Governor DeSantis has banned various kinds of oppression studies in Florida’s secondary schools, and also is seeking more restrictions on state colleges and universities. Such laws and bans encourage misogynous, homophobic, racist hate and deny the sexism, homophobia and racism that are inveterate in the historic and contemporaneous United States.
It goes without saying that the fascist movement is led by patriarchal heteronormative White men. The GOP (Republicans) in state and federal legislatures comprise a sea of White male faces sprinkled with a few other sorts of folk. Even so, the five female senators in the South Carolina legislature, crossing political lines and banding together, were able to prevent the passage of a near total abortion ban in that state:
The surge of hate is everywhere. Hate crimes and attacks, even on political
offices, have occurred in a cluster recently:
https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/15/politics/gerry-connolly-staffer-attacked/index.html
The angry temperature of the country keeps rising. Mass shootings are an almost daily part of American culture, on track to be worse than last year. Republican leaders refuse to outlaw private citizens from buying military grade semi-automatic rifles. Some of these leaders even wear “AR-15” pins on their lapels, and send out Christmas cards with their children brandishing guns.
It is not inevitable that fascism will take over America. The fascists lost big in the last two elections, even though they launched a big attack on the election system itself, epitomized by the Big Lie of their chauvinistic leader Donald Trump. Most Americans do not want draconian anti-abortion laws. They want stronger gun regulation. They accept LBGTQ people as equals (as evident from trends in the entertainment industry) and want equality for woman and all races/ethnicities.
Perhaps the fascist infection will peak this year and fade out after they lose in the 2024 election cycle. But only if the majority of the American people do not acquiesce. We need, first of all, to admit that this is a fascist movement. Stop calling Republicans “conservatives.” Secondly, admit that the fascists will not play by any ethical rules. Cruelty, force and bullying are at the heart of the might-makes-right cult mentality. The essence of fascism is to unite enough citizens in a cult of hate under a charismatic leader to threaten, cower and gaslight everyone outside the cult.
Remember, too, that a cult will wear a mask of kindness and decency as a strategy to gain and maintain power. Remember Hannah Arendt’s “banality of evil” in describing the Nazis. All cults try to recruit by seeming friendly and kind, when it is optimal for their purposes. Then they will turn around and menace with hate and violence.
Indeed, this is similar to what goes on in a domestic violence household:
https://owlwholaughs.blogspot.com/2020/01/political-abuse.html
The cult of fascism is here. It is attempting to grow and spread. What will you do? Be pleasant to fascists, call them conservatives, and hide from the truth? Will you succumb to denialism? Or play Switzerland, hoping to evade any personal trouble by keeping neutral?
Elie Wiesel, author of Night:
The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference.
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Good op-ed by Jennifer Rubin, showing how ignorance is a right-wing tool:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/05/18/desantis-authoritarian-ignorant/
Gotta rush off to a protest. I'll edit this later today (5/17) (done)
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