You must log in or register to comment.
Umberto Eco (a survivor of Mussolini’s actual regime) identified this as one of the core traits of Ur-Fascism. Specifically, #8…
The followers must feel humiliated by the ostentatious wealth and force of their enemies.… However, the followers must be convinced that they can overwhelm the enemies. Thus, by a continuous shifting of rhetorical focus, the enemies are at the same time too strong and too weak.
You will note that Republicans check literally every single box of Umberto Eco’s list.
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/umberto-eco-ur-fascism
Is Doublethink a more adequate term?
Yes
To be fair, they have a problem with trans women in women’s sports. They don’t have a problem with trans men in men’s sports because they can’t imagine a situation where a trans man could possibly compete with “real” men.
It goes along with their idea that women are weak, so women are weak athletes and women’s sports teams are weak. If you accept that, it’s not a big stretch to think that someone who has gone through puberty as a male will have an automatic huge advantage in every women’s sport because their body has male characteristics.
On the other hand to them, the military is the ultimate in manly activities. Anybody other than a pure, manly man will be at a disadvantage in anything military. That includes trans men, trans women and regular women. Right now the focus is on trans people, but I’m sure they’ll want to kick women out of the military too eventually.
So, if you accept that logic, it makes sense that trans women are too weak for the military, but too strong for women’s sports. There’s no contradiction there.
True story. Back in 2008 there were two op-ed pieces on the smae page of the Murdoch owned New York Post.
One said that voting for Obama was a waste of time, because he was a centrist neoliberal who’d only serve up milder versions of GOP programs, so you’d be better off with an actual Republican.
The other screamed that he was a radical Socialist who would destroy America.
Same newspaper, same page, no irony
Are you unfamiliar with the concept of an Op Ed?
Isn’t this what the opinion page is for?
Not only is it what Op Eds are for, it’s also extremely common practice to have two contrasting views on the same page to give voice to a variety of different opinions.
Complaining about two Op Eds on the same page with different opinions is like complaining that a dictionary has two definitions of two different words on the same page.
Schrodinger’s energy crisis:
We need to sell public lands for oil extraction since we have an energy crisis!
We need to cancel wind energy and solar facility construction!
This is actually how Russians do their propaganda. NATO is weak but also the greatest threat to our nation. Sending Abrams to Ukraine is pointless as they are useless tanks and Ukraine has already lost, but also sending Abrams is crossing a line and a declaration of war.
Gee, wonder where Trump learned it from?
the followers [of fascism] must be convinced that they can overwhelm the enemies. Thus, by a continuous shifting of rhetorical focus, the enemies are at the same time too strong and too weak. Fascist governments are condemned to lose wars because they are constitutionally incapable of objectively evaluating the force of the enemy.
– Umberto Eco, Ur-Fascism https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/umberto-eco-ur-fascismThe loser’s flag, the confederate’s is flown today in my neighborhood, and they are determined to make us all losers.
Gee, wonder where Trump learned it from?
It’s Fascism 101.
Zelenskyy is simultaneously a puppet of The West™ and a wizard mind controlling EU and US
The greatest threat to a nation being weak technically isnt a contradiction. If all your enemies are weak, even the most powerful is weak
You don’t need to learn it from anywhere. Look at the stereotype of cats who love affection when they want it even if you’re busy but who get mad when you initiate when all they’re doing is lying there. All these people have really “done” is not grow out of being whiny, removed-ass toddlers. They’re just deeply insecure, immature assholes with zero compassion or self-awareness.
You just described my ex. I’ve never known a cat to be that shitty to me though.
And how NATO does propaganda against both Russia and China.
Oh? Can you give an example? Because I’ve mostly seen official channels take Russia very seriously
Taken very seriously while it’s economy is in shambles and it’s military is depleted to the point of relying on Soviet era relics?
Why can’t both of those be true? Should Europe ignore Russia until they CAN march into Amsterdam? There are far too many corpses in Ukraine not to take them seriously, regardless of economics.
To stealman it, I’d say it’s in how China has a large navy that’s also incapable, or has extensive R&D that copies the west’s homework and only makes cheap parts. Russia is both incapable of taking on Ukraine and justifies the need for much greater EU military expenditure.
There’s some nuance to this. China’s navy is large, but it’s mostly built as a green water navy (close to their shores), and not a blue water navy. Russia can’t take Ukraine, but it’s because both the EU and US have been feeding them, and US support is drying up.
China’s R&D, however, is something I think we should take more seriously. They’ve done most of the practical applications of new battery tech and have spun up an EV industry from scratch.
To stealman it
Is that when you steal your talking points from someone else?
I mean, these arguments really only work if you disregard that NAFO isn’t NATO.
Schrödinger’s Election: it’s rigged unless we win.
It was rigged but ALSO we won.
doublespeak fr
Schrodinger’s immigrant: they’re both lazy moochers and taking all our jobs.
Schrodinger’s immigrant for the Trump era: they’re all criminals and have no criminal records… clearly because they’re such good criminals.
Classic fascist doublethink. Straight out of the book. The enemy is both strong/dangerous enough to be a serious threat, but the fascist is still somehow very superior to them. 🤷
Schrodinger’s Canada: we don’t need anything from them, but we’d love to own them anyway.
Schrodinger’s tariffs: they’re great, except when they hurt my small business.
That’s just basic cruelty. “Hurting other people is great”
Schrödingers free speech: You can tweet everything unless it’s against Muskrats opinion.
Schrödinger’s Democracy: We The People, unless I disagree with those people.
It’s “We, the people”, not “Them there people”! /s
Their military excuse is actually that a person who switches gender can’t be honest and committed, which is just as crazy, it still has that view that people “choose” to be trans and by choosing to be trans they should a lack of commitment to their birth gender i guess??
That’s why I’m appalled this is even a discussion, they aren’t even pretending to have a valid military or medical excuse, they just jumped straight to “Group is bad because I don’t like them.”
I lived through post 9/11 bullshit and how they wanted to ban Muslims from the military, all the open racism and rhetoric. Same shit different day and target, it’s a right wing pattern they always follow
You swore an oath when you signed that birth certificate! “I swear to uphold my assigned gender and to maintain my proper genital configuration until death!” It’s right there on the document, you can’t fool us with this whole “I was literally minutes old, I didn’t sign anything! That’s not even a thing!” That’s just what a Communist oath breaker would say!
