Are we now in full blown fascist totalitarianism?

[GenesisNemesis]

The problem with calling Trump a fascist is that it relatvises actual fascism. It's the "cry wolf" problem.

Evidence of fascism (not an exhaustive list):

• Arrests and deportation of legal residents
• Consolidation of power & undermining checks and balances
• Attacks on media, speech, and dissent
• Purges of opposition
• Rhetoric, demagoguery, and scapegoating of groups
• Using the military against civilians

I also find it troubling. None of that is good. But he's not arguing against democracy.

He literally told Texas to re-gerrymander their maps to make the US House elections in that state even less democratic and help save the GOP majority in the US House. Said it out loud.

He's not tried undermining free press.

He has pressured both WashPo, CBS, NBC, and ABC. Both verbally and dangling delays and rejections of corporate mergers that involved said companies.

Do you pay any attention to the news?

In my experience people who deny things are as bad as they are right now, often don't pay much attention to the news. But it makes sense because if you're going to deny stuff in the first place why pay attention to the news?

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Trump thugs burn down homes of judges that rule against Hair Furor.

You have assumed something not stated in the article. Fires do happen in homes. Whether this was intentional and political should be adjudged on facts, not suspicion.

...If the fire at the judge’s house turns out to be targeted, it may mark the latest incident of a startling rise in political violence in the U.S. And while the Trump Administration has blamed the left’s rhetoric for inspiring violence such as the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, an attack on a judge would come as the Administration has increasingly vilified the judiciary, blasting judges that rule against it as “U.S.A-hating” insurrectionists."

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Fascism is a pretty extreme form of govornment. Trump isn't even close

Zoid, this is not the first time you have demonstrated that you don't know nearly as much about the US as you think you do. Trump is close and barreling ever closer.
Tom

And to be clear, we have a consensus among liberals and some moderate conservatives / conservative moderates saying as such here.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence

NATIONAL SECURITY PRESIDENTIAL MEMORANDUM/NSPM-7 MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF STATE THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY THE ATTORNEY GENERAL

www.whitehouse.gov

There are common recurrent motivations and indicia uniting this pattern of violent and terroristic activities under the umbrella of self-described “anti-fascism.” These movements portray foundational American principles (e.g., support for law enforcement and border control) as “fascist” to justify and encourage acts of violent revolution. This “anti-fascist” lie has become the organizing rallying cry used by domestic terrorists to wage a violent assault against democratic institutions, constitutional rights, and fundamental American liberties. Common threads animating this violent conduct include anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and anti-Christianity; support for the overthrow of the United States Government; extremism on migration, race, and gender; and hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality. As described in the Order of September 22, 2025 (Designating Antifa as a Domestic Terrorist Organization), the groups and entities that perpetuate this extremism have created a movement that embraces and elevates violence to achieve policy outcomes, including justifying additional assassinations. For example, Charlie Kirk’s alleged assassin engraved the bullets used in the murder with so-called “anti-fascist” rhetoric.

The United States requires a national strategy to investigate and disrupt networks, entities, and organizations that foment political violence so that law enforcement can intervene in criminal conspiracies before they result in violent political acts. Through this comprehensive strategy, law enforcement will disband and uproot networks, entities, and organizations that promote organized violence, violent intimidation, conspiracies against rights, and other efforts to disrupt the functioning of a democratic society.

In reading a lot of these executive orders and national security directives, I've seen a lot of worrisome vague wording.

I will highlight some of the wording above as an example:

• "... indicia ... " -- so they are looking for patterns
• "... anti-Americanism ..." -- what precisely does that mean? A valid historical critique is anti-American to this administration...
• "... anti-Christianity ..." -- what exactly does that mean? This website promoting rationality and natural explanations and skepticism could be said to be anti-Christian by this Administration...
• " ... and other efforts to disrupt the functioning of a democratic society ..." -- that's a very vague offense to go after a group. It could simply mean MARCHING, being loud, even while having permit to peaceably assemble. It could mean impactful lawsuits.
• "... law enforcement can intervene in criminal conspiracies before they result in violent political acts ..." -- what exactly does this mean? It sounds suspiciously like pre-crimes. If you trust them, it might mean simply to go after groups discussing violence, but if you look at the indicia they include anti-Americanism and anti-Christianity which with biased eyes could mean something innocuous, like this forum.

The whole thing sounds like COINTELPRO.

 

[GenesisNemesis]

Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence

NATIONAL SECURITY PRESIDENTIAL MEMORANDUM/NSPM-7 MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF STATE THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY THE ATTORNEY GENERAL

www.whitehouse.gov

There are common recurrent motivations and indicia uniting this pattern of violent and terroristic activities under the umbrella of self-described “anti-fascism.” These movements portray foundational American principles (e.g., support for law enforcement and border control) as “fascist” to justify and encourage acts of violent revolution. This “anti-fascist” lie has become the organizing rallying cry used by domestic terrorists to wage a violent assault against democratic institutions, constitutional rights, and fundamental American liberties. Common threads animating this violent conduct include anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and anti-Christianity; support for the overthrow of the United States Government; extremism on migration, race, and gender; and hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality. As described in the Order of September 22, 2025 (Designating Antifa as a Domestic Terrorist Organization), the groups and entities that perpetuate this extremism have created a movement that embraces and elevates violence to achieve policy outcomes, including justifying additional assassinations. For example, Charlie Kirk’s alleged assassin engraved the bullets used in the murder with so-called “anti-fascist” rhetoric.

The United States requires a national strategy to investigate and disrupt networks, entities, and organizations that foment political violence so that law enforcement can intervene in criminal conspiracies before they result in violent political acts. Through this comprehensive strategy, law enforcement will disband and uproot networks, entities, and organizations that promote organized violence, violent intimidation, conspiracies against rights, and other efforts to disrupt the functioning of a democratic society.

In reading a lot of these executive orders and national security directives, I've seen a lot of worrisome vague wording.

I will highlight some of the wording above as an example:

• "... indicia ... " -- so they are looking for patterns
• "... anti-Americanism ..." -- what precisely does that mean? A valid historical critique is anti-American to this administration...
• "... anti-Christianity ..." -- what exactly does that mean? This website promoting rationality and natural explanations and skepticism could be said to be anti-Christian by this Administration...
• " ... and other efforts to disrupt the functioning of a democratic society ..." -- that's a very vague offense to go after a group. It could simply mean MARCHING, being loud, even while having permit to peaceably assemble. It could mean impactful lawsuits.
• "... law enforcement can intervene in criminal conspiracies before they result in violent political acts ..." -- what exactly does this mean? It sounds suspiciously like pre-crimes. If you trust them, it might mean simply to go after groups discussing violence, but if you look at the indicia they include anti-Americanism and anti-Christianity which with biased eyes could mean something innocuous, like this forum.

The whole thing sounds like COINTELPRO.

Just don't do any critical thinking whatsoever about it and you'll have nothing to worry about.

 

[crazyfingers]

Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence

NATIONAL SECURITY PRESIDENTIAL MEMORANDUM/NSPM-7 MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF STATE THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY THE ATTORNEY GENERAL

www.whitehouse.gov

There are common recurrent motivations and indicia uniting this pattern of violent and terroristic activities under the umbrella of self-described “anti-fascism.” These movements portray foundational American principles (e.g., support for law enforcement and border control) as “fascist” to justify and encourage acts of violent revolution. This “anti-fascist” lie has become the organizing rallying cry used by domestic terrorists to wage a violent assault against democratic institutions, constitutional rights, and fundamental American liberties. Common threads animating this violent conduct include anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and anti-Christianity; support for the overthrow of the United States Government; extremism on migration, race, and gender; and hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality. As described in the Order of September 22, 2025 (Designating Antifa as a Domestic Terrorist Organization), the groups and entities that perpetuate this extremism have created a movement that embraces and elevates violence to achieve policy outcomes, including justifying additional assassinations. For example, Charlie Kirk’s alleged assassin engraved the bullets used in the murder with so-called “anti-fascist” rhetoric.

The United States requires a national strategy to investigate and disrupt networks, entities, and organizations that foment political violence so that law enforcement can intervene in criminal conspiracies before they result in violent political acts. Through this comprehensive strategy, law enforcement will disband and uproot networks, entities, and organizations that promote organized violence, violent intimidation, conspiracies against rights, and other efforts to disrupt the functioning of a democratic society.

In reading a lot of these executive orders and national security directives, I've seen a lot of worrisome vague wording.

I will highlight some of the wording above as an example:

• "... indicia ... " -- so they are looking for patterns
• "... anti-Americanism ..." -- what precisely does that mean? A valid historical critique is anti-American to this administration...
• "... anti-Christianity ..." -- what exactly does that mean? This website promoting rationality and natural explanations and skepticism could be said to be anti-Christian by this Administration...
• " ... and other efforts to disrupt the functioning of a democratic society ..." -- that's a very vague offense to go after a group. It could simply mean MARCHING, being loud, even while having permit to peaceably assemble. It could mean impactful lawsuits.
• "... law enforcement can intervene in criminal conspiracies before they result in violent political acts ..." -- what exactly does this mean? It sounds suspiciously like pre-crimes. If you trust them, it might mean simply to go after groups discussing violence, but if you look at the indicia they include anti-Americanism and anti-Christianity which with biased eyes could mean something innocuous, like this forum.

The whole thing sounds like COINTELPRO.

As has already been mentioned, right wingers perpetrate 80% of political/ terrorist killings in the US. But you know how the Trump regime takes care of them. They get pardons.

 

[Elixir]

Trump thugs burn down homes of judges that rule against Hair Furor.

You have assumed something not stated in the article. Fires do happen in homes. Whether this was intentional and political should be adjudged on facts, not suspicion.

...If the fire at the judge’s house turns out to be targeted, it may mark the latest incident of a startling rise in political violence in the U.S. And while the Trump Administration has blamed the left’s rhetoric for inspiring violence such as the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, an attack on a judge would come as the Administration has increasingly vilified the judiciary, blasting judges that rule against it as “U.S.A-hating” insurrectionists."

Yah. Call it a prediction.
I’m fucking psychic.

 

[ZiprHead]

United States, for all its problems is very married to democracy. Its a fundamental part of its national myth. Do you seriously think that USA's democratic values are weakening?

You did hear about a little incident that happened on January 6th a few years ago, right?

 

[ZiprHead]

Ended their podcast for fear of reprisals from the trump administration or others.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

He should definitely go around in public loudly crowing about being a naturalized citizen.

ffs, what are you on about?

We're rooting for you to meet up with ICE.

Why? Do you think something bad will happen? I could actually apply for a job at ICE seeing as I am a US citizen.

Right after you are released from a detention facility in Louisiana after 35 days.

lol, never going to happen. Silly goose.

And why in the world should we think it won't happen? He's specifically setting it up to get anyone he dislikes branded a terrorist. Why do that unless he plans do to such branding?

 

[Loren Pechtel]

There are many supporters of Trump well aware he is borderline authoritarian. But how else to fix our country at this point?

The serious damage of open borders and lack of industrial productivity isn't just going to be fixed easy without acting like a dictator.

There were many who also viewed FDR a dictator during a similar time in our history when big decisions had to be made quickly....

There are none so blind as those who refuse to see.

What is he fixing? So far, nothing. He's simply breaking things and then blaming the Democrats for what he broke. Same thing the Republicans have been doing for quite some time, but this time he's destroying our democracy in the process. He very quickly ran out of actual criminals to deport, he's deporting people who have done nothing wrong, even people here entirely legally.

He's started a trade war--but nobody wins trade wars.

 

[ideologyhunter]

Anyone can scream emergency. If you're President, I guess you can scream it over and over and get people to indulge your tantrum.

 

[laughing dog]

There are many supporters of Trump well aware he is borderline authoritarian. But how else to fix our country at this point?

The serious damage of open borders and lack of industrial productivity isn't just going to be fixed easy without acting like a dictator.

There were many who also viewed FDR a dictator during a similar time in our history when big decisions had to be made quickly....

There are none so blind as those who refuse to see.

What is he fixing? So far, nothing. He's simply breaking things and then blaming the Democrats for what he broke. Same thing the Republicans have been doing for quite some time, but this time he's destroying our democracy in the process. He very quickly ran out of actual criminals to deport, he's deporting people who have done nothing wrong, even people here entirely legally.

He's started a trade war--but nobody wins trade wars.

There are winners in trade wars. It is just that the winners' gains are dwarfed by the losers' loses.

 

[crazyfingers]

Anyone can scream emergency. If you're President, I guess you can scream it over and over and get people to indulge your tantrum.

What's sickening is that anyone believes his screams. He lies all the time. Don't they see this? Of do they like to hear his lies?

 

[Loren Pechtel]

The problem with calling Trump a fascist is that it relatvises actual fascism. It's the "cry wolf" problem. It's the same thing with calling his policies racist. It relativises actual racism. Has he put in place any laws that limits people based on race? If not, then his policies aren't racist. He can be a racist while his policies aren't racist. To the rape accusation. He hasn't been convicted of rape. So calling him a rapist relativises rape.

The problem with all of this is that it will make us blind to being taken over by actual racist rapist fascist.

You don't need to like Trump to insist that we call him what he actually is, a lying orange clown

Huh?

How is he not a fascist? He's rapidly turning our government into fascism.

Not a racist? You realize some of his crowd have admitted they intend to purge the country of non-whites?

Not a rapist? He's admitted to rape.

 

[ideologyhunter]

Anyone can scream emergency. If you're President, I guess you can scream it over and over and get people to indulge your tantrum.

What's sickening is that anyone believes his screams. He lies all the time. Don't they see this? Of do they like to hear his lies?

I believe the first time I saw Trump on TV was late 2011. The Birther Hoax. He said, "I have investigators in Hawaii, and they can't believe what they're finding." I thought, this is the most shameless and obvious liar I have ever seen in my life. I didn't need to hear any reporting from Hawaii that would dispute Trump's lie. It was 100% obvious he was a liar.
Just this past summer he made up, on the spot, a ridiculous lie about his uncle at MIT and the Unabomber. The story was a lie from beginning to end (well, he did have an uncle who taught at MIT) but, as he found out in 2011, if he calls the media the liars then all his bushels and bushels of lies don't matter.
It is still the mystery of the age we're in that his supporters have such dysfunctional character assessment skills. We are, for the time being at least, fucked.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

There are many supporters of Trump well aware he is borderline authoritarian. But how else to fix our country at this point?

The serious damage of open borders and lack of industrial productivity isn't just going to be fixed easy without acting like a dictator.

There were many who also viewed FDR a dictator during a similar time in our history when big decisions had to be made quickly....

There are none so blind as those who refuse to see.

What is he fixing? So far, nothing. He's simply breaking things and then blaming the Democrats for what he broke. Same thing the Republicans have been doing for quite some time, but this time he's destroying our democracy in the process. He very quickly ran out of actual criminals to deport, he's deporting people who have done nothing wrong, even people here entirely legally.

He's started a trade war--but nobody wins trade wars.

There are winners in trade wars. It is just that the winners' gains are dwarfed by the losers' loses.

The "winners" are the ones that didn't lose as much.

 

[robnisch]

"There were many who also viewed FDR a dictator during a similar time in our history when big decisions had to be made quickly..."

The people who thought FDR was a dictator were rich bankers like Bush's grandfather.
And thanks to Smedley Butler they were exposed.

 

[Patooka]

Very disturbing...

Your closing words made me reflect on how disturbing the Trump phenomenon has always been, for me and most of my friends. I have never understood how he attracted anything like the number of voters that consider him an ideal leader. First of all, do they have any character assessment skills whatsoever? He is manifestly a liar, first and foremost. Other striking facets of the man are his juvenile and sadistic thinking and his utter contempt for knowledge. His swearing and abusive name calling are on display every week of the year. Who are these Christians who revere him? What good is their religion if they support this man?
A few minutes ago I googled 'What is the American spirit?' to see what the AI collective brain answer would be. Google wrote a message about our core values being optimism, independence, self-determination, unity, and resilience. Our most important ideal is freedom, which encompasses personal liberties like free speech and freedom of religion. But Trump squats on this definition of America and contradicts most of it. How can those values embody Americanism when we've elected a man who talks about going after the 'vermin' in the country; who talks about protesters as if they are all paid, corrupt agents and allied with terrorism; who tells his DOJ to indict his political foes, and sees that it happens; who says that he is so popular that 'negative reporting' is 'illegal'? Trump crafted his rise to power by playing on the darkest side of our national character. I get it. It's still a baffling problem for me, that so many Americans think this is the way we should be.

There are many supporters of Trump well aware he is borderline authoritarian. But how else to fix our country at this point?

The serious damage of open borders and lack of industrial productivity isn't just going to be fixed easy without acting like a dictator.

There were many who also viewed FDR a dictator during a similar time in our history when big decisions had to be made quickly....

Whilst it doesn't take a genius to recognize the US has problems, it takes a special type of stupidity to believe Trump is the solution. Comparing him to FDR is equally asinine.

 

[laughing dog]

There are many supporters of Trump well aware he is borderline authoritarian. But how else to fix our country at this point?

The serious damage of open borders and lack of industrial productivity isn't just going to be fixed easy without acting like a dictator.

There were many who also viewed FDR a dictator during a similar time in our history when big decisions had to be made quickly....

There are none so blind as those who refuse to see.

What is he fixing? So far, nothing. He's simply breaking things and then blaming the Democrats for what he broke. Same thing the Republicans have been doing for quite some time, but this time he's destroying our democracy in the process. He very quickly ran out of actual criminals to deport, he's deporting people who have done nothing wrong, even people here entirely legally.

He's started a trade war--but nobody wins trade wars.

There are winners in trade wars. It is just that the winners' gains are dwarfed by the losers' loses.

The "winners" are the ones that didn't lose as much.

There are definite gainers in trade wars. It’s just their gains are dwarfed by loses to the country as a whole.