The Road to Fascism is Lined with People Telling You Not to Overreact
The metaphor of the complacent frog introduced into tepid water gradually being raised to the boiling point hasn’t held up to scientific scrutiny, though I’ve got to wonder about the motives and funding of whomever did that particular experiment.
What does appear to be true is that too many of the citizens in western democracies aren’t as smart as frogs. The obvious signs of this collective daftness are the existential crises all around us: climate change, economic inequality, and the denigration of science.
Democracy needs to go on that list. Inane crusades led by people whose motives are more than suspect are all around us. The easy way to view them is to say they’re wacko and will never go anywhere.
Recent history says otherwise. There was a glimmer of hope that white Americans were finally waking up to the realities of systemic racism just a few years ago.
The protests following George Floyds inspired activists to circulate lists of anti-racism reading lists on social media. Magazines and newspapers released their own lists in response to a deepened the public conversation around racism in the U.S. It’s notable that many of the anti-racism books appearing on best seller lists weren’t recently published.
Now that good work, mostly done in small groups has been eclipsed by an artificially induced panic over Critical Race Theory. “Grassroots” groups (overlapping with anti-vaxxers & heterosexual bigots) have appeared throughout the country claiming that educating people about racism is a racist act.
As the prospect of the Supreme Court neutering Roe. V Wade and unleashing a wave of intervention by states in women’s reproductive care nears reality, the more extreme elements of the right wing/dominionist campaigns are revealing themselves.
For those of you unfamiliar with dominionism, it represents a significant ideological force within the leadership of the right wing in American electoral politics. Stated simply: it mandates that, "in order for Christ to return to earth, the church must take control of the seven spheres of influence in society":
1. Education
2. Religion
3. Family
4. Business
5. Gov't/Military
6. Arts/Entertainment
7. Media
This notion of government regulation of women’s bodies is yet another move towards restoration of the “good old days” at the center of the Make America Great Again movement. Keith at Daily Kos elaborated in a recent post:
Of course, the real point of such laws is to advance the putatively “Biblical” notion that the proper role of women in society is to be breeders and mothers, and not much else. Women can be best removed from day to day society, and the workplace, by compelling them into those roles. Connecticut’s law was itself a reflection of the Federal Comstock law, which for those seeking The Handmaid’s Tale metaphors, read in part like this:
Every obscene, lewd, or lascivious, and every filthy book, pamphlet, picture, paper, letter, writing, print, or other publication of an indecent character, and every article or thing designed, adapted, or intended for preventing conception or producing abortion, or for any indecent or immoral use; and every article, instrument, substance, drug, medicine, or thing which is advertised or described in a manner calculated to lead another to use or apply it for preventing conception or producing abortion, or for any indecent or immoral purpose . . . shall be fined not more than five thousand dollars, or imprisoned not more than five years, or both [if sent through the mail].
Much has been made about the right’s efforts to reshape the electorate in their own image. Stories about gerrymandering, restrictions on voting, and, of course, the big myth about Democrats cheating are all part of the picture.
Look for Order #100 in the Arkansas State Conference NAACP vs. Arkansas Board of Apportionment to come before the Supreme Court next year and be very afraid.
Trump-appointed Judge Lee Rudofsky held Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act has NO private right of action—meaning nobody except the U.S. Attorney General can bring a lawsuit against racial gerrymanders and voter suppression under the Voting Rights Act. (The Trump Justice Department filed zero VRA lawsuits.)
Finally, I know it’s hard for people to wrap their heads around, but one of the major political parties has all but pledged allegiance to a foreign power on the verge of starting a major ground war in Europe.
I get it that the U.S. has a long and sordid history of imperialist intervention in the affairs of just about every country on the planet. I get it that NATO was, for the most part, created as yet another weapon in that arsenal.
I don’t think that Putin’s moves can be construed in any way as defensive. I don’t think it’s a good idea for U.S. forces to directly intervene. And I think President Biden has done a dandy job of pushing back against the asymmetrical warfare in progress by simply repeating most everything assorted spy agencies are collecting.
The bottom line for me is that, while I’m not thrilled about military saber rattling, it has to be wrong to openly repeat and amplify the propaganda of the authoritarian leader making threats.
I think that four years of Donald Trump is a major factor in understanding how we got to where we are at this point. In my view the most dangerous conflict in the world today is the rise of authoritarianism vs the rest of us. Putin and Trump were/are peas in a pod. We just got lucky –and maybe just delayed the inevitable– in the 2020 election.
All the examples I cited today are warning signs. Ignore them at your own peril.