My fear is we fumble the next two years and drop the ball right into their hands.
Who the hell took over already if it wasn’t the far right?/s
Yeah sure, keep taking over, keep making yourselves the obvious enemies of the people, continue learning nothing about anything, keep doubling down, keep putting horrid people in charge of us, surely the sunk cost fallacy distilled into people will work out this time!
This will just make the Republican party fall apart even faster.
This is literally what happened before to get us to Trump, and it’s on track to keep happening.
Bush was a violent extremist who started multiple wars of aggression and had people tortured in all sorts of horrific ways (some of whom were later proven innocent). But he also occasionally said not to be openly racist against all Muslims. The failure of the “War on Terror” was because of the aggression, and because of the wanton violence, torture, and disrespect for basic rights. But, the lesson people, especially on the right, took from that, was that the Bush administration lost because it was too humane, too “woke.”
So they went to Trump, who was openly racist, who appointed Hegseth, who, well, is Hegseth. And he still lost in Iran. Rather than questioning whether their ideas about the effectiveness of cruelty, the right concludes that the problem was that they still weren’t cruel enough.
Go back even further, it’s the same shit with Vietnam. Dropping agent orange all over the place, slaughtering villages, just extreme cruelty, but the propaganda was about “nation-building,” about “liberating” the Vietnamese. So when they lost, they blamed the equivalent of “woke,” they blamed the limp-wristed politicians who supposedly tied the hands of the military.
When President Fuentes gets his ass kicked invading wherever the fuck, the right will just say he was too woke and will vote for someone who changed his name to Adolf Hitler. It’ll continue until they start a nuclear war and end all life on earth.
Fundamentally, because right-wing ideas are just wrong and don’t produce the results they expect them to, the people who hold them will grow increasingly frustrated and increasingly extreme, thinking they just need to go further and try harder, never questioning the approach itself.
It’s socialism or barbarism. The “middle road” of aggression and interventionism while pretending to be nice, that’s going to keep failing and the more it fails the more it fuels their narratives. We need to put an end to the aggression altogether, to put an end to foreign wars. We need to ditch the notion that our acts of violence and terror were ever driven by some kind of “benevolence,” and instead denounce them for the brazen acts of imperialist plundering that they are. No war in Iran, no aid to Israel. Full stop.
They haven’t already? Could have fooled me.
There’s still the faction that says Hitler was bad vs the one that says otherwise. So yeah, the fact that that’s their fight means the extremists have taken control
They already have… what the fuck do they think has been going on the past six years?
Yeah, that was my reaction to the title as well, but the article makes it clear that there is a fresh new uprising by the Christian Nationalists to try and truly take over. They’re a part of the MAGA idea, but a lot of Republican politicians are less about nationalism and more about serving their corporate masters.
So if this truly is nationalists moving to take over the party, it could really be a big deal.
Or it could fizzle.
I don’t know how much actual support these fascists have, but THESE are the people champing at the bit to shoot their guns at “libruls”. So it’s really not a Good Thing™. But as to how serious a threat, I’m honestly not sure.
So these people think maga wasn’t extreme enough? Not far-right enough?
It wasn’t even hyperbolic to call the maga movement fascism. And yet these people viewed it as too moderate?
That’s a scary prospect, but I know a lot of republican voters don’t want the insanity. They’re just fooled into thinking a “moderate republican” platform still exists in practice. Maybe this movement will wake those voters up, maybe even restore a viable moderate republican platform. That will at least shift the overton window a little towards the center.
After all, without trump’s perplexing charisma, I don’t think they’ll have a singular figurehead to unite around. Nobody to threaten, bribe, and intimidate people into compliance. Stephen Miller and JD Vance don’t have that kind of sway. I doubt Tucker Carlson does either, but we’ll see.
So this could blow up in their faces. The party caucus seems to be digging in on the “No, the voters are wrong, we need to double down.” So maybe they’ll shoot themselves in the foot even harder than centrist dems are trying to do to themselves now.
It’ll be a shitshow for a couple years, but it’ll be interesting to see what effect this has on the primaries.
A thread of hope at least, is better than none.
On the internet, you have a certain type that is always trying to top each other for who is more edgy. This is not so much of a thing on the left, but you will see a few outliers ( if you see someone talking about “shitlibs”, climbs into their armchair to give a lecture about the terms liberal vs. leftist, or is trying to make “blue maga” happen, it’s possible it is an instance of this. If they claim they are a Communist, it likely is.)
I think on the right, it’s much more the case to see this kind of crap. Lots of “burn it all down” energy as if that would really benefit anyone.
I saw an article where a psychologist basically said the mind of the average maga voter is similar to the mind of an internet troll, and I was like… yeah that tracks…
Whatever you call maga, their policies have not proven to work for the majority, just theories that never panned out, and too many are still fooled that they are legit and treat them as if they are. Their policies fail people and we can see what policies do work elsewhere, but maga will never pass them. Dems maybe if enough majority for long enough. The polices work in states that have them, passed by Dem majority almost always. So no, we don’t want any flavor of gop, call it moderate but no thanks, still shit.
I’m not saying that I personally want a moderate republican government. I’m saying if moderate republicans can make a comeback within their party and the party as a whole abandons maga extremism, that can help shift the overton window a little back towards sanity.
I still wouldn’t vote republican. But I’d rather have the main political debate be between progressives and a center-right party, rather than what it is now which is largely between centrist dems and the far-right.
The thing that worries about these people is that I don’t think we’re really sure how many of them are out there and how far they can be radicalized and how far they’ll go.
I don’t intend to fearmonger, but honestly state the above. But with the above comes the flip side: While some of these types of people have gone on murdering sprees, there haven’t been many, and it’s usually been that they’ve selected some target and some of them succeed and some of them don’t.
The thing that actually worries me is that I think we may face an uptick in the rhetoric that drives some of these people to go out and shoot people; we may see groups like Proud Boys decide to go shooting instead of intimidating.
I don’t know. I’m not saying these things are going to happen, but it’s the thing that worries me most about that background level of nationalism and the people building up incel communities.
That said, this election gives me some hope. For a good while, I didn’t really see a path out of fascism, but if we can get enough actual progressives in power and force the establishment Dems to be more progressive, get enough going to give us a blue President in two years with enough in Congress to get shit done AND if there’s enough progressives in there to help real change happen, we might be able to show the American people that government isn’t broken - just Republicans and establishment Democrats are. IF, and by damn that is just about the hugest if of all time, IF we can pull that off, maybe we can pull back from the brink of fascism - and by brink I mean more like we’re already over the edge hanging on to a comically small tree root hanging out the side of the cliff with our fingers losing strength.
I’m hopeful that this low-level rumbling of fascist nationalist racist bullshit will remain low-level.
I feel ya. Yeah, it’s a concern. I wish there were an easy answer. Some cartoonishly simple solution, like just surrender and let go of that tree root and then suddenly a giant bird swoops in and catches you and carries you to a nice safe deus ex machina.
But this isn’t a fiction novel, and real life doesn’t work like that. There are despicable, hateful people in the world and in this country, and those people are exploiting otherwise legitimate grievances to twist the minds of large numbers of vulnerable people. They lie to them about some overly simplistic solutions to complex problems, that they have no intention of following through with, and then once they win their trust and have them thoroughly deluded with an entire system of “alternative facts,” then they twist their minds further through fear-mongering used to stoke hatreds, and empty flattery used to inflate egos. It’s a dangerous concoction and some truly vile people have seen that and used it as an evil means to evil ends.
I don’t have a simple solution to that. It’ll likely take generations to heal, if we can even start the healing process. If we can’t even do that, it’s only going to get worse. Unspannable chasms have likely already grown.
Some victims of mass manipulation may be redeemable if we break the hypnosis, but I don’t have a clue what kind of proportion that is. Is it a vanishingly small percentage, or the vast majority of their base? I don’t know, and I won’t pretend to. I won’t pretend to have any better answers than this. I wish I did.
For now let’s just hold onto a little hope and see how the next session of congress goes. See if our political leaders will provide oversight and accountability. Fix what’s broken and use our systems to address the underlying problems at their roots.
If they can’t or won’t do that, then I don’t know what to tell you. Stock up on whatever you might need to protect yourself and your loved ones? Build trust and community among your neighbors, if you live in an area where that’s possible. The rest is what everyone needs to decide for themselves…
I hope they do, because I think they are overestimating how many people are ok with everything that has happened
Far-right activist and pardoned January 6 rioter Jake Lang, however, is planning an event in DC on January 3. It is unclear how many people are planning to attend, but one of the Christian nationalist pastors listed by Lang as an official speaker has said he won’t be speaking.
Lang, who spent last weekend disrupting a cat convention that he thought was a furry convention, did not respond to a request for comment.
Here, kitty kitty!
Imagine being at that cat convention and being so confused as to why someone is trying to disrupt it?
Also, I don’t get why the wingers seem to be so fixated on furries. What even the fuck?
What other hobbies will they get verklempt over next? Ham radio operators? The maker scene? People who knit?
Also, I don’t get why the wingers seem to be so fixated on furries.
They’re obsessed with a narrow band of approved behaviors and anything outside of that is evil. They see it as sexual deviancy and a moral stain on society, and everyone promoting it is obviously the enemy.
Right but they don’t seem to have this focus (any more?) on things like S&M?
Not outrageous enough, and harder to connect to children as a wild conspiracy. That’s just in the US though, the UK is busy being even more puritanical.
He just got pulled off a plane in Texas and arrested on an active warrant so we’ll see how that goes.
EDIT this might be a lie I can’t find any news corroborating this.
Can’t find any news either. Be nice if it’s true, though. heh
My “source” was a twitter video (sent by a friend who still uses twitter unfortunately) of him seemingly deplaning by himself, with the written context being what I described. Could be true and news just hasn’t caught up…or it could be footage from an old arrest (he has several), or they could just be making shit up completely.
And Wired clicks the Overton window further right. It’s not that you can’t get more extreme, it’s that it’s a distinction without much of a difference and they’re reassigning far right to something outside of the party with concentration camps, campaigns of dehumanization against racial and sexual groups, ideological purges of the military, international fascist alignment, and a guy who literally did a Nazi salute on stage.
That’s far right extremism, whether or not there are a few nutcases beyond it. Pretending this is somehow the version of conservativism being threatened by the far right is just normalizing it.
… Have they not?
So, I’ll answer for those that don’t have a PHD in the study of fascism/rascism and the far right. You’re normal and shouldn’t have to know this.
You probably heard about MTG (Margary Taylor Green) leaving her place in the House. If you follow politics at all. Well, this and Tucker Carlson leaving Fox News would be the early adopter’s of the shift in the right we are seeing right now.
It’s the same thing that Trump actually ran on that was so appealing to the normies that started paying attention to politics when he ran. The anti war/conflicts in the middle East (not yet anti Israel in 2015), the “make America great again” shit and anti NAFTA trade policies. The “I’ll protect social security” stuff.
People forget that Trump got popular on a lot of economic talking points he never had any intentions of actually following through on. But he captured a large portion of the population that (1) didn’t understand why their kids weren’t obtaining the same success they had; and (2) had inherent rascism built into their politics because of… well, read a fucking history book.
So, MTG is an example of timing. But Tucker Carlson is the real ideologue that we can track. A real white supremacist that is constantly looking to push his agenda on any hook of populist interest. And, to his credit, he read the room better than Trump did. He’s been hooking onto the left and saying a lot of true things about Israel. But, it’s not with good intentions. He read the room and decided to get in early with a position that he saw would need to be inevitably addressed. Trump did not. That’s why he’s stuck in Iran and failing. This is a fundamental difference.
This created a small shift in the right. That was largely working to connect to the people that didn’t get what they wanted from Trump. Their lives didn’t get better. But it was a small part of the right initially. That we will see explode before the next election. They are in a transitional phase. But are still captured by these two factions of the right that are at an impasse right now.
It’s a nationalist movement that is still holding onto the xenophobic and economic populist policies that Trump lied about (focusing only on the xenophobia). And it is attempting to capture the real economic changes that the leftist movement (DSA/Mamdani) have made popular.
It is yet to be seen, but, the upcoming presidential elections will likely be fought on the right trying to convince the population that the xenophobia and anti Israel position is “more pure” on the right than the left. The leftist politicians will be filtered by attempting to appeal to a center that does not exist. And their lack of ability to engage in class based politics will give the right wingers (following Tucker Carlson’s lead) the advantage in their lies. And, if we allow the liberal zionist to maintain control within electoral politics within the Democratic party; we on the left will lose that fight.
The “Tucker Carlson” wing of true white supremacist fascism will outweigh the good intentions of the liberals that cannot call out the class structures as the core problem.
The larger population will fall for the truths that the fascisg speak with no intention of addressing. And this time; it won’t be an incompetent old TV show host in power. It will be a competent and capable white supremacist like Tucker Carlson (or whatever puppet they put in to run) that will be more interested using their position of power to do more than just enrich themselves. They will be an actual ideologue (see Stephen Miller) that will know exactly how to direct the anger of the masses, and their worsening material conditions, towards the perfect scapegoat of whatever minority group is the best target.
That is IF there is not already a mutiny brewing within the Trump admin. That the fascist ideologues are not already looking to maintain power before the next elections. This will depend on their confidence; and, the interest of the capitalist class that looks to maintain their hold over the economy.
We will see. But that’s my explanation of what is happening on ‘the right’ right now. I’d appreciate any criticism of the analysis.
Tons is left out. Nick Fuentes, Epstein, etc. But, that’s more of a 202 class in your second year in these studies. I’ll leave it alone for now.
I must applaud this analysis cause rarely in the wild do I find sickos that know ball this well
So bravo
And cause I am also a sicko I want to add a few more things to chew on
As you already alluded to, and I will add an additional allegory, Tucker is the Daniel Day Lewis of political pundits.
When he changes characters he is in a league of his own. And part of that is he has a genius level read on the pulse of politics. And ironically, cause it is typically something you more often find Marxists doing, not so much modern right-wingers, is that he is insanely good at identifying the contradictions in our politics, in our imperialism, and even in capitalism itself.
Like if someone is so inclined, if you read the opening chapter or so of his book, I think it was Ship of Fools, it basically just reads like semi accurate leftist critique of American capitalism translated into America B language. But he peppers in just enough ethnonationalism and causation misdirection to seed people in a more right wing Trumpian direction and away from a true capitalist and class critique.
And I suspect that is what he is doing here again thru this new persona that as you rightly note is targeting the political/voter contradictions on Israel and repackaging ethnonationalist right wing economic populism and astutely incorporating some of the DSA energy as well(see him praising Abdul El Sayed and note the shift in people under 40 embracing socialism and socialist policies, even on the right).
And I will add this elite/counter-elite push and pull is a pattern we see repeat again and again in right wing politics and media.
There is the Establishment and the elites that are backing them. Then there is typically some counterfroces to their right dialing up the rhetoric on various tension points between the party elite and the right wing masses, identifying those contradictions and misalignments so they can exploit them as the more authentic voice for “the people.” Who themselves are usually backed by some counter elites seeking to gain more influence in the larger political space.
They embrace positions, posturing, and/or manufacture a movement that presents like it is challenging the Republican Party, eschewing unpopular aspects while fronting certain populist energies thru that anti establishment image. Gain enough support for it to create a crisis within the existing status quo, use that to leverage to gain more power and influence within the party/politics in exchange for sheep-dogging people back into the party.
Reagan Revolution, Moral Majority, Tea Party, Trumpism, etc. All followed a similar pattern.
And on the media side no one has done it better or more often then Tucker. He is a bellwether people should not ever ignore or underestimate.
And a cheat code for seeing who and where people are aligning themselves is not to just look at what they say, but what they do behind the scenes.
Peek thru the veil at Tucker and you will find someone maneuvering in between his post Fox News backer Omeed Malik and toward the JD Vance wing of oligarchs(not a fan of the source but it is the one I could find reporting on this recently)
My personal theory is Tucker, and this is based on his movements behind the scenes, is trying to position himself as a kingmaker voice in 28 for using his clout on this issues he is on the correct side of to then sheepdog people into Vance. Which he will use to demonstrate he is a goodboy to the Thiel wing of the oligarchy he is trying to ingratiate with, and he is smart enough to know Vance has no chance in 28(in 150 years no party with an incumbent president anywhere near this unpopular has won a non-incumbent presidential race and the Republican Party under current material conditions is in no position to break that trend).
And I would also go out on a limb and say I would not be shocked if Tucker wants to then position himself as a Trumpian like figure for 2032 or 2036.
So the overton window has shifted so far to the right that the far-right maga policies are now viewed as too moderate for the new new insurgent wing of the republican party?
And the lesson they take away is that instead of shifting back towards the center and being more honest and actually delivering for their voters, is to double down on the hatred, greed, and fear-mongering?
It’s so disgusting that Democrats can’t talk about climate change, healthcare, higher education, accountability, or repairing democracy, because these are supposedly “culture war issues,” and yet the right-wing digs its feet in on aggravating discontent and pointing the ire directly at the only ones trying to solve the actual problems people feel.
How have we not learned this lesson yet as a country? It’s like deja vu, or more accurately groundhog day.
No no. Don’t leave that out. I would be interested in hearing it. I also think you are no giving the credit due to the white evangelical faction that Eisenhower let into the White House. These people are a death cult that believe that all Jews must return to the homeland before Christ can return and they are willing to burn down the whole world to prove themselves right. While I think Berry Goldwater is a shitheel he was completely right the evangelical faction that was invading the Republican party.
Have you written this up in an article or blog or class somewhere? If ai you should link it, please.
Haha. Just a Drunken ADHD rant.
Please write a couple of articles on this, this is very interesting.
Yes please! This could really sink them in 2028.
LOL, when you think this iteration of the GOP is not extreme enough, you might be an asshole.
Hasn’t the GOP been exclusively assholes for many decades already ?
Yes, literally since Nixon at the bare minimum. And before then, they were at least somewhat loyal to the constitution…. sometimes.
I’m pretty sure what we have now is as extreme as it gets. They literally have concentration camps.
They’re not doing mass executions yet. They’re not gassing people or lining them up to be shot in the street. It can get worse and it will unless MAGA is decisively ended.
Nick Fuentes urged his supporters on X to “get out and vote Democrat today.” The post racked up over 12 million views
So he claimed responsibility for the Blue Wave? Because X users (including bots and non-US users) had his post jammed into their algorithm? Says it all I think, they’re so sure they have all the answers even when they’re on another planet.
