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Trump administration 2024-2028

4. There isn't really any fascism, by definition. There are criteria; apply them. If some of the criteria are missing - corporatism, militarism, wholly compliant courts and legislatures - it isn't fascism.
I have observed, in my time spent in my kitchen, a peculiar process wherein a chicken is placed raw in a metal box. If I press the appropriate buttons and am sufficiently patient, at a certain point in the near future, that box beeps to tell me that at that precise moment the chicken has transitioned instantaneously from ‘raw’ to ‘cooked’ and is now ready.

I have no idea what’s happening in that box in that intervening time, but I’ve also noticed this really tantalizing phenomenon where partly through the time I’m waiting, my kitchen begins to smell the way a chicken does when it’s cooked.

It’s the damndest thing.
 
corporatism
Corporatism was important to Fascists in Italy and Spain, but the Nazis rejected corporatism's tenants as early as the 1920s. While the Nazi regime claimed to be corporatist, it differed significantly from traditional corporatism by prioritizing state control over the autonomy of corporations and worker representation. Wikipedia doesn't even mention corporatism on its rather large fascism article (Fascism - Wikipedia).

Regardless, Trumps relationship with billionaire oligarchs does have similarities to the relationship of an authoritarian corporatist state with its "corporate groups" ... even to where employee groups interests are subordinated to government and employer group interests. But, we have seen Trump wield (or threaten to wield) the power of the state to coerce "employer group" organizations to his will. Universities, law firms, and media have all be subject to such manipulation. He signed an EO demanding pharmaceutical companies lower prices. He has also signed EOs ordering increased production of Coal and of minerals (the later leveraging emergency authorities of the Defense Production Act).

So, okay. Trump maybe more Hitler than Mussolini or Franco on the corporatism front.

militarism
Yep. Examples include a great big birthday parade, domestic deployments of Army & Marines, some of the self-congratulatory antics after a sortie to Iran, and also the "Big Beautiful Bill" has a rather massive pool of funding to expand & further militarize ICE.

wholly compliant courts and legislatures
Yep. The federal legislature is completely subservient to Trump. Some lower courts are still resisting, but SCOTUS is keeping them down so MAGA can do its thing.

Yes, I get that MAGA is not an identical repetition of Europe 100 years ago. But there are a lot of similarities and common warning signs, and maybe its time to say "this is not okay". Maybe it is time to stop apologizing for MAGA because maybe some policies are okay and they have not yet installed ovens in the concentration camps. Despite "Fascism" and "Nazi" having been tossed about in the rhetoric of political hyperbole, it is time to take seriously the analogy. Stop focusing on the lines he has not yet crossed, and take a moment to consider all the lines already crossed.

If the claim were pure hyperbole today, there would not be so much written on in.
 
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