yea Tom has no expertise in this stuff, that's why he writes for The Atlantic

Ok I admit I was mistaken. I will hold judgment until I hear more about him

cooper is gonna put up kim jung un numbers, provided he comes out as against the raids. he may have to toe a certain line, cause NC is not THAT blue

I think the gestapo influx into charlotte and its suburbs will make it even worse for GOP in NC

Here’s a story for every national news outlet:

In N.C., churchgoers are literally running into the woods as federal agents descend on the property.

“Inside the church, women and children sobbed as they wondered whether their loved ones had been taken.”

www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politic...

From the manager of the Super G store, where smiling and waving agents grabbed a boy, 15. (Looks like Bovino was on the scene)

www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/a...

It's really weird because Goldman is good on immigration policy (wants ICE arrested in NYC), but is also a genocidal freak and a war hawk.

no he voted for cuomo

Exactly. See my thread in response to someone claiming just that:

By that line of reasoning, then Hitler and Mussolini were not fascist, and their governments were not fascist until deep into their reign.

Again, the entire argument Tom is making depends on misunderstanding what fascism actually is and how it works. It's ignorance masquerading as profundity. /end

Tom's mistake is that he thinks fully-consolidated authoritarianism *is* fascism. And there's two issues here:

1) While all fascisms are authortiarianisms, not all authoritarianisms are not fascisms.

2) We need not wait to call a state authoritarian/fascist until full consolidation is achieved /11

5) Radicalization or entropy: The regime either becomes increasingly radical, as in Nazi Germany, or it slides into a more traditional authoritarian rule, as in Fascist Italy /10

4) Exercise of power: The movement consolidates its control over the state, working in conjunction with traditional institutions like the police and military, and balancing the influence of other elites like the clergy and business leaders. /9

3) Acquisition of power: Fascist parties gain power, not usually through a coup, but by cooperating with conservative elites who seek to use the fascists to control the growing threat of the left. (We are between this stage and the next) /8

2) Rooting in the political system: The movement establishes itself as a political party, becoming a part of the political landscape through elections and street-level actions, often capitalizing on political polarization and deadlock. /7

Paxton points out there are 5 stages of fascism. It is not the kind of thing that either "fully is or isn't." The stages are:

1) Creation of movements: A movement emerges from a society disillusioned with the existing political order, often driven by nationalism and a sense of decline. /6

working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion. (Paxton)

All of this matches up with Trump's actions /5

2) Fascism may be defined as a form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation, or victim- hood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy, and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants (next post) 4/

Consequently, the nation needs to purged of this infestation, and must be reborn from the ashes, where the revitalized volk will take their rightful place at the head. All of this is exemplified in the slogan "Make America Great Again," as well as Trump's attacks on immigrants. /3