Thom Hartmann

Thom Hartmann often provides an interesting dose of history I'll bet most people are not familiar with. Here Thom gives some depth to Robert E. Lee, and that modern villain aka Donald J. Trump.

Trump Is Preparing the Military for Political War—And He’s Using a Confederate Traitor to Do It

By rewriting history, staging propaganda events, and testing the military’s loyalty, is Trump laying the groundwork for a future coup attempt?

Thom Hartmann

June 12, 2025

Robert E. Lee killed more Americans than Hitler. More than Khruschev. More than King George III, Ho Chi Mihn, or Kim Il Sung. He killed more Americans than we’ve lost in every war since the American Revolution, combined. He was the largest mass murderer of Americans in our nation’s history.

General Lee was not a good man: he was a morbidly rich oligarch who not only bought and sold enslaved human beings but delighted in whipping and torturing them.

Three of the two hundred-plus enslaved people he held at his plantation — Wesley Norris, his sister Mary, and their cousin George Parks — escaped and were captured in nearby Maryland. The report in the March 26, 1866 edition of The New York Daily Tribune, quoting Wesley Norris at length, tells us all about Lee’s proclivities:

“He then ordered us to the barn, where, in his presence, we were tied firmly to posts by a Mr. Gwin, our overseer, who was ordered by Gen. Lee to strip us to the waist and give us fifty lashes each, excepting my sister, who received but twenty; …

“Gen. Lee, in the meantime, stood by, and frequently enjoined Williams to ‘lay it on well,’ an injunction which he did not fail to heed; not satisfied with simply lacerating our naked flesh, Gen. Lee then ordered the overseer to thoroughly wash our backs with [excruciatingly painful saltwater] brine, which was done.”

Fearing Lincoln might end slavery in America, Lee raised an army and tried to use it to end democracy in the United States; he thus committed treason in a way that exceeded even Benedict Arnold’s wildest fantasies. His war killed almost 750,000 men, women, and children, all Americans.

No American has ever betrayed or visited as much violence on this country as severely as did Robert E. Lee.

And so, when Lee lost the war that he’d started against us, the federal government seized his slave plantation and turned it into a cemetery for the Civil War dead. It’s today named Arlington National Cemetery.

So, perhaps it makes perfect sense that the current chief betrayer of the ideals of our nation, convicted felon and Putin toady Donald Trump, would brag to a group of American soldiers that he’s going to rename a military base after Robert E. Lee.

Even more shocking, in what’s an astonishing indictment of how our educational system has de-emphasized civics in the years since Reagan and George W. Bush both took an axe to civics education, the assembled soldiers cheered the news that Lee’s name would again desecrate a military facility.

Trump then went on to repeatedly lie to our soldiers, falsely claiming that:

— He won the 2020 election which he told them was “rigged and stolen”

— He sent the National Guard into Minnesota “and I saved it” during the George Floyd protests, when in fact it was Governor Tim Walz who did so

— He defeated ISIS “in four weeks”; it took two years to liberate the ISIS caliphate

— “Nobody wanted to join” the military under Biden, a blatant lie

— Countries like “Congo” dumped their prisoners and people from their mental hospitals here, saying, “Their countries would bus them or drive them right to our border and say, ‘Go in there. If you ever come back, we’re going to kill you.’”

— He’d brought water to LA during the fires when in fact he’d just ordered a field flooded in Northern California, screwing up water allocations for agriculture

— Echoed Hitler when he called Los Angeles protestors “animals” and “a foreign enemy”

And even more disgusting than that, Trump was nakedly using those soldiers he was lying to as political props to massage his own ego and provide a made-for-Fox-“News” clip, as military.com pointed out yesterday:

“Internal 82nd Airborne Division communications reviewed by Military.com reveal a tightly orchestrated effort to curate the optics of Trump's recent visit, including handpicking soldiers for the audience based on political leanings and physical appearance. The troops ultimately selected to be behind Trump and visible to the cameras were almost exclusively male. One unit-level message bluntly said, ‘no fat soldiers.’” [emphasis added]

This is the exact opposite of the instructions to keep the military nonpartisan that President George Washington gave future generations in his farewell address:

“The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism.

“The disorders and miseries, which result, gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of Public Liberty.”

That the Secretary of Defense, “Kegger” Pete Hegseth, would not just allow but intentionally facilitate such an offensive display of partisanship is particularly troubling when compared to the military’s actual policies in Directive 1344.10, put into place years ago to respect Washington’s advice:

“In keeping with the traditional concept that members on active duty should not engage in partisan political activity, and that members not on active duty should avoid inferences that their political activities imply or appear to imply official sponsorship, approval, or endorsement, the following policy shall apply: …

“A member of the Armed Forces on active duty shall not: …

“Participate in partisan political fundraising activities, rallies, conventions, management of campaigns, or debates, either on one’s own behalf or on that of another, without respect to uniform or inference or appearance of official sponsorship, approval, or endorsement. …

“Attend partisan political events as an official representative of the Armed Forces…”

“This is a lawful general regulation. Violations of paragraphs 4.1. through 4.5. of this Directive by persons subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice are punishable under Article 92, ‘Failure to Obey Order or Regulation.’”

When Trump blurs this line designed to keep our military nonpartisan, he’s imitating the behavior of dictators like Putin, Erdoğan, and Orbán who cultivate personal loyalty within the military, rather than respect for constitutional processes.

Trump’s and “Kegger’s” move is apparently designed to test whether rank-and-file troops will go along with his political agenda and to build a foundation for future actions in which military force can be used domestically to defend his regime rather than the Constitution (e.g., suppressing protests, enforcing disputed election outcomes, defending the suspension of elections, etc.).

This is deeply dangerous to any democracy, which is why such behavior is not allowed by the military or executive of any other advanced democracy in the world. When military loyalty becomes politicized, the risk of coups, unlawful orders, or martial law rises dramatically.

Which — given the fact that Trump’s already tried once to stage a coup against the United States — makes this all the more alarming.

But Trump didn’t stop there. He next attacked the media filming the event, saying to more applause from the troops:

“And for a little news, for the fake news back there, the fake news, ladies and gentlemen, look at them, look at them, aye yai yai, what I have to put up with. Fake news. What I have to put up with.”

In fascist regimes, the press is always one of their first targets, typically labeled as “enemies of the people,” blamed for national problems, and ultimately silenced or co-opted. Trump using such rhetoric normalizes contempt for independent journalism among armed agents of the state while it suggests the possibility of state-aligned force being turned against critical media or dissenters.

Nazi Germany, Mussolini's Italy, Putin’s Russia, and more recently Orbán’s Hungary all followed this script. By repeating it, Trump is conditioning our soldiers to follow him rather than the Constitution and the law of the land.

He even brought along a vendor of Trump merchandise in violation of military policy, including MAGA hats, T-shirts, and cards that read, “White Privilege Card: Trumps Everything.”

Historically, when democracies have slid into dictatorship, there’s a moment when the military is required to choose sides, the press is cast as a threat, and loyalty to the regime is demanded and rewarded, rather than loyalty to the law.

We’re there now. Today.

Every American, particularly those who’ve served in the military, should be outraged by Trump’s fascist performance in front of our troops. That the only senior active duty military officer who spoke to the press did so anonymously (he said, “This has been a bad week for the Army for anyone who cares about us being a neutral institution; this was shameful.”) is a damning indictment of how far away from American values we’ve let Trump drag our country.

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Harris won?

Some evidence is trickling out that suggests there was some tampering with the vote in the 2024 election. No candidate, until Trump, had swept every swing state. That's pretty damn suspicious right there. There were also a few counties that registered zero votes for Kamala. Very unlikely. There is more, but I am afraid that the Democrats do not have the spine or guts to really challenge the results. But a stolen election would fit Trump's pattern. He railed endlessly about how the 2020 election was stolen from him, always calling it a "rigged" election. We know that Trump uses projection like I wipe my ass - frequently and every day. Naturally he would accuse the Dems of stealing an election, only to plot to steal it himself. And the story below in the Economic Times is growing.

Kamala Harris won the U.S elections: Bombshell report claims voting machines were tampered with before 2024

Global DeskLast Updated: 09 June, 2025 00:16 AM -5 GMT

Synopsis

Kamala Harris election tampering story raises new questions about the 2024 U.S. presidential election outcome. A quiet but major change to voting machines by Pro V&V—used in over 40% of U.S. counties—was never publicly reviewed or disclosed. Watchdog group SMART Elections flagged suspicious updates, missing votes, and statistical anomalies suggesting potential vote tampering. Now, a lawsuit is moving forward, challenging whether Kamala Harris may have actually won.

Kamala Harris won the U.S. elections: Bombshell report claims voting machines were tampered with before 2024: A new report is stirring fresh debate about the outcome of the 2024 U.S. presidential election, claiming that voting machines were secretly altered before ballots were even cast. The bombshell allegation raises a serious question: Did Kamala Harris actually win the 2024 election?

According to the investigative piece from Daily Boulder, a private lab quietly implemented sweeping changes to voting machines used in over 40% of U.S. counties ahead of the 2024 race. Those changes, the report claims, were made with no public notice, no formal testing, and no third-party oversight.

What changes were made to voting machines before the 2024 election?

The report centers around Pro V&V, a federally accredited lab responsible for certifying voting machines in key states like Pennsylvania, Florida, New Jersey, and California. In early 2024, the lab reportedly approved updates to ES&S voting systems, which included:

•  New ballot scanners
  
  
•  Printer reconfigurations
  
  
•  Firmware upgrades
  
  
•  A new Electionware reporting system
  
  

Instead of labeling these as major changes, Pro V&V classified them as “de minimis,” a term typically reserved for insignificant tweaks. This classification allowed them to bypass public scrutiny and avoid triggering full-scale testing or certification processes.

But watchdog group SMART Elections wasn’t convinced. In their words:

“This wasn’t just a glitch in some sleepy county. It was a stress test of our entire system.”

Soon after the machines went live, complaints began to surface.

Were votes miscounted or ignored in key counties?

In Rockland County, New York, several voters testified under oath that their ballots didn’t match the official results. Senate candidate Diane Sare reportedly lost votes in precinct after precinct:

•  In one district, 9 voters claimed they voted for Sare, but only 5 votes were recorded.
  
  
•  In another, 5 voters swore they supported her, but only 3 votes appeared.
  
  

It wasn’t just third-party candidates who saw odd results.

In multiple Democratic-leaning areas, Kamala Harris’s name was reportedly missing from the top of the ballot entirely. Voters said they couldn’t even find her name to select. These same areas had high support for Democrats like Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, yet Harris received zero votes—a statistical anomaly that defies traditional voting patterns.

Even more shocking: Donald Trump received 750,000 more votes than Republican Senate candidates in these districts. As reported by Dissent in Bloom, a political Substack,

“That’s not split-ticket voting. That’s a mathematical anomaly.” 

Who is behind Pro V&V, and why is there no oversight?

At the center of the controversy is Jack Cobb, the director of Pro V&V. While he doesn’t appear in the headlines, his lab certifies the machines that millions of Americans use to vote. According to the report, once the controversy began to gain traction, Pro V&V’s website went dark, leaving only a phone number and a generic email address. No public logs. No documentation. No comment.

Pro V&V is certified by the Election Assistance Commission (EAC). However, once accredited, labs like Pro V&V face no real public oversight. There is no hotline, no review board, and no formal process for the public to challenge or remove them.

The EAC itself has four commissioners, two of whom—Benjamin Hovland and Donald Palmer—were appointed by Donald Trump during his first presidency. Even if wrongdoing were discovered, the process to revoke a lab’s accreditation is slow, murky, and entirely internal. There are no public hearings and no outside investigations.

As of June 2025, Pro V&V remains fully accredited and uninvestigated.

Could Kamala Harris have actually won the election?

The question is no longer whispered in political corners—it’s being asked outright. In May 2025, Judge Rachel Tanguay ruled that allegations raised by SMART Elections were credible enough to move forward. The case, SMART Legislation et al. v. Rockland County Board of Elections, is scheduled for hearing this fall.

While the lawsuit won’t change the outcome of the election—Congress already certified Trump’s victory—it could set off wider probes, from state investigations to federal criminal inquiries.

Political writer John Pavlovitz openly questioned the result, writing:

“Kamala Harris may have won.”

During the campaign, Harris reportedly drew massive crowds, high early voting numbers, and strong poll performances in swing states. Her debate showing against Trump was widely viewed as dominant—Trump even skipped the second debate.

And yet, despite that momentum, Trump won.

Adding fuel to the fire, Elon Musk, who vocally supported Trump, posted cryptic tweets during the 2024 cycle, including:

“Anything can be hacked.”
Later, Musk stated:
“Without me, Trump would have lost the election.”

Trump himself added to the speculation, telling supporters:

“He [Musk] knows those computers better than anybody. All those computers. Those vote-counting computers. And we ended up winning Pennsylvania like in a landslide.”

The upcoming court case could become a pivotal moment in election security history. The lawsuit claims that a private company quietly changed voting machines in over 40% of U.S. counties—and no one knew until after the votes were counted.

The implications are serious:

•  Could future elections be altered without oversight?
  
  
•  Should the EAC change how it certifies and monitors voting labs?
  
  
•  Is the public being kept in the dark about the technology behind their vote?
  
  

SMART Elections warns this isn’t just about one race:

“If one underfunded watchdog group can dig up this much from a quiet New York suburb, what else is rotting in the shadows of this country’s ballots?”

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James Fell

James Fell is a pretty brilliant Canadian writer, most-recently writing about history. One of his taglines is, "Those who cannot remember the past...need a history teacher who says "FUCK" a lot." Perhaps a non sequitur, but James is always an interesting read. This one covers a lot of ground.

Why Some Long for a King to Rule Them

Body and Soul

JAMES FELL

Jun 8

In the middle of the Second World War, taking the idea from stickers affixed to American factory machines used to manufacture weapons, folk singer Woodie Guthrie wrote on his guitar “This machine kills fascists.” At the end of the war, it appeared fascism had been dealt a fatal blow, but like a phoenix it eats the fire of its own demise and resurrects from the ashes. A vampire can be undone by a stake through the heart, a werewolf via a silver bullet, and zombies need only a head shot. Alas, you cannot kill an idea, even a shitty one, because shitty people will always see fascism as a permanent temptation.

The world is rife with hierarchies motivated by status and greed; the rise of stable liberal democracies was a slow process as various players found a delicate balance of power that endeavors to keep autocracy at bay. Ancient hunter-gatherers, by and large, had the most equitable of societies, and liberal democracy is the closest thing humans have created to restore such equality, with an added benefit of not being limited to a life expectancy of less than thirty. Liberal democracy is fragile because it must overcome our inherently tribal nature, and because it acts as a check on power, thus those with influence to wield use it to undermine such controls. This mode of governance requires constant compromise, creating a somewhat functional and occasionally gridlocked equilibrium that focuses on short-termism, making it a constant challenge to get shit done. In limiting autocracy, it is forced to slow progress. It only prevails in some societies because it’s been shown most people want governments that respect their freedom and their rights and are willing to fight for such things. Liberal democracy survives despite it being permeated by consumerism and materialism, lack of community and shared purpose, faithlessness and restlessness, social unrest and political divisiveness, disenchantment and decadence.

Regardless of such brittleness, it does seem to work in that the freer a country, the more efficient it is at levying taxes and providing services. Democracy developed slowly not so much because peasants rebelled, but on account of elites gradually giving in, offering a slow trickle of privileges as the most logical path to maintain their own wealth and power. And while capitalism contributed to increasing freedoms in some states, capitalism and democracy are not allies. Rather, their natural state is to be at odds with each other. The lofty goal of democracy is to put people before profits, caring over corporations. An authoritarian government that doesn’t care over the needs of the populace can be a better ally for the unethical capitalist when the right to exploitation is only a bribe away. Free markets don’t necessarily equate to free people. The horrific crimes of the British and Dutch East India Companies provide ample evidence of what corporations are capable of when their home countries allow them to run amok. Robber barons of old have been replaced by billionaire technocrats seeking to destroy the guardrails of liberal democracies that prevent them from ravaging people and planet in the pursuit of ever more profit. The reason why billionaires get away with paying so few taxes is because they can. Having little use for it, they’d like to weaken democracy even further by creating a kind of corporate feudalism, a monarchy of the wealthy.

Wealthy liberal democracies tend to get along, being reluctant to make war against each other. They’re also less prone to internal rebellion. The same does not apply to poorer democracies, however, as the comforts of successful capitalism contain a powerful placating effect that discourage violence. Why fight when you can watch Netflix, eat KFC, and drive a V8 sport utility vehicle? Unless the fight is against the less developed to expand your consumption. The United States has a long history of violent foreign intervention for the sake of protecting its financial interests. Teddy Roosevelt encouraged overseas military adventures for the purpose of expanding markets, and the primary battles of the Cold War were fighting for control over the developing world. The United States wasn’t terribly interested in promoting liberal democracy around the world so much as it was willing to ally itself with anyone who wasn’t communist. As one example, in 1944 there was a popular uprising in Guatemala to overthrow the oppressive tyrant Jorge Ubico, replacing him with a democratically elected president who was a pretty decent guy. Ubico’s lips had been firmly affixed to the ass of the American-owned United Fruit Company, making him appealing to the United States despite his atrocities. Juan José Arévalo took power in a mostly free election. He wasn’t perfect, but he did fund healthcare and education, and improved labor conditions. In 1951 he was succeeded as president by Jacobo Árbenz who gave unused land to landless peasants, and America said that looks like some commie bullshit to us and sent in the CIA. Lobbying by United Fruit played an influential role in the decision to intervene. They were all these commie pricks are making it hard for us to exploit Guatemalans so we can get bananas for cheap. Go fuck them up. And President Eisenhower said yeah commies suck I shall fuck them up. Why was America willing to help United Fruit? Allen Dulles, who headed the CIA, and his brother John, who was Secretary of State, had been on United Fruit’s payroll for almost four decades, so that might have played a small role. And while the Árbenz government was far from being communist, plenty of Americans see anything to the left of hunting homeless for sport as Marxism incarnate. And so, they helped install the military dictator Carlos Castillo Armas via a coup d’état, and for decades Guatemala was ruled by a succession of brutal military governments that maintained control via genocide of their own people.

That was far from the only time the United States went to war against democratic socialism, which they feared more than actual Soviet or Chinese-style communism. Communism in those and other nations was well known for its oppressive and autocratic nature and poor living standards, but when countries like Guatemala, Iran, Indonesia, and Chile started democratically favoring improving the lives of their citizens at the cost of big business, America could not abide such heresy and helped install their own murderous tyrants. This was partially about strategic Cold War alliances against other nuclear powers, but a lot of it had to do with protecting corporate interests around the world.

Upgrade to paid

Not all ideas are good ones, which is why conservatism persists. Resistance to change is biologically ingrained from hunter-gatherer times because life was lived on the edge of survival. Those who tried new shit willy nilly, ignoring the traditions that kept their people alive for millennia often didn’t survive long enough to procreate. Tradition is more than taking orders from dead people; they persist because they served an evolutionary purpose. New ideas needed to go through a gauntlet of opposition to prove their validity for the band’s continuation, because stability is easier to destroy than construct. Hence, reverence for traditions and idealizing the past is genetically ingrained. Conservatives aren’t stupid, but fascists tend to be at least willfully ignorant, if not outright dumb as fuck. Those who prefer far right hierarchical governance fear ambiguity, eschew analysis in favor of gut instinct, and while they’re capable of using reason, they’re not overly motivated to do so. More liberal-minded folks value reason, fairness, freedom, and caring for others. The more conservative types defer to loyalty, authority, and tradition. In an episode of The Simpsons the evil Sideshow Bob pontificates that “deep down inside you secretly long for a cold-hearted Republican to lower taxes, brutalize criminals, and rule you like a king!” And Bob was right; some people are so terrified of uncertainty they will give themselves over body and spirit to what they deem heroic leadership, embracing their own oppression. Of course, such a leader must be male, a virile father figure who will look after them in return for their obedience. Christians who voted for Trump didn’t care that he has five kids with three women or that he cheated on all his wives or even the multiple accusations of sexual assault against him. For them, it only reinforces how manly he is, which is why they’ll waste money buying electronic images of Trump represented as a buff superhero. Sexism is rampant in fascism and used as a recruiting tactic for unsuspecting young men even today. Some hormonal teenage boy googles “How do I get a girlfriend” and gets exposed to seemingly innocuous self-improvement videos that slowly warp him with tales of the “problem” with modern women and how feminism is “toxic.” Once they’ve been taught to despise an entire gender, they can be taught to hate anyone. And having targets of bigotry is central to fascism. People hunger for meaning and want to feel they are descended from greatness. Racism and sexism are things that satisfies this by helping them feel superior.

The word “totalitarian” was coined by Mussolini as a portmanteau of total and authoritarian to describe his fascist rule over Italy, even though his control was far from absolute. He was the first person to transform a democracy into a dictatorship, and oppression of women was integral to his reign because fascism values the concept of a traditional family and hierarchical male power. One brave woman, an Irish aristocrat named Violet Gibson, said fuck your male power and attempted to assassinate Mussolini in 1926. While the fascist dictator was walking among a crowd in the Italian capital, she fired a pistol at his face, but he moved at the precise moment and the bullet merely grazed his nose. The gun then misfired and she was mobbed and almost lynched. The British negotiated Gibson’s release then locked her away in a mental hospital for the rest of her life. Nazis were similar in their views of women, seeing them as baby-makers for the next generation of Aryan soldiers, hampering their war effort in the process while western women were working in weapons factories and excelling as spies, and Soviet women were racking up countless kills as snipers and bomber pilots in biplanes. The latter was so feared by German soldiers they called them the Nachthexen—Night Witches.

Capitalism was integral to the explosion of slavery as an economic force in the last few centuries, giving rise to racism as a method of justification. In so doing, capitalism gave eventual birth to fascism, because corporations don’t give a shit about people, only profits, and fascist rulers are more inclined to be bought off to reduce regulations for their operations. And while fascism can appear good for the economy, it doesn’t often translate into an improved standard of living. In Nazi Germany unemployment was reduced, but the focus was on building tools of destruction rather than products for consumption, which didn’t make the average person’s life any better. Speaking of Nazis, to this day brainless invertebrates with an internet connection will proclaim them as socialist because “It’s right there in the name!” The reality is the name “National Socialism” was a marketing gimmick Hitler used to gain power by any means necessary, which included pretending to be socialist. Once his power was assured, he went about purging anyone not a dedicated fascist from the party.

The desire to belong is powerful, and fascism delivers. It remains dangerous to this day because it inspires and mobilizes, offsetting its inefficiencies resulting from fascism’s nepotism, partisanship, and lack of accountability. The leader is above the law because his followers feel he needs such unquestioned power to be able to properly protect them, a feeling he creates by filling them with fear of the other. That’s why so many MAGAts were thrilled when multiple-convicted felon Donald Trump posted shortly after beginning his second term: “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.” Belonging is also created via such othering. If that group is inferior, it means you’re superior. People become mesmerized by the pomp and showmanship used to instill and amplify hatred. This is led by a perceived “strongman,” an allegedly masculine every man who is also considered an exceptional man. He appeals to a subset of people based on race, religion, conservative values, and misogyny. He represents himself as a “man of the people,” but only some people, and anyone who criticizes him is therefore an “enemy of the people.” Many of his followers offer their obedience in advance, even anticipating ways in which the leader would wish to dominate and thus teaching him what he can get away with. I think Dear Leader would appreciate me storming the Capitol Building and tasing my balls in the process. Sycophants and supporters are indentured to him via a combination of favoritism, complicity, and threats. He is unafraid of using violence against enemy and friend alike. Minority groups and the free press are maligned and terrorized, whereas the privileged ingroup is presented as the true victim, a group yearning for payback because life didn’t give them a pony. Education, expertise, and science are derided in favor of a return to “common sense.” Although a secular ideology, fascism can take on a religious tone via its rituals, messaging, and demanding people believe the unbelievable. Mass propaganda is easily swallowed and repeated. Facts no longer matter, only belief in the leader. In 1940 Germany’s pathologically antisemitic Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels created a ridiculously unbelievable film demonizing Jewish people called The Eternal Jew. It was so preposterous in its claims it baffles the mind how anyone could accept such nonsense. The thing is most didn’t believe it. That’s not the purpose of such propaganda. Rather, it acts as a loyalty test, and a signal. When you repeat the implausible, you announce to the group that you’re one of them, you can be trusted. “They’re eating the cats. They’re eating the dogs.” Echoing bullshit is a badge of commitment to the cause, to the leader. Alas, these people cannot fathom dear leader cares not for them, but only himself. The nation becomes the ruler’s personal plaything; his desires are all that matter. Cowed by fear, elites sacrifice the masses to the authoritarian’s whims in exchange for retaining their privileges. Many fascist leaders come to power via military means, but several are elected by a cult-like following. The police and the faithful alike are weaponized against those who dare oppose the cult. The old are more likely to participate in fascism or remain compliant; they can become enamored with the leader’s glorification of the past, unduly nostalgic over the time of their vigorous youth. The young become the core of the resistance, having the most to lose as they see the strongman destroy their futures. And resistance is critical, because rarely do fascists voluntarily step down from power, instead needing to be forced out.

Back in 1940, science fiction author Robert Heinlein predicted America would elect a dictator in the early twenty-first century with his novella If This Goes On—. In it he explained the unifying power of shared hatreds, writing “You can sway a thousand men by appealing to their prejudices quicker than you can convince one man by logic.” Anyone can be captivated by the cult of a fascist ruler—forty per cent of those who stormed the U.S. Capitol in 2021 were business owners or white-collar workers—and a nation need not have a weak democracy to fall to a strongman bent on destroying it. Recent elections in the United States, Brazil, Hungary, Italy, Turkey, India, the Philippines, and Israel all resulted in fascists attaining power via divisive rhetoric that capitalized upon ethnic and racial grievances, real or imagined.

And yet, there is hope. In the wake of seeing Trump 2.0 immediately begin the destruction of American democracy, other nations such as Canada, Australia, and Romania, which had been leaning very conservative, all experienced liberal upsets in their elections as mass fuck you to the idea of Trump-style fascism invading their countries.

Those who cannot remember the past … need a history teacher who says “fuck” a lot. Get both volumes of On This Day in History Sh!t Went Down.

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