is a fascist.

This what CNN reported,

“Trump’s suggestion that Cheney be fired upon represents an escalation of the violent language he has used to target his political foes. And it comes days before an election in which the former president — who never accepted his 2020 loss — has already undermined public confidence. In recent weeks, he has also suggested a military crackdown on political opponents he has described as “the enemy within.”

 

Trump has suggested the military be used against his political foes. Trump’s rhetoric has increasingly become so unhinged that it is very difficult to deny that Trump is a fascist. Eventually, if it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and walks like a duck it must be a duck.

I think Trump must be a fascist. That is extreme, but I think it is true.

 

A License to Kill

American Fascism, Extremism, Political Violence, Trump, Tyranny and Fascism

 

The problem—the serious problem—with words that contain dehumanizing designations is that such words license the foulest actions. They can license murder and even genocide. This was made clear in the era of authoritarian dictators in the 1930s and again in Rwanda and many other violent places. We should not go there again.

Language that dehumanizes the other is acutely dangerous.  When we come to believe—often unconsciously—that the other is not human that gives us a license to kill.  We need no Double 00 formal appointment. We are allowed to kill. That is what happened in Nazi Germany. That is what happened in Rwanda. That is what could happen in modern America, or Hungary, or the United States or Canada.

Dehumanizing ideas or words can push people to exclude the dehumanized groups because as Jason Stanley said in his book How Fascism Works.

“the process of dehumanization limits the capacity empathy among citizens leading to the justification of inhumane treatment, from repression of freedom, mass imprisonment, and expulsion to, in extreme circumstances, mass extermination.”

 

This sounds extreme, because it is extreme, but it has happened in advanced countries such as Germany. Genocides and campaigns of ethnic cleansing are preceded by periods of dehumanization by words. Words are important. Words issue licenses to kill. . We should never ignore them.

As Jason Stanley reminded us in his book ,

“In the cases of Nazi Germany, Rwanda, and contemporary Myanmar, the victims of ethnic cleansing were subjected to vicious rhetorical attacks by leaders and in the press for months or years before the regime turned genocidal. With these precedents it should concern all Americans that as a candidate  and as president, Donald Trump has publicly and explicitly insulted immigrant groups.”

 

And, disturbingly since Stanley wrote these words Trump’s rhetoric has become broader and more vicious. Things are getting more dangerous. It’s time for us to take heed.

The Language of Pestilence

American Fascism, Decline of the west, Extremism, Immigration and Refugees, Political Violence, Populism, Tyranny and Fascism

 

By now people around the world have realized the dangers of dehumanization.  The Republicans in the American election led by Donald Trump are using dehumanizing language to rile up their own supporters against immigrants, woke adults and children, and the political opposition.

I remember when I first heard about dehumanizing language during the genocide in in Rwanda in 1994.  At the time Hutus were a majority in Rwanda even though the Tutsi minority dominated the country for many years thanks to former European colonizers who preferred the Tutsi as their allies when Europeans imposed their will on the country. Naturally, this was resented by the majority Hutus for many years, but they did little about it until the 1990s.

In 1959, the Hutus overthrew the Tutsi monarchy and tens of thousands of Tutsis fled to neighbouring countries such as Uganda. The Tutsi in exile always yearned to come back to power in Rwanda which they thought of as “their country”.  You might say they wanted to make Rwanda great again. A group of Tutsi exiles formed the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) and their purpose was to restore the Tutsi minority to power. This group invaded Rwanda in 1990.

Then on April 6, 1994 an aircraft carrying the President of Rwanda and the president of the neighbouring country of Burundi was shot down. Both presidents were Hutus. This was the spark that turned dehumanzing language into action. Violent action.

As a result, the Hutus of Rwanda used this as an excuse to slaughter the Tutsi and it turned genocidal later that year, in a 100 day reign of terror in which about 800,000 Tutsi were murdered.  As the BBC reported,

“Neighbours killed neighbours and some husbands even killed their Tutsi wives, saying they would be killed if they refused. At the time, ID cards had people’s ethnic group on them, so militias set up roadblocks where Tutsis were slaughtered, often with machetes which most Rwandans kept around the house. Thousands of Tutsi women were taken away and kept as sex slaves.”

 

Even though Tutsi and Hutus had lived together in Rwanda  as neighbours for decades, the slaughter was incredibly vicious. Why was that? The  BBC tried to answer the question, ‘Why was it so vicious’? This is what they said,

“Rwanda has always been a tightly controlled society, organised like a pyramid from each district up to the top of government. The then-governing party, MRND, had a youth wing called the Interahamwe, which was turned into a militia to carry out the slaughter.

Weapons and hit-lists were handed out to local groups, who knew exactly where to find their targets.

The Hutu extremists set up a radio station, RTLM, and newspapers which circulated hate propaganda, urging people to “weed out the cockroaches” meaning kill the Tutsis. The names of prominent people to be killed were read out on radio.

Even priests and nuns have been convicted of killing people, including some who sought shelter in churches.”

 

Such language has been used by Donald Trump during the current presidential election campaign. He has referred to immigration and his political foes as “vermin.” This is the language of dehumanization. And it is incredibly dangerous, as Rwanda demonstrated. No one should assume it is not significant.

 

Hutus were convinced by their own propaganda that the Tutsi were not human. They were cockroaches! And everyone knows cockroaches can be killed at any time with absolute impunity.

The lesson here is that words are important. With language that dehumanizes people into vermin or insects, ordinary people can turn into savage murderers. Dehumanization is the key. If you think your foes are people like you, it is difficult to slaughter them, but not if they are insects or vermin.

This is precisely what Trump has been doing with his rhetoric. He has called them vermin or enemies of the people. He has said he will use the American military to do the job. Hitler did the same thing and we know the result.

This is ugly stuff, but I would submit can lead to worse—namely hate crimes or even worse. This happened in Germany, Rwanda, and other places. Such language can create a slippery slope to atrocities. No country is immune to the problems. Not even the United States.

 

Dehumanization: the language of Hate

American Fascism, Extremism, Hate, Immigration and Refugees, Right-wing Extremism, Trump, Tyranny and Fascism

 

Anne Applebaum understands well the language of dehumanization. Extremists around the world have used it because they know it works. It allows ordinary people to become vicious killers. Even, in some circumstances genocidal killers.

This is how Applebaum described such language:

“This kind of language was not limited to Europe. Mao Zedong also described his political opponents as “poisonous weeds.” Pol Pot spoke of “cleansing” hundreds of thousands of his compatriots so that Cambodia would be “purified.”

In each of these very different societies, the purpose of this kind of rhetoric was the same. If you connect your opponents with disease, illness, and poisoned blood, if you dehumanize them as insects or animals, if you speak of squashing them or cleansing them as if they were pests or bacteria, then you can much more easily arrest them, deprive them of rights, exclude them, or even kill them. If they are parasites, they aren’t human. If they are vermin, they don’t get to enjoy freedom of speech, or freedoms of any kind. And if you squash them, you won’t be held accountable.

It is profoundly disappointing to see such dehumanizing language used by the former American President Donald Trump. It is even more disappointing to see such language electrify a large part of the American public. Until recently such language was not common in American politics, but ever since the arrival of Donald Trump on the scene it has become common.

Applebaum pointed out how George Wallace, whom she called a “notorious racists,” did not use such incendiary language when he advocated for “segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.” He never spoke about blacks as vermin.  He did not say they “poisoned the blood of the nation.” No that is the language of Donald Trump.

Similarly, Franklin D. Roosevelt who sadly ordered the corralling of Japanese Americans into internment camps and he called them “enemy aliens” but never parasites or vermin.  All of this changed with Donald Trump. As Applebaum said,

“In the 2024 campaign, that line has been crossed. Trump blurs the distinction between illegal immigrants and legal immigrants—the latter including his wife, his late ex-wife, the in-laws of his running mate, and many others. He has said of immigrants, “They’re poisoning the blood of our country” and “They’re destroying the blood of our country.” He has claimed that many have “bad genes.” He has also been more explicit: “They’re not humans; they’re animals”; they are “cold-blooded killers.” He refers more broadly to his opponents—American citizens, some of whom are elected officials—as “the enemy from within … sick people, radical-left lunatics.” Not only do they have no rights; they should be “handled by,” he has said, “if necessary, National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military.”

 

According to Applebaum the use of such dehumanizing language by the former president is no accident:

“In using this language, Trump knows exactly what he. Is doing. He understands which era and what kind of politics this language evokes. “I haven’t read Mein Kampf,” he declared, unprovoked, during one rally—an admission that he knows what Hitler’s manifesto contains, whether or not he has actually read it. “If you don’t use certain rhetoric,” he told an interviewer, “if you don’t use certain words, and maybe they’re not very nice words, nothing will happen.”

 And if you do use such words too much happens!

 Dehumanizing language is the language of hate. Its use by political leaders is sickening. Those who use it  clearly belong in the “basket of deplorables.”

No room for Moderates in the Tea Party

Extremism, Right-wing Extremism

 

The tea party came out in force to oppose Obama’s health care plan. As Justin Ling said,

“Glen Beck leaned in hard on Tea Party populism. He leads a tax revolt march on Washington, he hosts another huge rally. He started something called the 9-12 project…The Tea Party fueled by right-wing radio begins to think of themselves as actual revolutionaries.”

 

They saw themselves as involved in a civil war for control of the country, not just the Republican Party. They believed the establishment in both parties was fighting back against them. They claimed to be fighting against the leadership of both parties to take their power away and give it back to the people where it belonged.

Radical Republicans challenged moderate Republican incumbents and were celebrated on Right-wing radio. This was changing the political landscape, not unlike the rise of the Trumpsters after Donald Trump was defeated in the 2020 presidential election. A good example was Mike Castle who was called a Republican in name only (RINO’) because he was not radical enough. Rush Limbaugh supported Christine O’Donnell in the Republican primary in Delaware even though she was not much of a candidate and he raised $1million for her campaign in one day! It did not matter who was the better candidate. Talk Radio loved the pure and extreme. What did matter was who was the more extreme Republican? They wanted the most extreme.  The Tea Party ushered in a new era of extremism in Republican politics.

At its height there were 60 Tea Partiers in the House and a dozen in the Senate. They were a radical force to be reckoned with.

As Justin Ling said,

“Right-wing radio sent representatives to Washington who had no time for compromise with the Democrats or even the moderates in their own party. The Tea Party forced Republicans in safe districts to look over their right shoulder and fend off challenges from the conservative fringe. It made the business of governing increasingly difficult. And that was partly the point. This antipathy to government and this all or nothing ideology would play a crucial role in fracturing American politics and fueling the insurrection on January 6th.”

 

 

There really has been little room for moderates ever since, particularly in primary contests, where every Republican politician fears extremists. Never moderates. Only candidates more extreme than them can defeat them. In my opinion this sad fact is a major contributor to the rise of extremism and polarization in America.

Killing Political Leaders

Domestic Terrorism, Extremism, Political Violence

 

As some of my readers will know by now, I am not a fan of Donald J Trump. I was about to post about him again and have decided to give him a one day pass.   But I want to be clear I do condone assassinating him. I want Trump to be defeated at the polls. Not in the courts and not at the hands of a gunman. I denounce all attempts to impose political beliefs by violence.

Each time political violence occurs in the United States I am surprised by how surprised Americans are by it.

Joe Biden said the actions against Trump were “un-American.”  But that was not true. Political violence is very American. It is bred in the bone.

As Brian Stetler said on CBC last night: “Former Democratic politician Gabby Giffords from Arizona once said, Political violence is  not American. History says it is.”

Matthew Dallek and Robert Dallek said in the New York Times today, “Among all major democracies, then, when it comes to assassination attempts on heads of government, the United States is the leader of the pack.” Those two also pointed out that 4 of the 46 American presidents have been assassinated. That is almost 10%! Such a high percentage is shocking. I would say, killing an American president is as American as apple pie.

  Watching CBC’s The National from yesterday I was struck by a man with a big grin driving a big truck with a big sign on it that said,  “Fuck Biden.” Sort of like many signs we have in Canada He was asked if he thought the temperature of American political debate was too high and he said quickly, without thinking, “Yes.”  Then the interviewer asked him about the sign on his truck? He answered, with another grin,  that it was “the best $25 I ever spent.” Clearly, he did not get it. Then he added, “no shame in my game.” Again, without any irony. He even claimed that 99% of the comments he had received about his sign were “positive.”

Canada of course is not immune to extremism in politics. But it is nowhere near the amount in the US. No Canadian prime minister has ever been assassinated. The US is a country filled with political anger and guns. That is a volatile combination. Yet in Canada there have been many such signs referring to our prime minister with the same words. I have seen such signs unashamedly in Steinbach, the Holy City. At least at once it was the Holy City.  I oppose such signs here as I do in the US.

I keep raising this question about America:  Why is there so much political violence in that country?  I am less concerned about their lax to non-existent gun laws than I am by the ubiquity of political violence. Why are they so quick to turn to violence to obtain political change? Why is their society so violent? Few people seem to be asking that question?  I think we should ask.

 

 

Demonization of Muslims

Domestic Terrorism, Extremism, Hate, Right-wing Extremism

 

 

Right-wing extremists have always liked scapegoats.  It used to be Catholics, or Blacks, or Communists. After 9/11 another arose Muslims. And right-wing radio in America stepped right in.

As Justin Ling the host of the CBC series Flamethrowers said, “The demonization of Muslims became a sport. One that would ensnare millions of Americans. And it was disgusting.” As one visitor to right-wing radio said, “The Moslems are fighting the Jews. The Moslems are fighting the Christians. The Moslems are fighting the Hindus. The Moslems are fighting the Buddhists. They’re slaughtering the blacks. Even the Moslem blacks in African Darfur. Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, wherever you want.”

The right-wing radio talk-show host Glen Beck  made his point of view known , and that of the right-wing in America when he commented to that: “well they certainly are adept at slaughter, I give you that.”

 

After the 9/11 attack the right-wing attacks against Muslims escalated exponentially. As Ling said, “Every week brought a new terror alert. George W. Bush led the invasion of Afghanistan, launching the war on terror. And conservative radio is on it.”

The 9/11 incident electrified the American right. They had a new Satan to replace the presumably vanquished Soviet Satan. The Muslims were the new Satan. With  a new sinner, the gospel of hate was thriving as never before. And the domestic how grown terrorists were fired up.

 

January 6th:  A  Culmination

2024 Trip to South West United States, American Fascism, Death of Democracy, Domestic Terrorism, Extremism, Right-wing Extremism

 

After 9/11, Americans understandably, began to fear foreign terrorists. They were hit hard by the events that day. As a result, they created the Department of Homeland Security which concentrated on doing everything possible to stop foreign terrorists. Over time, they began to realize that there was a much bigger problem and it was home-grown. Terrorism, by Americans in their own country!  I call this domestic terrorism.

In the talk by Professor Jacob Ware and  his cohort Bruce Hoffman that we listened to thanks to Arizona State University, the speakers concentrated on domestic terrorism. Their talk was called “God, Guns, and Sedition. “

Importantly, Ware and Hoffman do not see the events of January 6th as a ‘one-off.’ Rather, as Ware explained they see January 6th as the culmination of a movement that has been growing for decades. Many Americans, looking through their rose-coloured glasses frequently are heard to say, after each tragic event, ‘we are not like this,’ or ‘this is not America’ when actually that is exactly what America is about. America was created through violent insurrection, genocide of native peoples, and  violent slavery and the biggest problem is that this has never been seriously acknowledged by a country that thinks it is exceptional. It is another example of American wishful thinking. That is the way they want it so it must be true. Ignore reality. Live in FantasyLand where it is much more comfortable.

 That, of course, is why Republicans, and the American-right, including the extreme right in particular, is working so hard to deny history. They see January 6th as a bunch of rambunctious tourists or crisis actors as Matt Goetz claimed in the House of Representatives. They don’t see the reality, which I submit impartial observers with all the facts, would readily admit they saw that day. That reality is that they were American right-wing extremists: Trumpsters and their ilk.

 Unless Americans are able to face the truth about their country they will never solve the horrible problem they have with domestic terrorism. There is little room for optimism here either.  They show no signs of wanting to learn the truth. To them, ignorance is bliss.

Black Lives Matter Insurrection or not?

Death of Truth, Decline of the west, Domestic Terrorism, Extremism, Polarization, Police, Political Violence, Right-wing Extremism

 

I want to talk a little about the Black Lives Matter movement.  Perhaps because the right-wing and the left in America get their information from completely different sources, Fox News and the Internet on one side, and CNN, the Internet, and traditional news media on the other. Even on the Internet both sides go to different sources that are polar opposites. The two movements (left and right) have completely opposite views of what happened in Minneapolis, or on Capitol Hill on January 6th,  and other parts of the US.  The right-wing saw insurrection in Minneapolis Portland, and other places, but not at the Capitol. The left wing saw insurrection at the Capitol.

I really think it is a matter of what images the media of choice has chosen to emphasize. Fox News likes to put the emphasis on black rebellion and CNN emphasizes right wing rebellion. This is a key source of division.

In Minneapolis, for example, the media showed graphic images of protesters, many of them, not insignificantly black, ignoring police and laws to burn down businesses, some of which are even owned by blacks. To many white Americans this is proof of the anarchy at the root of the protests against the current regime.

African-Americans and their allies on the left see a white privileged state supported and protected by police that will use all of its powers to tamp down non-white rebellion while doing nothing to protect innocent children of African-Americans.

Neither side is able to see any truth to the side of the other. The other side ignores truth in favor of its own self-serving ideology. The two sides are unable to agree on basic facts so are unable to reach any agreement about what the problem is and how it should be solved. each side is mystified by the apparent blindness of the other to obvious truths.

White spectators at a BLM rally in St. Louis brought out automatic weapons to protect their property. White vigilantes were seen bearing arms in cities to protect white businesses from perceived ruin. This is what the left saw from its media sources. Meanwhile peaceful white and black protestors fear for their lives on the streets of American cities.

It is very difficult for Americans to deal with domestic terrorism  when they cannot agree on what the basic facts are. In the “good old days,” where most news came from 3 television networks that had no strong ideological differences between them, there were no such disagreements about basic facts. As a result, there was not such strong polarization as there is now. As a result of all this the middle is being hollowed out. The extremes are growing, on both sides. I don’t know what we can do about it.

This does not augur well for America. It suggests, to me at least, ruin to come. I hope I am wrong.