Still reeling from your effective reach across the aisle to David Brooks, but amazing review! I think you can say without overreach who the cowards are. That there wasn't a hope in hell this was going to be distributed by a major streamer in a year where merger oversight is being publicly sold off with a la carte kickbacks.
It seems like post-WWI was uniquely susceptible to fascism because of the huge number of traumatized veterans. The mass bloodletting of war was the perfect environment to cultivate sociopaths. What is somewhat heartening for the US culture is the fact that, at least among the ranks of our abused veterans, we produced the likes of Smedley Butler. A person who, despite being exposed to the pathology of organized mass murder, had enough ethical backbone to resist, push back, and save our country from a fascist takeover.
Per our current situation, while the US has been engaged in near constant military action for over the past several decades, the scale and numbers of veterans who have been victims of trauma are nowhere near WWI. In this case, the threat seems to emanate mostly from sectors of the capitalist class (as was the case in Italy, Germany and Spain together with the veterans) who empower and platform the fringe psychos and indoctrinate and/or whip the working class. I think our situation is probably more similar to what went on in Latin America, where it was both local and foreign Capitalists (US govt) who aided their rise to power.
Yes, while -- in cosplaying militias and now ICE -- the MAGA movement has partisans that are comfortable with violence relative to liberal activists, they do not have masses of "men who for the last four years have coexisted with killing on a daily basis." A small mercy,
Right, but the latter does not actually supply the boots necessary to implement fascism. Yesterday's horror and the administration's intentions notwithstanding, they have not even been able to pacify the population of Minneapolis with a force 3X that of the police. Any glimmer of hope comes from that disconnect between online and IRL.
After watch Bondi's last insane hearing, I have come back to this last scene of this series on Mussolini where there is this transformation from him fearing being convicted of murder to a realization that as some absolute he stands above any law. In the case of Bondi's hearing she is now some avatar not only of Trump but the whole cadre of oligarchs who defiantly stand above any moral law no matter how horrific, since they embody absolute power.
I have not seen this but I’m going to see if I can squeeze in all 8 episodes without going over the 1 week free trial of MUBI. Wish me luck. I did, hover, watch Years and Years on your recommendation and now I’m having flash forwards every day when I read the news.
Still reeling from your effective reach across the aisle to David Brooks, but amazing review! I think you can say without overreach who the cowards are. That there wasn't a hope in hell this was going to be distributed by a major streamer in a year where merger oversight is being publicly sold off with a la carte kickbacks.
It seems like post-WWI was uniquely susceptible to fascism because of the huge number of traumatized veterans. The mass bloodletting of war was the perfect environment to cultivate sociopaths. What is somewhat heartening for the US culture is the fact that, at least among the ranks of our abused veterans, we produced the likes of Smedley Butler. A person who, despite being exposed to the pathology of organized mass murder, had enough ethical backbone to resist, push back, and save our country from a fascist takeover.
Per our current situation, while the US has been engaged in near constant military action for over the past several decades, the scale and numbers of veterans who have been victims of trauma are nowhere near WWI. In this case, the threat seems to emanate mostly from sectors of the capitalist class (as was the case in Italy, Germany and Spain together with the veterans) who empower and platform the fringe psychos and indoctrinate and/or whip the working class. I think our situation is probably more similar to what went on in Latin America, where it was both local and foreign Capitalists (US govt) who aided their rise to power.
Yes, while -- in cosplaying militias and now ICE -- the MAGA movement has partisans that are comfortable with violence relative to liberal activists, they do not have masses of "men who for the last four years have coexisted with killing on a daily basis." A small mercy,
Maybe in our case, it's social media and not the mass murder of war that is socializing everyone to accept fascism?
Right, but the latter does not actually supply the boots necessary to implement fascism. Yesterday's horror and the administration's intentions notwithstanding, they have not even been able to pacify the population of Minneapolis with a force 3X that of the police. Any glimmer of hope comes from that disconnect between online and IRL.
After watch Bondi's last insane hearing, I have come back to this last scene of this series on Mussolini where there is this transformation from him fearing being convicted of murder to a realization that as some absolute he stands above any law. In the case of Bondi's hearing she is now some avatar not only of Trump but the whole cadre of oligarchs who defiantly stand above any moral law no matter how horrific, since they embody absolute power.
I have not seen this but I’m going to see if I can squeeze in all 8 episodes without going over the 1 week free trial of MUBI. Wish me luck. I did, hover, watch Years and Years on your recommendation and now I’m having flash forwards every day when I read the news.