Brian J Griffith

...master manipulator, who is using this Hitlerian strategy of the Big Lie to build an anti-democratic movement within our constitutional democracy. This process will end in either the destruction of Trump's MAGA movement, or in the destruction of our Republic. 8/8

...America") using simple slogans ("Make America Great Again"; "Crooked Hillary"; "Sleepy Joe Biden") in order to "drive ... home" his intended "few points" so that "even the simplest can grasp what [he has] in mind." Trump is, simply put, a professional liar and... 7/8

In the United States today, Donald J. Trump has adapted Hitler's "Big Lie" approach to his party's struggle for dominance within the so-called "culture wars." He has developed a politics of emotion ("We're going to lose our country to this Radical Left that hates... 6/8

...second "the Jews." This is what is known as the "Big Lie" — the manipulation a general public's perception of reality in order to harness their collective mentality towards what are more often than not illiberal objectives. 5/8

...attention and move their hearts," which can then be used as political tools against one's perceived "enemies," which in Hitler's case was first the "Radical Left" (i.e. communists, socialists, anarchists, labor union leaderships, rank-and-file workers, etc.) and... 4/8

...towards their political objectives must take into account that the "attention span of the masses is very short," and so therefore Strongmen leaders must "concentrate on very few points and drive them home through simple slogans." Doing this will "catch their... 3/8

...the masses toward certain facts, events, necessities, etc." These matters should be "brought to their attention," Hitler continues, by way of appealing "to the emotions and far less to the so-called intellect." Leaders who want to manipulate the general public... 2/8

In his 1925 political manifesto, Mein Kampf (My Struggle), Adolf Hitler wrote openly about how to "professionally" lie to the masses for political objectives. "The task of propaganda," he writes, "does not lie in the scientific training of individuals, but in directing... 1/8

“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn't become a king, the palace becomes a circus.” — Turkish Proverb

The capacity of the American far right for self-delusion and projection would be laughable if it wasn't so frightening, politically speaking.

"... a sense of communal belonging and drained modernity of meaning and transcendence and usher in a new era of cultural homogeneity and health." -- Roger Griffin, historian of comparative fascisms 2/2

"Fascism is a form of programmatic modernism that seeks to conquer political power in order to realize its totalizing vision of national or ethnic rebirth. Its ultimate end is to overcome the decadence that has destroyed ..." 1/2

Not to be mixed up with Vox, the Spanish far-right party!

SCREENSHOT 3: A 20th century German cartoon depicting a Jewish "puppet master" controlling politicians on the stage below.

SCREENSHOT 2: A graphic sent out in one of Donald Trump's 2023 newsletters depicting George Soros -- a Jewish billionaire and liberal philanthropist -- as a "puppet master" looming ominously over the White House.

Something for everyone to consider:

SCREENSHOT 1: An announcement by the CFA explaining that the Trump administration's USEEO Commission has filed an "antisemitism complaint" against the CSU system for systemic discrimination against Jewish applicants/faculty members.

Screenshot 2: Italo Balbo -- one of four "quadrumviri" or fascist hierarchs -- on his time as a Blackshirt terrorist in Benito Mussolini's early Italian Fighting Squads movement, targeting leftists for organizing working people in post-WWI Italy. 3/3

Screenshot 1: An Alternative Press headline quoting Trump proclaiming his intentions to combat the "enemy from within." 2/3

Carrying out acts of "war" against an "internal enemy" (which is defined in ideological and, oftentimes, racial terms) is one of many markers of a fascistic political culture. 1/3

See also:

Far from being factually true, this obsession with the Rapture should be interpreted in the same way that Blackbourn analyzed late-19th century Germany's Kulturkampf: Americans, in wanting to escape from this dystopia... If anyone is going to save us... (10/10)

...of the United States' global reputation, preferring a neo-imperialism to international cooperation. And it is in this moment that Americans are apparently turning to their TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook accounts to doomscroll over "the Rapture." (9/10)

Our public education and health systems are in decline everywhere, leading to a less informed and less healthy populace. And America's standing in global affairs continues to slip by the day, as our "President" and his minions stamp out whatever is left... (8/10)

...against cities and citizens that he perceives as being unworthy of constitutional protections. On top of this, we have a mass murder epidemic, with wanton mass shootings and politically-motivated assassinations taking place on a weekly basis now. (7/10)

Our "President," and soon to be Duce, is slowly suffocating our constitutional order, injecting Big Lies into our collective understanding of the truth, breaking our laws with impunity, normalizing political violence, and even mobilizing American troops... (6/10)

...and protection during a "dangerous" moment in their country's history. Fast forward to the contemporary United States, and we're experiencing our own Kulturkampf moment. There is a budding authoritarian movement taking root within our body politic. (5/10)

...events). Put more plainly, ordinary Germans, anxious about the hyper modernization taking place around them, projected their concerns onto imagined sightings of a mystical character whom they deeply trusted; a figure who could provide them with reassurance... (4/10)

...Church and Imperial Germany), Blackbourn essentially demonstrates that this uptick in Virgin Mary "sightings" maps perfectly onto the extraordinary political, social, and cultural disruptions of these years (as opposed, of course, to being supernatural... (3/10)

...for studying the socio-cultural impacts of Otto von Bismarck's so-called Kulturkampf (cultural struggle or culture war), during which the Second Reich attempted to institutionalize a separation between Church and State (specifically the Roman Catholic... (2/10)