alice wrote: ↑Tue Jul 09, 2024 2:43 pmEven if the worst happens and Trump is re-elected this November, how much of the USA will actually "fall to fascism", given its size and large areas of low population density? Should we expect large concentrations of "fascism" in places like Idaho and the South, with pockets of resistance in Vermont and San Francisco?
I mean... every state and city in the united states -and elsewhere- has significant enough numbers of fascists and fascist sympathizers: you wouldn't generally see them in, say, social science faculties at universities, or in human resources divisions at companies... but police, private security guards, in my country for example cab drivers are famously very fash. stereotypical marxist moment for me here, small business owners and self-employed blue collar people: extremely sensitive to "it's for security" narratives, very friendly to when such narratives justify extreme measures (in their defense, they *are* moving around expensive merchandise, or guarding a store full of it, muggings affect them a lot). there's a lot of people who would tell on their neighbours to the gestapo, take the opportunity to rid themselves of a business rival, or that annoying neighbour, by telling some copper that they're a jew, or a communist, or an woke. And do you think the police, of all constituencies, won't participate in disappearing dissidents if *the president* tells them that they're criminals or -gasp- terrorists on national TV? incels, conservative religious fanatics -of which the US is full-, peterson-smelling internet people (of which many are 40 by now), they'll all play ball if they're scared enough, and do you think the media won't scare them if the president starts shouting all day everyday that it's the terrorists, they're all terrorists, trust me, i'm the best, the best, best in the world, at detecting terrorists. i detected so many terrorists, and i'm telling you, these are terrorists. through and through, i'll bet mara lago on it, i will, i will, let me tell you.... plus, if people start disappearing there's bound to be protests, some of them violent! look at those terrorists, burning down businesses, full of children, those businesses, look, decapitated babies, poor babies, they're aborting them by fire, ban abortion, ban terrorism, i'm the best.
it's not hard to initiate a fascist coup. what's hard is to get enough authorities on your side to generate some legal legitimacy, for people who care about that, and what's also hard and more impotant is to convince big business, for whom this kind of thing is extremely risky (sure. they own the media, but they also own supermarkets! what? yeah, sure, root out the commies, I'm all for it, but look, the world cup is coming up, this'll hurt sales) and even more importantly, the military. if, say, the supreme court (unlikely, full of republicans) or congress (more likely) or someone like that, say, impeaches the president, or rules his actions unconstitutional or some other legal blabla, then the military can intervene to keep order or to stop a rogue president-in-breach-of-the-law: and I think that neither big business nor the us military would be happy if trump tried, say, in 2026, which is why trump probably won't attempt it (though he will fill up as many institutions as he can with his guys, making it more and more likely in the future). but if the us military and big business supports your coup (if it is in the material interest of the military class and the burgeoisie, in 19th century marxospeak), then you can pull it off, simple as that. this is as true in the US as it is in any third world country.