I started to reply to your last post in typical one for one fashion but quickly realized we'd be here all day because each sentence you wrote warranted an entire paragraph response. Since this thread is about whether Trump is a fascist I decided to focus in on a few key points and set aside all of your whataboutisms, false equivalences, or flat out lies including Maxine Waters, Kamala Harris, George Floyd rioters, parents at school board meetings, "Putting grandparents in jail", etc. etc. etc.
If you want, feel free to pick just one of them and I'll happily address it in detail. But for the sake of space and time I can't address every single one.
let’s analyze the quote by Trump in the first place: “We will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left
thugs that live like vermin.”
By disagreeing with this, you are in favor of let’s see: communism, Marxism, FASCISM, and radical left thugs.
Where is “political opponents” mentioned anywhere in this quote?
This is the game that Trump plays; he constantly and consistently attacks democrats as being every single one of those things and then when someone points out that he's talking about democrats, he and his mouthpieces pretend that he's either not talking about them, or for us to say he is is an admission that democrats are communists, marxists, and thugs. Heads I win tails you lose.
It's just silly and it really makes you look disingenuous to pretend you just presented a valid defense.
So no, I don't support communists, Marxists, or thugs. I also think you know damn well he is in fact talking about those he and his supporters see as their political opposition. And also, even if that were who he's talking about that doesn't justify calling them vermin. That is again, obvious fascistic language.
Trump did not tell them to enter the Capitol building. Please find me the quote that says he did.
Another example of the same game. It never ceases to amaze me how Trump supporters will be the first to defend his outrageous statements by arguing that he doesn't speak literally and that you need to read between the lines to understand him, and then when we do exactly that they argue that we can't accuse him of saying anything unless we can find the literal quote.
What Trump did was call on all of his supporters to come down to the capitol so he could tell them their voice was stolen and now the people who are actively stealing their voice are inside the Capitol, so march down there and "fight like hell". It doesn't take a rocket scientist to read between those lines and figure out what he wanted.
People like you will no doubt defend him by saying "look, he said peacefully!", but you know that defense is nonsense because it doesn't fit with anything else. Your argument is essentially that he told them to march down to the capitol so they can make their voices heard to the very people who stole them because they don't give a shit about what you have to say. That's absurd. And you know who else knows it's absurd? The J6 defendants who have all said they were there because Trump told them to be.
But still, even then Trump could have had an out on that point. If, as soon as the rioting started Trump did what any president would have done; called in the national guard and immediately called on his supporters to leave the Capitol - we could have written all of this off as irresponsibility. But what did he do instead? He spent 3 hours watching the riots on television wondering why his staff was not gitty about what was happening while even Hannity and Tucker Carlson couldn't get him to say anything publicly. You have no defense against that because their isn't one, you cannot honestly argue that he didn't want exactly what was happening.
Paul Pelosi’s attacker has a history of changing affiliations. We’re only talking about him cause his victim is famous
No, we're talking about him because he was bashed in the head with a hammer by a Trump supporter and Trump has repeatedly used that fact as a punchline for jokes at his political rallies. It's another blatant example of fascism at work, the goal is to normalize violence and signal to your supporters that it's ok to attack the "other side". If Trump believed what you profess to believe - that political violence is not acceptable, he would not be standing on stage joking about it. That's common sense and the people at his rallies understand that full well.
Also, saying he has a history of changing affiliations is meaningless at best and at worst disingenuous. He was a leftist until he became radicalized by Donald Trump. That's not a reason to dismiss him as an example, it's a reason for us all to be that much more concerned about the real world effects Trump's rhetoric is having on people regardless of whether they're misunderstanding him. For things like this to happen and Trump's response is to joke about it and turn up the volume instead of turning it down and vehemently condemning it, is yet another demonstration that this is exactly what he wants to happen.
Cause media, believe it or not, is not the arbitrator of truth. Neither you, nor I have the full information. The only people that do are the prosecutors and defense. You are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
No one here has claimed the media is the arbiter of truth, that we have all of the information, or even that the case has reached the point where a jury has what it needs to declare Trump guilty in a court of law. All of these are red herrings, and I think you know that full well because if we shifted the discussion to Hunter Biden, suddenly I doubt you would have any issue weighing in on whether you think he is guilty or not.
You are the one arguing that Biden is on par with Trump when it comes to fascism because he is "jailing his political opponent". Yet everything we do know about these trials tells us Trump is guilty or at the very least that these are legitimate charges to be adjudicated. Much of the evidence against Trump is public record so to argue as if you don't have an opinion on it is not credible.
Simple yes or no question: do you think fascists are vermin?
No. Vermin are diseases infested pests that need to be exterminated. Using that language to describe others is to suggest they are subhuman and therefore undeserving of rights.
I think fascists (in terms of those who support the ideology) are deeply misguided and dangerous to the rest of us. The antedote against that is education. Fascists only enjoy the power the rest of us give them through our own ignorance and manipulability.
