(a response to Charles Stephen’s post, here)
The idea that America is decaying like Rome and needs to be made great again is fascist propaganda. In fact, like Rome, America was never great, it was always bloodthirsty and murderous.
To be made great, it needs to *stop* pining for a time when “patriotism” (aka fervent blind nationalism) was somehow beneficial (hint, it never is) and stop viewing itself through the eyes of a haughty, self righteous exceptionalist “greatness” to which it must always and forever be grabbing at desperately.
This drive to continuously snatch ever more out of the world around us is precisely how our top heavy central government continues to ratchet up its violence and its resource consolidation.
And while they do a fantastic job spinning their desire to “fix” America as something progressive and new, fascist ideas rely on an ultraconservatism that links national identity to its founding race, creating internal and foreign enemies out of everyone else to justify its fear and violence.
It kinda doesn’t matter if the author meant this as fascist propaganda or not. Even if all they did was pick up ideas from the zeitgeist and recycle them into content, the thread they picked up is a gross one. I hope everyone reading here reflects on that.
