Martin Longman is the web editor of the Washington Monthly.
He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. Before joining the Monthly, Martin was a county coordinator for ACORN/Project Vote and a political consultant. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
Who would have thought that giving the most scared, paranoid and tribal people in society a means to unite as an active movement, paired with an actual Fascist US President, would lead to the destruction of the country ruled by laws, rather than men?
Oh well, as long as the rich can cement in their wealth and power so they can continue extracting rents from 90% of the population, whatever it takes I guess.
Besides, if we don’t give the rich all of the money, they won’t give the rest of us jobs.
Containing these extremists is definitely job one. Doing so once they’ve had a significant taste of power and with social media platforms that continue to enable them is going to be one hell of a heavy lift. I keep reminding myself that the alternative (Ein Volk! Ein Reich! Ein Facebook!) is too dystopian to contemplate.
My family, like so many others, was filled with anti-fascists back when it was looked on as a personal and national duty to fight them. I lost a couple of uncles in the war. One was shot down over the Pacific, off the island of Mindanao, in the days preceding the Battle of Leyte Gulf in the Philippines. His body was never recovered. Another uncle lost his life on the battlefields of Italy. Another was a tail gunner, whose plane was shot down over North Africa. He and some of his crew parachuted to safety and he spent a few… Read more »
Obviously in the view of your family members, True Americans cannot (by definition) be fascists or Nazis. It does not and cannot compute. It can’t happen here. Most Trumpites believe they are stopping the political “decline” of the chosen Herrenvolk–the white working class–and are advancing the interests of the beleaguered white “minority” in America from racial “destruction”, whatever that might be. That’s the highest possible social and cultural value, and doing so cannot possibly be politically wrong, no matter how much it might sound like Hitlerism. And no matter how unvirtuous, amoral and “deeply flawed” their (anti-democratic) Dear Leader might… Read more »
Another “unintended consequence” of the internet: the unification of previously fragmented Fascist-American extremists–for profit! Thanks for your “service”, Facebook…
The only answer to such an operation is a total boycott by decent people and social shaming of anyone remaining on the “platform”. Economic destruction of the amoral and wrongdoing enterprise is the only answer, since the law can likely do nothing about regulating it.
Clearly, Zuckerberg is looking out for his bottom line and I hate that. But we who encounter these folks online bear some responsibility for responding as well . This topic has been discussed and illuminated ad naseum ever since the publication of Lakoff’s Don’t Think about an Elephant. People emote first do deep dives into abstract reasoning and moral philosophy second if at all. Lefties often make the mistake of thinking that online discussions are college seminars. They are not. The trick is making your point in emotional powerful ways. I strongly recommend Jonathan Haidt’s “The Righteous Mind: Why Good People… Read more »
Your last sentence says it all.
Who would have thought that giving the most scared, paranoid and tribal people in society a means to unite as an active movement, paired with an actual Fascist US President, would lead to the destruction of the country ruled by laws, rather than men?
Oh well, as long as the rich can cement in their wealth and power so they can continue extracting rents from 90% of the population, whatever it takes I guess.
Besides, if we don’t give the rich all of the money, they won’t give the rest of us jobs.
Plus fuck them.
Containing these extremists is definitely job one. Doing so once they’ve had a significant taste of power and with social media platforms that continue to enable them is going to be one hell of a heavy lift. I keep reminding myself that the alternative (Ein Volk! Ein Reich! Ein Facebook!) is too dystopian to contemplate.
My family, like so many others, was filled with anti-fascists back when it was looked on as a personal and national duty to fight them. I lost a couple of uncles in the war. One was shot down over the Pacific, off the island of Mindanao, in the days preceding the Battle of Leyte Gulf in the Philippines. His body was never recovered. Another uncle lost his life on the battlefields of Italy. Another was a tail gunner, whose plane was shot down over North Africa. He and some of his crew parachuted to safety and he spent a few… Read more »
Obviously in the view of your family members, True Americans cannot (by definition) be fascists or Nazis. It does not and cannot compute. It can’t happen here. Most Trumpites believe they are stopping the political “decline” of the chosen Herrenvolk–the white working class–and are advancing the interests of the beleaguered white “minority” in America from racial “destruction”, whatever that might be. That’s the highest possible social and cultural value, and doing so cannot possibly be politically wrong, no matter how much it might sound like Hitlerism. And no matter how unvirtuous, amoral and “deeply flawed” their (anti-democratic) Dear Leader might… Read more »
Another “unintended consequence” of the internet: the unification of previously fragmented Fascist-American extremists–for profit! Thanks for your “service”, Facebook…
The only answer to such an operation is a total boycott by decent people and social shaming of anyone remaining on the “platform”. Economic destruction of the amoral and wrongdoing enterprise is the only answer, since the law can likely do nothing about regulating it.
Another basically unsolvable problem.
Clearly, Zuckerberg is looking out for his bottom line and I hate that. But we who encounter these folks online bear some responsibility for responding as well . This topic has been discussed and illuminated ad naseum ever since the publication of Lakoff’s Don’t Think about an Elephant. People emote first do deep dives into abstract reasoning and moral philosophy second if at all. Lefties often make the mistake of thinking that online discussions are college seminars. They are not. The trick is making your point in emotional powerful ways. I strongly recommend Jonathan Haidt’s “The Righteous Mind: Why Good People… Read more »