Fascism watch thread/news and discussions

[caltrek]

It Came From the Basement
by Ali Breland
March April 2023 Issue

Extract:

(Mother Jones) Take their grievance against “woke capitalism”—which really means businesses responding to consumer expectations in a manner that bolsters the bottom line—a complaint that flies in the face of the free-market worship that is core to mainstream figures on the right. Fuentes circumvents this contradiction by just never defending capitalism. Unlike many elected Republicans, he does not argue against diversity while claiming he isn’t racist—he openly argues diversity is bad because of his belief in the inferiority of nonwhite races. …If there is a right-wing belief that involves obfuscating an unsavory motivation, Fuentes is open about it. He speaks to the people who don’t mind saying everything out loud.
…
Fuentes…began…live¬streams that would make him a far-right star from his parents’ home. After enrolling at Boston University, he would broadcast nightly from the dorms. He grew more radical and established a campus reputation as an Islamophobic Trump supporter. He claimed persecution, likening the grief students gave him for wearing a MAGA hat to being discriminated against for being Black or wearing a hijab. When campus conservatives tapped him for an election debate against BU’s student president, Fuentes seized every opportunity to antagonize the audience. After claiming that “multiculturalism is a cancer” and trolling the crowd as “godless hippies,” Fuentes admitted to a student journalist that “it wouldn’t be fun if it wasn’t ugly.” After Trump took office, he told the Boston Globe that “Trump is a rocket ship…And everyone is trying to attach themselves to it.”
…
“‘All men are equal’ is an ideological statement. Where is the scientific proof for it?” Fuentes read. “You can’t beat that!” he exclaimed. “When he says something like that, I say, ‘Okay, it’s not unpatriotic to believe this stuff. It’s not nonconservative, neo-Nazi stuff. It’s totally legit.’”

… after he was banned from Twitter in July 2021, he lost discipline. That November, after Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted of killing two people amid racial-justice demonstrations in Wisconsin, Fuentes openly admitted to being racist. Two months later, he used the n-word while streaming.

Read more here: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2 ... -fuentes/

[wjfox]

[weatheriscool]

[weatheriscool]

White House criticizes Youngkin over menstrual tracking bill

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — The White House rebuked Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin this week for supporting state lawmakers' rejection of a bill that that would have prohibited police from issuing search warrants for digitized data about women’s menstrual cycles.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement on Friday that the Republican governor's push to block the bill at a time when abortion access is diminishing “attacks the principles of freedom and a woman’s fundamental right to privacy," the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported.

Virginia’s Democrat-controlled state Senate had passed the bill 31-9, with nine Republicans joining Democrats to send it to the House, where Republicans hold a majority. A Republican-controlled House subcommittee voted along party lines Monday to table the measure, with Youngkin’s support.

Youngkin spokesperson Macaulay Porter defended the governor's position to the Times-Dispatch and said the data-gathering limits that Democrats had proposed were “unsafe.”

https://www.yahoo.com/news/white-house- ... 18273.html

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

[Time_Traveller]

MPs links to Christian Nationalism Revealed

10 March 2023

Emmanuel Centre in London in May provides evidence of the growing influence of US Christian Nationalism in the UK.

Held in several countries, NCCs are aligned with Peter Thiel, the tech billionaire behind the data and surveillance company Palantir.

Thiel is one of the main financial backers of Republican politics over the past decade and last year funded campaigns to replace Republican candidates who didn’t support accusations questioning the validity of the 2020 presidential election. Alongside Charlie Kirk, founder of university-based culture war outfit Turning Point, Thiel is a signatory of the National Conservatism movement’s statement of principles and has been a speaker at most NCC events. He is due to speak at the London event.

Like the Hungarian CPAC covered by the Byline Times, the National Conservatism movement seeks to advance an agenda of Christian Nationalism. Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán’s political director Balzas Orban is involved in the initiative and was a speaker at the previous London conference in 2019.

Speakers at other NCCs include numerous high-profile Republicans such as Florida’s controversial Governor Ron DeSantis, Senator Marco Rubio, former Trump advisor John Bolton, Senator Josh Hawley who led efforts in the Senate to overturn the Electoral College vote in the 2020 presidential election and Fox News’ Tucker Carlson.

https://bylinetimes.com/2023/03/10/mps- ... -revealed/

[Time_Traveller]

The American Christian nationalist right is on the march to the UK, via Moscow

25-04-2023 16:43

Since the fall of the Soviet Union, the Russian Orthodox Church has represented something of particular interest to American Christian conservatives, and vice-versa.

For many years, and especially since 2011, the two have been working together in their goal to spread their vision of traditional social values against the cultural corruption of ‘liberalism’ and ‘tolerance’.

This suits Vladimir Putin’s agenda as he presents western liberalism as a disintegration of traditional moral values. So, unlike other post-1917 Russian leaders, he offers the church state legitimacy whilst the Russian Orthodox Church acts as a soft power arm of his regime with a shared vision of a ‘Greater Russia’ and therefore a significantly larger congregation. It strongly supports Putin in his war against Ukraine and even dedicated a cathedral to the Russian military in 2020.

In May 2011, the Russian Orthodox Church declared that Orthodox and American evangelical Christians hold the same views on matters such as abortion, the family and marriage and that they both seek “vigorous grassroots engagement” between the two groups in those areas. An alliance between the American Christian right, until then fervently anti-Russian, and the Moscow-centered Russian church was born.

The Christian right’s grip on the Republican Party (the GOP), goes back to the ‘moral majority’ movements of the 1970s. These evangelical movements are many and varied and they have more often than not allied to the right on the basis of traditional family values. In the mid-1990s conservative Christian intellectuals, Eastern Orthodox Churches in the States, and the Christian right, issued the Manhattan Declaration around three concepts: life, marriage and religious liberty.

https://yorkshirebylines.co.uk/news/wor ... ia-moscow/

[wjfox]

[Time_Traveller]

This just reminds me of this Tony Benn quote.

[weatheriscool]

Florida begins an investigation on a teacher due to allegations of indoctrination
Well this is the slippery slope.

[Time_Traveller]

Is Britain becoming like 1930s Germany? No – it already is

18-05-2023 17:31

The National Conservatism Conference took place this week. Mark Cunliffe considers what happened.
Mark CunliffebyMark Cunliffe 18-05-2023 17:31
The top part of a large building with flames and smoke coming through the roof.
The arson attack on the Reichstag building, home of the German parliament in Berlin, on Monday 27 February 1933 was used as a pretext to claim that Communists were plotting against the German government.

Recently I wrote an article entitled Is Britain becoming like 1930s Germany?. At the time I questioned whether the comparison was fair and reasonable. However, on viewing this week’s National Conservatism Conference, I didn’t go far enough. Nat C, Germans and National Socialism has trended on Twitter for much of the week and all for the most horrific of reasons.

Who are the National Conservatives?

Kevin Roberts, president of US think tank Heritage was one of the key speakers. He repeatedly blamed “globalists” for most of the world’s political problems. He told the conference: “The new left, greedy, elitist, woke and globalist, has foresworn every principle their ideological predecessors once espoused: democracy, equality, diversity, justice.”

It should be noted here that “globalists” is a term associated with antisemitism and far-right conspiracy theorists, as Marie van der Zyl, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, explained: “Antisemitism experts such as the Anti-Defamation League identify ‘globalist’ as a common antisemitic trope based on conspiracy theories about international Jewish power.”

If you aren’t feeling just a bit uneasy with this, Roberts went on: “It abhors religion, and Christianity especially, as well as the nation-state, political accountability and even objective truth. Their goal is not to win political contests but to end them altogether – to sweep away dissent and any subversive institution that dares facilitate.

https://centralbylines.co.uk/is-britain ... lready-is/

[Nanotechandmorefuture]

Is Britain becoming like 1930s Germany? No – it already is

18-05-2023 17:31

The National Conservatism Conference took place this week. Mark Cunliffe considers what happened.
Mark CunliffebyMark Cunliffe 18-05-2023 17:31
The top part of a large building with flames and smoke coming through the roof.
The arson attack on the Reichstag building, home of the German parliament in Berlin, on Monday 27 February 1933 was used as a pretext to claim that Communists were plotting against the German government.

Recently I wrote an article entitled Is Britain becoming like 1930s Germany?. At the time I questioned whether the comparison was fair and reasonable. However, on viewing this week’s National Conservatism Conference, I didn’t go far enough. Nat C, Germans and National Socialism has trended on Twitter for much of the week and all for the most horrific of reasons.

Who are the National Conservatives?

Kevin Roberts, president of US think tank Heritage was one of the key speakers. He repeatedly blamed “globalists” for most of the world’s political problems. He told the conference: “The new left, greedy, elitist, woke and globalist, has foresworn every principle their ideological predecessors once espoused: democracy, equality, diversity, justice.”

It should be noted here that “globalists” is a term associated with antisemitism and far-right conspiracy theorists, as Marie van der Zyl, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, explained: “Antisemitism experts such as the Anti-Defamation League identify ‘globalist’ as a common antisemitic trope based on conspiracy theories about international Jewish power.”

If you aren’t feeling just a bit uneasy with this, Roberts went on: “It abhors religion, and Christianity especially, as well as the nation-state, political accountability and even objective truth. Their goal is not to win political contests but to end them altogether – to sweep away dissent and any subversive institution that dares facilitate.

https://centralbylines.co.uk/is-britain ... lready-is/

Next you'll tell me that the Crowning ceremony recently showed the Iron Cross on the 2 Crowns of Monarchy and Sceptre for the UK along with the orb if you count that massive one. Well that is if most people even agree with that when it is right in front of them! Like Israel Europe sure seems to start having issues in the mind like the 1990's Windows pipes screensaver when some obvious stuff is pointed out

I think this time around China is a bit on the aggravating side too lol

[wjfox]

NH officials say they're looking into neo-Nazi incident outside drag story hour in Concord

Published June 19, 2023 at 1:34 PM EDT

The New Hampshire Attorney General’s office says it is working with other law enforcement partners to look into an incident involving a neo-Nazi group in Concord this weekend.

“Our Civil Rights Unit is certainly aware of this incident and is actively working with Concord Police and our law enforcement partners to look into it further,” Department of Justice Spokesman Michael Garrity told NHPR on Monday.

Concord Police said they were called to Teatotaller Sunday morning, after members of NSC-131, a white supremacist group, gathered outside. At the time, the cafe was hosting a drag story hour.

A video posted to social media by the performer leading the story hour on Sunday shows a group of people, with their faces covered, standing outside the cafe while chanting and doing a Nazi salute. One person is also seen banging on the windows from outside.

Concord Police said no arrests were made. They also said NSC-131 has not been an “ongoing problem” in the city, and it was not known to gather publicly in the area.

https://www.nhpr.org/nh-news/2023-06-19 ... ur-concord

[wjfox]

[caltrek]

Speaking of cult followers:

What Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Viktor Orbán Understand About Your Brain
by Marcel Danesi
July 30 , 2023

Introduction:

(Politico) Why do people believe some politicians’ lies even when they have been proven false? And why do so many of the same people peddle conspiracy theories?

Lying and conspiratorial thinking might seem to be two different problems, but they turn out to be related. I study political rhetoric and have tried to understand how populist politicians use language to develop a cult-like following, divide nations, create culture wars and instill hatred. This pattern goes back to antiquity and is seen today in leaders including former President Donald Trump, Hungary’s Viktor Orbán and Russia’s Vladimir Putin. These leaders are capable of using words and speeches to whip people into such an emotional tempest that they will do things like march on the seat of Congress or invade a neighboring country.

What makes this kind of speech worrying is that it is not just emotions like aggression they can manipulate; politicians can also use rhetoric to influence the public’s thoughts and beliefs, and spread lies and conspiracy theories. Those lies and conspiracy theories are stubbornly resistant to countervailing facts and can sow divisions that destabilize their own societies.

My research analyzes real speeches made by politicians past and present, including those of Trump, Orbán and Putin, using cognitive linguistics — a branch of linguistics that examines the relationship between language and the mind. What I have found is that throughout history, speeches by dictators and autocrats have one thing in common: they use dehumanizing metaphors to instill and propagate hatred of others.

It is well-documented that for example words like “reptiles” and “parasites” were used by the Nazi regime to compare outsiders and minorities to animals. Strongmen throughout history have referred to targeted social groups as “rats” or “pests” or “a plague.” And it’s effective regardless of whether the people who hear this language are predisposed to jump to extreme conclusions. Once someone is tuned into these metaphors, their brain actually changes in ways that make them more likely to believe bigger lies, even conspiracy theories.

Read more here: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine ... 00108378

caltrek’s comment: I can’t vouch for the neuroscience, but the psychology of what is discussed certainly makes sense to me.

[caltrek]

Questions Mount Over Raid on Kansas Newspaper
by Laura Clawson
August 14, 2023

Introduction:

(Daily KOS) The police raid of a small-town Kansas newspaper office and the home of its publisher is drawing widespread criticism and questions about police abuses. Eric Meyer, the publisher and co-owner of the Marion County Record, says the raid of his home contributed to the death of his 98-year-old mother over the weekend.

“Stressed beyond her limits and overwhelmed by hours of shock and grief after illegal police raids on her home and the Marion County Record newspaper office Friday, 98-year-old newspaper co-owner Joan Meyer, otherwise in good health for her age, collapsed Saturday afternoon and died at her home,” the newspaper reported, adding that she felt unable to sleep or eat on Friday following the raid.

Further Extract:

What’s even more suspicious about the extreme decision to bypass a subpoena and go straight to a very aggressive search is that Eric Meyer told Marisa Kabas that the newspaper had been investigating something else: the employment background of Cody, who only recently became the local police chief.

• So the backstory that we haven't told, because we don't wanna get in trouble, is that we've been investigating the police chief [Gideon Cody]. When he was named Chief just two months ago, we got an outpouring of calls from his former co-workers making a wide array of allegations against him saying that he was about to be demoted at his previous job and that he retired to avoid demotion and punishment over sexual misconduct charges and other things.

• We had half a dozen or more different anonymous sources calling in about that. Well, we never ran that because we never could get any of them to go on the record, and we never could get his personnel file. But the allegations—including the identities of who made the allegations—were on one of the computers that got seized. I may be paranoid that this has anything to do with it, but when people come and seize your computer, you tend to be a little paranoid.

Read more here: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/ ... newspaper

[caltrek]

Representative Matt Gaetz: Republicans can change Washington, D.C., ‘only through force’

August 14, 2023

Introduction:

(Daily KOS) On Saturday, Donald Trump deigned to visit the Iowa State Fair. The appearance was notable mostly for Trump's gaggle of odious hangers-on, with Reps. Anna Luna, Greg Steube, and Matt Gaetz gushing over their indicted Dear Leader.

It was Gaetz's turn in that lineup to go full fascist. Here, via Aaron Rupar, is a slightly terrifying video of two accused criminals telling supporters that "only through force" will their movement be able to gain the power that they desire in Washington, D.C.

Mr. President, I cannot stand these people that are destroying our country, that are opening our borders, that are weaponizing our federal law enforcement against patriotic Americans who love this nation as we should. We are having a great time at the fair, we love standing with you, but we know that only through force do we make any change in a corrupt town like Washington, D.C.

Well, that's pretty much full-on fascist rhetoric, right there. The backers of a seditious insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, are hitting all the same buttons, and that it's a sunglasses-wearing, child sex-trafficking, cocaine-orgy freak selling it to the crowd on behalf of a man facing felony indictments for an attempted coup really drives home what the Republican Party now stands for.

Read more here: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/ ... ugh-force

caltrek's comments: There was a time when Communists who used such rhetoric found themselves behind prison bars. The action of placing them in prison was done so with the full support of "conservatives." Now, "conservatives" are ready to vote in droves to elect such extremists to office. How times have changed.

[Time_Traveller]

Neo-Nazis march on Walt Disney World as sick white supremacists seen doing salutes

3 Sep 2023

Multiple groups of self-professed neo-Nazis were spotted marching through Orlando this weekend, with one group ending up right at the gates of Walt Disney World.

Videos posted to social media showed the groups, known as 'Blood Tribe' and 'The Goyim Defense League', waving flags with swastikas as they marched through Cranes Roost Park in Altamonte Springs, Florida. They were heard shouting "we are everywhere", according to a video shared by a state lawmaker.

Carlos Guillermo Smith, a former member of the Florida House of Representatives, shared a tweet saying demonstrators were raising "Heil Hitler" salutes. He said: "Florida is our home and I refuse to hand it over to extremists. We have to stand united against antisemitism, anti-Blackness, and anti-LGBTQ bigotry in order to take our state back."

State Representative Anna V Eskamani called the incident "absolutely disgusting" saying it was an "example of far right extremism growing" in Florida.

According to fliers the two groups came together to organise a 'March of the Redshirts' rally. It came after the Anti-Defamation League's (ADL) Center on Extremism issued a statement on Friday, September 1, warning that the gatherings were likely to happen at some point in September.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/us-news/n ... y-30854935

[weatheriscool]

FL nazis arrested under new desantis law: illegal to hang banners/project images w/o prop owner perm
Probably new law created to prosecute liberals


https://www.rawstory.com/florida-neo-nazi-arrested/

Busted: Florida neo-Nazi arrested for hanging swastikas on overpass


Busted: Florida neo-Nazi arrested for hanging swastikas on overpass


A Florida man allegedly responsible for hanging swastikas and anti-Semitic propaganda banners on a bridge overlooking Interstate 4 has been arrested under a new law designed to prohibit such displays, reported WTSP on Wednesday.


"Jason Brown, a 48-year-old from Cape Canaveral, was arrested for his alleged actions on June 10. But he didn't work alone, FDLE agents said. Currently, there are three outstanding warrants for additional demonstrators who reportedly participated but live out of state," reported Claire Farrow. "Brown is a self-proclaimed member of the antisemitic, extremist group 'Order of the Black Sun,' FDLE agents said."


Brown is one of the first people to be charged under Florida H.B. 269, a new statute signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis earlier this year. Among other things, the law prohibits people from displaying banners or projecting images onto buildings or structures without the consent of the property owner.