Scott Boehmer

Tag: Fascism

  • A Notional Design Studio

    Because, yes: this “America by Design” page is shoddily made, and poorly written. But the authoritarian impulse — to erase histories, to control a narrative, to single-mindedly focus on image and aesthetics — shapes not just the site’s text, but its design as well. Its text erases the history and work of the people who quietly labored to create better digital services for the public; in their place, it proposes that one man alone can define “design” for the country. And we find that new definition in the way the site’s constructed: it is digital design intended for the privileged few, one that actively excludes people who don’t conform to a specific, discriminatory definition of “eligible.”

    All of this should and must be rebuked by the design community; it must also be actively, urgently dismantled.

    Ethan Marcotte

    A notional design studio. (Ethan Marcotte)

  • The Unforgivable Sin of Ms Rachel

    This video from Lindsay Ellis discusses empathy, antisemitism, genocide, and Ms Rachel. It is long, but well worth watching.

    The Unforgivable Sin of Ms Rachel (YouTube – Lindsay Ellis)

  • There’s No Such Thing As a Smart Fascist

    This post is a couple of years old now, so it is framed on Ron DeSantis who was at the time struggling to launch his campaign to be the Republican candidate for 2024.

    Ronald was supposed to be that great man of myth and legend, the darkest fear of the left and deepest dream of the right: the Competent Fascist. The Smart Trump. The one who deeply understood the system and thus could manipulate it to his liking. The one who really and truly did play 5D chess while the rest of us dinked around with checkers.

    Catherynne M. Valente

    There’s No Such Thing As a Smart Fascist (Welcome to Garbagetown)

  • We Need To Talk About ICE

    A video from Kat Abughazaleh about the government’s usage of ICE as an intimidation tool without regard for due process.

    We Need To Talk About ICE (Kat Abughazaleh – YouTube)

  • 20 Lessons on Tyranny

    A video of John Lithgow reading the 20 lessons about tyranny from Timothy Snyder’s 2017 book On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century.

    20 Lessons on Tyranny: by Timothy Snyder / read by John Lithgow (PoliticsGirl – YouTube)

  • On the Side of Autocrats and Fascists

    It seems that we now live in an America that is more likely to throw its support behind autocrats and fascists than to align with our long-term democratic allies.

    European leaders should end the isolation of far-right parties across the Continent, US vice-president JD Vance has said.

    The comments mark an extraordinary embrace of a once-fringe political movement with which the Trump administration shares a common approach on migration, identity and internet speech.

    The address stunned and silenced hundreds of attendees at the Munich Security Conference, a forum where top-level politicians, diplomats and analysts had gathered expecting to hear US president Donald Trump’s plans for ending the war in Ukraine and Europe’s defence against a rising Russian threat.

    Mr Vance singled out his German hosts, telling them to drop their objections to working with a party that has often revelled in banned Nazi slogans and has been shunned from government as a result.

    Jim Takersley, Steven Erlanger, and David E. Sanger

    European leaders left in stunned silence as JD Vance harangues them over approach to far right (The Irish Times)

    Mr. Trump’s remarks late on Tuesday, when he sided fully with Russia’s narrative blaming Ukraine for the war, have now fortified the impression that the United States is prepared to abandon its role as a European ally and switch sides to embrace President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.

    It was a complete reversal of historic alliances that left many in Europe stunned and fearful.

    Catherine Porter and Andrew Higgins

    Meeting Again in Paris, European Leaders Try to Recalibrate After Trump Sides With Russia (The New York Times)

    Make no mistake. The Trump-Vance-Musk regime is not only undermining democracy in the United States. It is also laying the foundation for undermining democracies around the world.

    Since the end of World War II, liberal democracies have stuck together — led by America. On the opposite side have been authoritarian states, led mainly by the Soviet Union, followed, after the demise of the Soviet Union, by Russia and China.

    But all this is rapidly changing. Both Russia and China have morphed into oligarchies, run by small groups of extraordinarily wealthy people.

    America has also been moving from a democracy to an oligarchy — and is doing so at lightning speed under Trump, Vance, Musk, and their billionaire buddies.

    The new poles of international power are coming to be global democracies versus a global oligarchy. The United States is emerging on the side of global oligarchy.

    Robert Reich

    The Trump-Vance-Musk-Putin plan (Robert Reich)

  • Pardoning 1500 Insurrectionists Is An Insult To America

    It was, without hyperbole, an insurrection against this country. An attempted coup, a bona fide attempt to prevent the peaceful transfer of power. And it was the most violent attack on the Capitol since 1814. And yet, now re-elected President Trump has made a mockery of the attack on our country and our democracy by pardoning 1500 traitors involved and commuting the sentence of 14 others, including violent felons who attacked law enforcement officers on their way to invading the Capitol. President Trump is not a member of a party of law and order.

    Devin Stone, LegalEagle

    Pardoning 1500 Insurrectionists Is An Insult To America (LegalEagle)

  • The South Bank of the Rubicon

    The thing about points of no return, the reason we worry over them so much, is it’s rare to know where they are until they are some ways behind you.

    Ian Danskin

    The Alt-Right Playbook: The South Bank of the Rubicon (Innuendo Studios)

  • Army Talk: Fascism!

    Citizenship in a democracy is more than a ballot dropped in a box on Election Day. It’s a 365-days-a-year job requiring the active participation and best judgement of every citizen in the affairs of his community, his nation, and his country’s relations with the world.

    Fascism thrives on indifference and ignorance. It makes headway when people are apathetic or cynical about their government – when they think of it as something far removed from them and beyond their personal concern. The erection of a traffic light on your block is important to your safety and the safety of your children. The erection of a world organization to safeguard peace and world security is just as important to our personal security. Both must be the concern of every citizen.

    Freedom, like peace and security, cannot be maintained in isolation. It involves being alert and on guard against the infringement not only of our own freedom but the freedom of every American. If we permit discrimination, prejudice, or hate to rob anyone of his democratic rights, our own freedom and all democracy is threatened.

    Army Talk Orientation Fact Sheet #64

    October 26, 2024 (Letters from an American)

    Army Talk: Fascism! (Internet Archive)

  • Rules of Engagement

    1) When somebody hurts you, tell them. When somebody steps on your toes, let them know that they stepped on your toes. See how they react. They’ll tell you who they are.

    2) When somebody seems too unsafe to trust with your pain, set a boundary. If somebody has proved themselves less safe than you thought, but you still think it’s safe to do so, tell them that you’re going to have to withdraw in some way from them. See how they react. They’ll tell you who they are.

    3) When somebody seems too unsafe to trust with your boundaries, leave. If it’s not safe to tell them, or you’re not sure if it’s safe, withdraw from them without telling them. See how they react. They’ll tell you who they are.

    A. R. Moxon

    Rules of Engagement (The Reframe)