Their effective propagandists are not just exploiting the weaknesses of their marks and of the system they’re pretending to be a part of, they’ve also been CREATING those weaknesses over the course of over half a century.
Pathologizing fascism twists you into these types of knots
Not with a little more specificity.
It’s a literal cult created with the help of decades and decades of brainwashing and underhanded politics to clear the way.
Like with any effective cult, victims don’t have to be especially stupid or gullible to be sucked in, but the longer they remain in the cult, the more warped their reality and the less acute their capacity for any contrary thought processes becomes.
The truth is that the fascist we’re currently seeing proliferate are cunning, deliberate, calculating, and effective
Yes and no: while it’s almost impossible to determine for sure who’s what due to all the overlap between the swindlers and the swindled, most fascists aren’t inherently especially clever or especially dull, they’re just people who believe awful things, with various amounts of agency over it.
That’s one of the worst parts of it: while some are obviously much more susceptible than others due to their environment, preexisting bigotry, lack of empathy etc, almost nobody is COMPLETELY safe from the fascist brainwashing, given enough time and the right environmental factors.
Now is not the time to underestimate the enemy.
On that we agree 100%
Fascism is not the result of stupidity, but the result of measurable deterioration of education, social safety nets, wages, transportation, health, etc…
Oops, looks like we agreed all along lol. Gonna keep this comment as is, though, since it might help elaborate a bit on what you’re trying to say 🤷
Their effective propagandists are not just exploiting the weaknesses of their marks and of the system they’re pretending to be a part of, they’ve also been CREATING those weaknesses over the course of over half a century.
Not with a little more specificity.
It’s a literal cult created with the help of decades and decades of brainwashing and underhanded politics to clear the way.
Like with any effective cult, victims don’t have to be especially stupid or gullible to be sucked in, but the longer they remain in the cult, the more warped their reality and the less acute their capacity for any contrary thought processes becomes.
Yes and no: while it’s almost impossible to determine for sure who’s what due to all the overlap between the swindlers and the swindled, most fascists aren’t inherently especially clever or especially dull, they’re just people who believe awful things, with various amounts of agency over it.
That’s one of the worst parts of it: while some are obviously much more susceptible than others due to their environment, preexisting bigotry, lack of empathy etc, almost nobody is COMPLETELY safe from the fascist brainwashing, given enough time and the right environmental factors.
On that we agree 100%
Oops, looks like we agreed all along lol. Gonna keep this comment as is, though, since it might help elaborate a bit on what you’re trying to say 🤷