Tuesday September 21, 2021; 2:00 PM EDT
- The author of How Fascism Works, Jason Stanley, says that the authoritarian contingent of the Republican party is within reach of its goals, even without further violent protests. #
- "The authoritarian movement growing inside the Republican Party that threatens not just the country, but with climate change, the world. The question is: Why is it not helpful to have mass violent rallies right now? It’s not helpful because the movement, the fascist social and politic movement, is winning. They’re changing the election laws in state after state. You want rallies, look at the anti–critical race theory and anti-mask rallies at school boards all over the country. That’s what we should be looking at." #
- The principle here is essentially that the institutions won't defend themselves, and that those we need for a meaningful democracy--more than a facade, more than a hollow shell--may already be deeply compromised.#
- Recall Timothy Snyder's little book about protecting democracy, where the second item on his bullet list of essential kinds of activism is to choose one institution that you have some affinity for and work hard to protect it. Because they're going to come for that institution, if they haven't slipped in the side door already.#