If the last and worst act of the whole regime had come immediately after the first and smallest, thousands, yes, millions would have been sufficiently shocked- if, let us say, the gassing of the Jews in '43 had come immediately after the ‘German Firm’ stickers on the windows of non- Jewish shops in '33. But of course this isn’t the way it happens. In between come all the hundreds of little steps, some of them imperceptible, each of them preparing you not to be shocked by the next. Step C is not so much worse than Step B, and, if you did not make a stand at Step B, why should you at Step C?

• They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933-45 -by Milton Mayer

I never found them as comfortable as a pair of good sandals like Birkenstocks or some sneakers.

They make a decent camp shoe though, since they’re extremely light and waterproof; I’ll clip them to my backpack so they don’t take up room inside.

Republicans in Texas focus their voter suppression efforts on Houston since it is the biggest Democratic voting population in the State.

I would still say they’re more evil than stupid.

After all, they’re being promised a return to the time when white Christian men were an untouchable elite compared to all other populations.

Do you think that’s not a realistic outcome when voting for Republicans?

If they vote for getting special privileges that the GOP is delivering time and again, how is that stupid?

Again, I have to disagree.

The rank and file vote for this shit because they like it. They’re fully on board. They want to have their little fiefdoms in the farm, factory, or family where their “subjects” have no choice but to obey or be crushed.

Go into any place where conservatives chat with each other and you can see it play out, and thinking of them as “sheep” is completely misunderstanding their reasoning and ambition. They’re more like ants who will completely destroy any threat to their hegemony using any method available to them.

They know they’re privileged, and they’re terrified of losing that which they are entitled to by birthright: that’s the core of reactionary ideology. It’s not mindless, it’s entirely consistent with their values.

Strong disagree about them being mindless.

They’ve nearly implemented a decades-long takeover of the American government.

This is the plan. You’re right that they’ll go along, but not because they lack substance: they desperately want white Christian men unquestionably on top of society, and this consternation is merely due to it’s unpopularity with voters.

They go along because their ideology says someone like Trump should be in charge: a bloviating piece of shit who gets to skirt the rules due to his enormous privilege. That’s who gets to rule in the reactionary worldview, and doubly so since “the left” put Obama in charge and turned their world upside down.

They have different values than you and me: ones not based in morality, but instead based on hate, fear, and dominance. Putting the “right” people in charge is at the heart of their ideology.

So you’re correct that the details don’t matter much, but there is substance behind the movement: unfortunately, it’s the worst and most anti-democratic fascist shit they can get away with.

That time they banned the word “fascist” was the closest to self-awarenes they get.

I’m increasingly convinced that the difference between American conservatives and fascists is how far the mask has slipped.

It’s because in their mind Nazi = bad guy.

They cannot see themselves as “bad guys,” so the association is immediately dismissed without further consideration. The leftists are the bad guys, so obviously Nazi maps onto those people.

But it’s not really about truth, it’s about “winning” the argument.

I really think The Reactionary Mind should be required reading by leftists. It really helps to understand why conservatism is actively opposed to individual liberty and how they sell these regressive ideas to a population primed for them:

Conservatism, then, is not a commitment to limited government and liberty- or a wariness of change, a belief in evolutionary reform, or a politics of virtue. These may be the byproducts of conservatism, one or more of its historically specific and ever-changing modes of expression. But they are not its animating purpose. Neither is conservatism a makeshift fusion of capitalists, Christians, and warriors, for that fusion is impelled by a more elemental force- the opposition to the liberation of men and women from the fetters of their superiors, particularly in the private sphere. Such a view might seem miles away from the libertarian defense of the free market, with its celebration of the atomistic and autonomous individual. But it is not. When the libertarian looks out upon society, he does not see isolated individuals; he sees private, often hierarchical, groups, where a father governs his family and an owner his employees.

No simple defense of one’s own place and privileges- the conservative, as I’ve said, may or may not be directly involved in or benefit from the practices of rule he defends; many, as we’ll see, are not. The conservative position stems from a genuine conviction that a world thus emancipated will be ugly, brutish, base, and dull. It will lack the excellence of a world where the better man commands the worse. When Burke adds, in the letter quoted above, that the “great object” of the Revolution is “to root out that thing called an Aristocrat or Nobleman and Gentleman," he is not simply referring to the power of the nobility; he is also referring to the distinction that power brings to the world, If the power goes, the distinction goes with it. This vision of the connection between excellence and rule is what brings together in postwar America that unlikely alliance of the libertarian, with his vision of the employer’s untrammeled power in the workplace; the traditionalist, with his vision of the father’s rule at home; and the statist, with his vision of a heroic leader pressing his hand upon the face of the earth. Each in his way subscribes to this typical statement, fromn the nineteenth century, of the conservative Creed: “To obey a real superior… is one of the most important of all virtues- a virtue absolutely essential to the attainment of anything great and lasting."

The Feast of the Gods- Giovanni Bellini & Titian, oil on canvas (1514)

Very well said.

I think it’s also worth mentioning that conservatism is an inherently reactionary and counter-revolutionary ideology: it is primarily concerned with protecting the powerful by entrenching privilege and maintaining the structural oppression of the underclasses.

They’re a bunch of degenerates who think the country belongs to them alone.

Has he though?

You should read this, it answers your question.

There is no inherent meaning; everyone must find their own.

For me, it’s to try and leave my little patch of the world better than I found it.

If only public opinion mattered more than billionaire lobbying.

Cruz said, "there are many, many wonderful, wonderful working men and women in the state of New York, but everyone understands that the values in New York City are socially liberal or pro-abortion or pro- gay-marriage, [and] focus around money and the media.”

Said the podcast host who is begging billionaires for money. Fuck this waste of skin.

Here is an article with some good examples of the racist shit PragerU slops around like an incontinent hippo.

“Calling me a liar is a violation of my free speech! You can’t say that!”