It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it. —Upton Sinclair
In this case it’s a failure to understand the word “also”.
Time to read this again.
Originally shared by Jürgen Christoffel
Umberto Eco on the Causes of Fascism
#brexit #trumpism
Ur-Fascism derives from individual or social frustration. That is why one of the most typical features of the historical fascism was the appeal to a frustrated middle class, a class suffering from an economic crisis or feelings of political humiliation, and frightened by the pressure of lower social groups. In our time, when the old “proletarians” are becoming petty bourgeois (and the lumpen are largely excluded from the political scene), the fascism of tomorrow will find its audience in this new majority.
_To people who feel deprived of a clear social identity, Ur-Fascism says that their only privilege is the most common one, to be born in the same country._
By whom we mean the tiny band of neo-nazis who have always been in our midst. The ones we normally (and rightfully) ignore.
She has a history of confusing the hell out of everybody. Not in a good way.
The Butcher of Gujarat seems to like her though.
If an economic downturn and a refugee crisis are enough to cause governments to panic and for hyper-nationalists to win all the elections, imagine what happens when climate change really gets going.
No wall will be tall enough when people really decide to move.
Via Bruce Sterling
Democrats walking and chewing gum?
Bernie Sanders:
A common internet quote attributed to John Steinbeck is the one about the reason why Socialism never took root in America was because the poor saw themselves “not as an exploited proletariat, but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.”
It’s a good joke for an upwardly-mobile middle class nation like America but it’s actually a misquotation made by pop history writer Ronald Wright as recently as 2004.
In the real quote, Steinbeck was remarking that far from being dangerous revolutionaries—the kind that had been under intense investigation by the US Congress—most of the American communists that he actually met really were temporarily embarrassed millionaires.
Bargaining 2016
The American Left* makes a distinction between Capitalism (you know the stuff that makes America GREAT!) and Predatory Capitalism (the not so great thing that’s all about greed and selling your grandmother and stuff).
The idea here is to create a kind of non-predatory Capitalism where the Capitalist Leviathan is tied down with so many regulations that it can “barely move its little finger”. To achieve this feat of mastery, progressives look to a newly invigorated Democratic party which will go back to its roots as the Party of the slave owners People and enact appropriate legislation to tame the savage beast.
* and to be fair the Left pretty much everywhere in the Western world.
Depression 2018
Doesn’t look like it’s gonna happen.
Acceptance 2020
Nope, it’s definitely not gonna to happen.
Never Stop Posting 