How to answer: is Trump a fascist?

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[VladVexlerChat]

How a Democrat leader should answer: Is Trump a fascist?

“You have to be a man to be a fascist. But Trump is a man-child. Toying with Americans. Toying with decent Americans who vote for him”.

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[_amalfitano]

Good to see you after what you've been through and are still going through. You've still got it here!

[glenrotchin]

A small correction, I believe Kamala was agreeing with a statement made by trumps former chief of staff John Kelly. I think most people understand the context which was she was drawing attention to the fact that the people who worked most closely with him and know him best consider him a fascist or fascist adjacent and very dangerous.

[johnnypanrike]

A relief to see you not in a hospital bed! Hope you are getting solidly better and better and in the eventually good! <3

[benf]

Is he a Malignant Narcissist may be the more important question. I don't think Trump is coherent and organized enough to have an ethos.

[rigust]

It's kinda unfair that Kamala has to be flawless in her delivery when Trump get a pass with a grey matter of 12 years old.

[glenrotchin]

And how would you contrast Kamala calling Trump a fascist with him constantly calling her a Marxist or Communist?

[paulhurley]

I like the way Cody from Some More News described it: that he has somehow become the centerpiece of a fascist movement

[Julia-Richter]

2024: We have to have a discussion about the question, if the man, who is supported by half of the American population, is a fascist.

[slcinwa]

So when Trump starts prosecuting his political and media enemies, can we call him a fascist? Asking for a few million Americans who have learned to take Trump's political goals seriously.

[daviddelgado]

I don't think Trump has any ideology other than personal aggrandizement. "Fascist" implies a political vision for the country, Trump just can't bear being told "NO".

[accesscrimea]

Trump's hand picked second in command didn't call him a fascist, he in fact went one step further and called him a Nazi. I repeat, this is Trump's second in command.

[rbettsx]

Dear Vlad.. in, say, 1932, would you have been prepared to call the NSDAP ‘fascists’? Or would you have thought that politically unwise, or premature? What would have tipped the balance for you? Gen. Millie is a well-read military and political historian, and appears to have no hesitation in using the term. In what aspect do you feel he is wrong?

[DarkestAlice]

Thank you, Vlad, for sharing your thoughts with you. All the best to you for stabilizing health-wise. Lots of love to you and the Beautiful Community. 🤗

[zibbitybibbitybop]

Trump has some fascist traits, but is so deluded and erratic that I have a hard time primarily classifying him as anything other than a moron and nuts.

[razvanmazilu]

Glad to see you well enough to put out a new video. Take care, Vlad.

[JustPSNTrophies]

I'm loving these almost daily vids. What a champion

[lodjaboy]

I think you're well-meaning but you missed it on this one. One characteristic of the U.S. political discourse is the appreciation of calling a spade a spade. And yes, a significant part of America is fascist. Trump sees being labelled a Fascist as a badge of honour and only shies away from it when he is faced with the backlash. I think General Kelly recognises a Fascist when he sees one.

[JohnSmith-mk]

If I use inflammatory language, I apologize. I'm just sharing the idea in my head, unfiltered. There's something alarmingly presumptive around the idea that we are all a little bit of all ideologies. Especially ideologies that have a violent component. I challenge the idea that we all have a "little fascism" in us. That feels like a sort of political softening... and I'm personally, always skeptical as a default of an idea that states we are all a little bit violent. It assumes something about human nature, that quite frankly, can't be proven or that isn't rooted in reality. The idea that "everyone has a tiny bit of it" needs more proof. Because it feels like a rhetorical (potentially sophistic?) framing to avoid describing something.

I just feel like the "everyone has a tiny bit of it" is just doing too much heavy lifting in your framing. In my view, in the larger historical context, it can definitely be validated. You look at fascists from the past. You aggregate them and you find the commonalities and then you account for regional differences that add a different framing or flavor. One item that is often forgotten, is that the US is home to a proto-fascist movement which was the KKK. This movement appeared before European fascism and embodied a lot the things we consider fascist today and this is important because when we talk about authoritarianism, we need to understand that Black communities in the US live under authoritarianism (White Fascism) and White communities do not. These pieces of information, from history and this moment, contextualize what American fascism looks like.

... and I would argue that no, all Americans do NOT have a bit of that in them. It is specific and not vague. It is something very specific to adopt the world view of the Klan and it's not a thing "everyone has".

[samizdat_eth]

I've noticed this impression building over many of your videos in recent months. You speak about US politics as if you are an academic who has not traveled across the many, wildly varied, towns, roads, trains, cities, and states in this country in a long time, if ever. It doesn't quite take away from how much I value your perspectives and methods of thinking about other topics. But when it comes to understanding what's actually at play in most expressions of American politics, your takes are textbook and superficial. I get it. It's makes sense to have the general insight that calling out fascists for what they are can backfire. But go deeper. What really drives so much of the grievance and resentment in US politics is a long history of mincing words and dancing around the truth for fear, warranted or not, of losing voter support. No one who pays as much attention as you do honestly believes Trump isn't a dictionary definition posterchild fascist. That he was kept in check by his top staffers last time around, from his worst impulses and his attempts to directly unleash violence on Americans, doesn't make him any less of a fascist. At a time like this, the smart political approach is to put nitpicking the political wording for fear of former 2x Trump voters being offended by the truth aside. Respect the dignity and capacity to go only so far and no further of a majority of Americans, including many Trump voters, and just tell it like it is.