Originally Posted by Pete F.
Bolsonaro landed in Florida. He’s afraid his passport might be revoked now that presidential immunity no longer shields him from criminal investigations, so he went to Florida where he plans to spend time with other fascists like Trump and DeSantis.
Desantis's idea of freedom sure seems to resemble a authoritarian govt the way he's going after private businesses
Going after private businesses? Like in how he is attracting businesses from high tax states.
He acts very business friendly. It's like he's going after businesses to move to Florida.
and minorities. DeSantis doesn’t pretend to be moderate; being a far-right culture warrior is his brand. Journalist/author and scholar Henry A. Giroux analyzes DeSantis’ appeal in a scathing article published by Truthout on December 16, and he doesn’t sugarcoat anything. DeSantis, Giroux warns, is “fueling the emergence of fascist politics in the United States.”
Fascism has been continuously fueled in our politics through increasing public/private "cooperation" between our Federal Government and oligarchs that run our large corporations of all types, which all pre-dates DeSantis by a longshot. Progressivism is a political precursor to our growing fascism as it was/is the ideology that demands unlimited government. All it took was for those of great wealth to meld with that form of government in a scratch my back I'll scratch yours. The symbiosis diminishes competition against the big businesses by partnering (financially supporting) with a hyper-powerful government which can impose regulations which stifle the ability of smaller businesses to compete. Intended or not, that is the consequence.
“While some pundits have connected DeSantis’ politics to an emerging authoritarianism,” Giroux explains, “they still fail both to name the ongoing development of fascism in the U.S. and to recognize that it takes different forms in different societies and historical formations. They dismiss any talk of fascism by suggesting that its unique historical attributes, such as the genocidal use of concentration camps, have to be repeated precisely in order to assign the term fascism to present events. Fascism is never entirely interred in the past; it is a dangerous ideology that may go into remission but never disappears.”
Sounds like he's saying that "fascism" depends...
Giroux continues, “Fascism is a recurrent and infinitely translatable phenomenon and often takes on the cultural and political attributes of the societies in which it appears. The refusal to acknowledge that fascism can appear in many forms, often lying dormant in a society until the emergence of certain forces unleash it, reinforces the willingness of many to retreat into silence or ignore the seriousness of the emerging fascist threat. Expressing ourselves in words, learning from history and making connections among disparate events all matter in the age of fascism.”
Sounds like he still hasn't nailed what fascism is . . .
Giroux stresses that when one is analyzing fascism, it’s important to recognize patterns and understand how individual events fit into the big picture — events like DeSantis sending migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts or Trump having dinner with white nationalist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes at Mar-a-Lago.
Wow, sending migrants to Martha's Vineyard is a sign in the "pattern" of fascism . . . and having dinner with all types and persuasions of people including white nationalists and Holocaust deniers is a sign of fascism. Maybe I'm wrong, didn't Trump have dinner with capitalists, and Democrats, and Repulicans, and gays, and black people, and atheists, and religious folk . . . all types of people . . . wow, some fascist-by-dinner association.
“Fascist politics saturate U.S. society,” Giroux warns. “Ultranationalism, the calls for racial purity, voter suppression, hyper-militarism, required loyalty oaths from higher education faculty, rampant censorship, a ubiquitous anti-intellectualism, and a full-fledged attack on social provisions and public goods make clear that democracy is in crisis.
Trump's nationalism was "Ultra"? Is DeSantis Ultra too? Are they hyper-militarists? Or ubiquitously anti-intellectual? Or have a full-fledged attack on "social provisions" and public "goods"? This guy is really reaching for something . . . I guess something he thinks is "fascism." Mussolini was actually an intellectual and both he and Hitler solidly supported social provisions and public goods for their people.
Yet, in too many cases, the larger significance of these incendiary calamities is missed because they are treated as separate from each other…. DeSantis’ publicity stunt of using migrants as political pawns was also disconnected in the mainstream and liberal media from his attempt to erase the history of the Jim Crow era as part of his larger project of a politics of disposability.”
I thought that encouraging migrants to flood across the border was using them as political pawns--oh well, to each his own. Is DeSantis going to dispose of all the Hispanics and blacks in Florida. Hadn't heard about that.
Giroux continues, “For instance, little was said connecting this racist policy to DeSantis’ passing laws banning books about Black history and racial narratives from schools and libraries, along with limiting what teachers can teach about racism — a policy that clearly indicates how DeSantis is following in the footsteps of the Nazification of education in Hitler’s Germany.”
DeSantis banned all books about Black history? Well, of course not. Nor does Florida issue statewide bans on specific books. Is DeSantis following in the footsteps of Nazification? That would be sort of a Hyper or Ultra type of statement.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a far-right authoritarian, has drawn a great deal of admiration among MAGA Republicans — including Fox News’ Tucker Carlson. And Giroux outlines some parallels between DeSantis and Orbán.
"Some parallels"--one could draw "some parallels" between Giroux's methods in writing this essay to how Nazis and various authoritarians and Fascists present their "facts" and ideas concerning what they want you to think is true.
“Following in the footsteps of Viktor Orbán, the authoritarian leader who has turned Hungary into a fascist country,
I guess it depends on what you mean by "fascist." Giroux never clearly spells that out. And throws in a bunch of ideas which are either untrue or guilt by comparison or association, or just hyper-slanted, propagandistic like a good "fascist" would employ.
DeSantis has waged a war on immigrants, targeted gay and transgender youth, purged voters, banned books in Florida schools, limited what teachers can say about racism and other critical elements of American history, and used state power to punish businesses, evident in his ruthless and vindictive attack on Disney,” Giroux observes. “He has also used policing to punish Black voters who disagree with his policies, courted Christian nationalists, supported a white nationalist agenda and waged a war on higher education. There is little doubt that DeSantis has turned Florida into a laboratory of fascist politics.”
|