The Guardian has not normalized Trump, and I am grateful to all of the independent media right now. I had to stop my subscription to the NYT. It is shocking to me that they have any subscribers left, since the Fox News crowd is not their audience. I find what is going on in the world is terrifying. Right now I am in Germany where a big march is planned nationwide on June 6, because on June 9 are the EU candidate elections, and there is concern that the Right wing coalition is so effective. I think we can attribute a lot of this to the success of the Russian, Iranian, North Korean and Venezualan bots. Also, Argentina's president Milei is making the rounds and stirring up the right wing candidates in Europe right now.
One thing we should keep in mind (one device we should expose, you might say) is that pervasive, systematic manipulation of social media has been happening for years. This is probably not limited to Cambridge Analytica/Emerdata/Auspex.
". . .The first major externality, I think, of AI is going to happen in Q1 and Q2 of 2024 and that is:
if I'm Putin and I'm spending 100 billion and 100,000 lives in what so far has been kind of a failed venture, failed war in Ukraine, the fastest Blue Line path to victory for me is the following:
I use my incredibly brilliant scientists (they have great scientists), I get a Albanian troll farm with thousands of people, I take 5 billion dollars and then I couple that with an amoral management team at social media firms (that are there just to cash checks and then worry about what happened after the election) and I AB test deep fakes and AI to de-position whoever is Trump's opponent and I get Trump reelected because:
the cheapest way for Putin to win the war in Ukraine is to get Trump reelected. . ."
Another front for attacking propaganda: empathy and compassion. Authoritarians need a reservoir of hurting puppies to feed their cause. Especially vulnerable, dispirited macho types who are feeling disempowered and don't want to talk about it, because that's not the macho way to deal with it. Macedonian teenagers (https://www.wired.com/2017/02/veles-macedonia-fake-news/) would not have been able to line their pockets without an audience that was ready and willing. It's not like they created this audience - it was already there.
I'm not sure how to approach this. Any shrinks out there? The direct approach of saying "I know you're a hurting puppy" to someone who's a hurting puppy and doesn't want to be seen as a hurting puppy is probably not going to fly. Brendan Nyhan (https://govt.dartmouth.edu/people/brendan-nyhan) is a political scientist who has done some research in this area.
Groups like Braver Angels (https://braverangels.org/) are working to bridge this divide. Unfortunately, they can only draw from people on both sides who are willing to talk, so this is only a partial approach.
I think that asking a question of someone like that might work. You could just start with asking, "This really bothers you, doesn't it?" and finding out what particular grievances the person has, then draw out one at a time. I say this because I've done that on voter phonebanks, when I've gotten disgruntled and angry voters; if I just agree that they are really upset, that can get them to start talking. Once I find out what they think ("all Mexicans are criminals!!") I have been able to ask, "All women and chlldren, too? They cross the border." I'm experimenting to see how honest these guys (it's always the men) will be.
Interesting that they chose to advertise their Reich in black and white, reminiscent of Nazi German newsreels. They’re really going for the full effect.
When all of this happens we can thank Garland for doing next to nothing to stop it and Biden for not taking the threat seriously. Every time Biden thinks he’s scoring points by cracking a joke about trump I want to throw up. He was so not who we needed 4 years ago and we still don’t. We needed a President and AG who fully understood the threats we faced and who had the fire, resolve and tenacity to do everything in their power to prevent America from becoming a Christfascist state kept in place with violence and death.
So who should have been elected in 2020? Extra points if you can come up with a plausible strategy whereby this individual could have been elected, or even made a strong enough showing to influence whoever did get elected.
“Extra points”? Seriously? What we are facing is not a game. It’s deadly serious and the inactions of Garland and Biden will go into the history books as one of the major reasons why America became a Christofascist nation if/when it does with the far-right’s takeover. The Democratic Party, the DNC and the DCCC are all complicit in presenting Biden as the only choice and he is responsible for putting Garland in charge of the DOJ as well as not stepping aside after one term as he suggested he would do.
I could write in depth about three politicians who would have been far better choices than Biden but I don’t need to score points with a stranger to justify what I said. If you disagree with what I wrote, that’s fine. It’s your prerogative and for now in America, your right to do so. In keeping with that prerogative and right, I disagree with your attempt to challenge me by framing it as a game of oneupmanship when it so very much is not.
I know it's not a game. That's why I asked for your ideas about alternatives to Biden-Harris in 2020. The fact that you've gotten all huffy rather than come up with any tells me all I need to know.
🙄 As does your challenging to earn points and you calling me huffy for disagreeing with you. Go play your childish passive aggressive game with someone else - or better still, learn how to engage in discussion and disagreement as an adult. Until then, I have nothing else to say to you.
I cannot imagine that trump has sufficient intellect to set up a trump-reich. Who are his enablers? While he sleeps and farts in a court room he does not appear cognizant of his surroundings. And we think he can implement a dictatorship? No. There are the ones in this country who expect to gain through manipulating him. Just as Putin has made him his puppet, who else is manipulating him? His puppet masters must be uncovered. He is their tool; they must be identified.
Do you think Bannon has the ability to organize such a thing? He strikes me as a guy that the puppet masters would use until he showed signs of getting the bit between his teeth. Then he'd be disposed of. I'm thinking of Röhm and the SA, though I doubt Bannon could pull together anything like the SA.
I hope not but I wouldn’t underestimate him. We’ve seen the results of having “a failure of imagination “ when it came to Nazi Germany. To think those forces aren’t present in the USA would be an error. Look at some of Trump’s pardons and you see a deeply troubling pattern.
There was indeed a failure of imagination in the early Hitler years, notably among the conservatives who thought they could control him. But the non-Jewish Germans mostly knew what they were supporting. What they failed to imagine was the resulting war, especially the U.S. involvement in it -- but that failure isn't hard to understand, not least because they saw the strength of the America First movement but not the clever maneuvering of FDR et al. to mobilize support for the Allies before the U.S. entered the war, and they sure couldn't have foreseen Pearl Harbor.
I totally agree that "those forces" are present in the U.S. They're so obvious in virtually all Republican-run states that one would have to be in serious denial to miss them. Knowing a little U.S. history also helps.
OK, but it takes more than funds to create a movement. If money were all it took, the plutocrats would be totally running the show by now. They have the dollars, but they don't have the votes, or the boots on the ground.
Not sure what you're disagreeing with. Weyrich didn't organize the Christian nationalists or the white supremacists, or the anti-choice Catholics and white evangelicals either.
I believe it's Leonard Leo, the Heritage Foundation, and the rest of the Project 2025 crowd, backed up by the GOP mega-donors. They're not exactly operating in the shadows.
There have been plenty of power brokers in the past in this nation that wanted fascism or quasi-fascism. Our CIA's fascination with fascism is little known. Their hatred of the left is documented in the book "The Devil's Chessboard". The former head of the CIA, Allen Dulles was very pro fascism and backed right wing domestic political candidates via the CIA. Their Council on Foreign Relations was an organizing unit for far right domestic policy. Charles Koch and the Libertarian movement has had similar designs on power that did not include democracy. The Mont Pelerin Society is another authoritarian-loving organization and aligned with Koch. The Business Roundtable was/is another far right entity with power. The historical foundation for Project 2025 are the above players.
Yep! I followed Rachel Maddow's PREQUEL with Jacob Heilbrunn's AMERICA LAST (subtitle: The Right's Century-Long Romance with Foreign Dictators). I need to check out DEVIL'S CHESSBOARD. I'm more aware of the CIA's effects (Iran, Chile, Latin America, etc.) than of its internal workers, and for some reason John Foster Dulles seems to get more attention (and well-deserved opprobrium) than his brother, at least in the circles I've moved in over the decades.
The trump supporters pushing a “trump- reich” are the dangerous ones - not trump. They are Putin’s puppets, out to destroy the USA from within. Those “puppets” need to be identified.
Here is another good Substack I found written by a woman who lived in Russia for many years and used to work for the CIA. She talks about these "puppets."
The fingerprints of Stephen Miller, a Goebbels clone who feeds Trump the most vile of his historically horrific allusions to Nazi Germany, are all over the push for repression and retribution in an intended revenge presidency. He operates from the shadows, but his propaganda flourishes in Trump's fascist rhetoric are unmistakable. MAGA doesn't use dog whistles like GOP campaigns of the past. Rather, it's totally at ease with overt hate and threats of violence. Its campaign has no subtleties or nuances, and its goal is clear. The question is whether, in 2024, our democracy will be able to repel the onslaught.
Isn't that the truth?! I wander what Samuel Alito is doing this weekend and I hope to God he has taken down that horrible flag if he happens to be at the beach!!
The more trump's mental condition deteriorates, the more grandiose he gets. But the part that is so scary is that he means all of it, and his followers believe all of it. I feel grateful that I need for things to make sense before I believe them. America needing a repressive authoritarian government is a proposition I will never be able to see or believe.
What scares me is his repeated statements that he is targeted for death by Joe Biden. It's typical of Trump to "project," i.e., point the finger at someone else while three fingers point back at him. As with Jan 6 dog whistles, I believe he is calling for an assassination. His demented mind is stuck in evil-drive.
Wow! That thought stops me in my tracks. But I'm sure you are right. What scares me is the fact that he really wants to go after Obama. Killing Biden wouldn't have the same satisfaction level… I think it's been a long time since our country has been sane, but the current state of craziness is beyond the pale.
"The more trump's mental condition deteriorates..."
The general public is just unable to detect sociopaths/psychopaths among us. It's how someone like tRump comes to power. The public just does not understand how abnormal these people are. They are the great deceivers. Their total lack of a conscience seems to go unnoticed by their flock. They get suckered into having a sociopath as their hero. We've seen this movie before, in Italy, Germany and Serbia.
Point taken. I guess PT Barnum was right: "There's a sucker born every minute." I get what you are saying, but I can't fathom being suckered by a sociopath. In the case of trump, the rhetoric is always empty and/or nonsensical.
tRump apppeals to the narcissists, sadists, Machiavellians and sociopaths/psychopaths in our society...... and there are millions of them. They see a kindred spirit in tRump.
I appreciate knowing who he appeals to. It's really scary to think that so many people see him as a kindred spirit. I have a sister who is a sociopath, but unless she's changed greatly (I haven't seen or talked to her in years), she would never be seduced by trump. Something to be grateful for.
Agree Trump doesn’t have the ability to imagine TrimpReich but Steve Bannon does. This is a link to the opening sequence of the documentary film THE BRINK where Bannon muses on filming at Auschwitz and how the murder factory Ina tribute to German engineering. Clearly he and others surrounding Herr Trump identify with the perpetrators of the enormous Nazi crimes. Ruth thank you for sharing your knowledge of this horrible movement and these dangerous people.
Oh my God that is so frightening David. Steve Bannon is a total POS. What is "The Brink" and why haven't I heard more about it? I'm going to get on Google right now!!
Thank you Dr. Ruth for continuing to enlighten and inform us of the horrors awaiting us if Trump manages to win another term. While I don't want to face it I know I need to.
I agree with the comments that we have to look to Trump's enablers. Does Bannon with his background in the film industry have the knowledge to pull in all the 1930-style Fascist innuendo? While he likely had no direct hand in creating this particular piece, Putin has also been doing his best to prime America for authoritarianism https://substack.com/home/post/p-144974998?source=queue
This cancer could have been nipped in the bud back in 2015, but I fear it has metastasized.
Yes, this could have been nipped in the bud in 2016 via the Electoral College. They have the power to stop a president from entering the White House by refusing to allot votes to him if they feel the voters made a huge mistake. They missed their chance.
If a Maga is speaking, they are 1. Lying, 2. Gaslighting, or 3. Spreading disinformation. And they have nothing new to say. They are just "repeating a lie until it is perceived as truth. It's Election time and we are being bombarded with MAGA propaganda. Not a shred of truth in any of it.
How can we stop his propoganda from going viral?
Great question. Drawback of free press. I would think countering it at every opportunity is our only hope. Taking up more oxygen...
As Ms. Ben-Ghiat says elsewhere: expose the device. https://lucid.substack.com/p/how-to-push-back-against-propaganda-06f
How can we stop Trump's vicious propaganda
from going viral? We can't. Especially because
Big Media finds it so profitable to normalize him.
The Guardian has not normalized Trump, and I am grateful to all of the independent media right now. I had to stop my subscription to the NYT. It is shocking to me that they have any subscribers left, since the Fox News crowd is not their audience. I find what is going on in the world is terrifying. Right now I am in Germany where a big march is planned nationwide on June 6, because on June 9 are the EU candidate elections, and there is concern that the Right wing coalition is so effective. I think we can attribute a lot of this to the success of the Russian, Iranian, North Korean and Venezualan bots. Also, Argentina's president Milei is making the rounds and stirring up the right wing candidates in Europe right now.
One thing we should keep in mind (one device we should expose, you might say) is that pervasive, systematic manipulation of social media has been happening for years. This is probably not limited to Cambridge Analytica/Emerdata/Auspex.
I found this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VntTdU13RE&t=1995s) very chilling (edited version of yt transcript, Scott Galloway speaking in an interview with Tim Miller in November of 2023)
". . .The first major externality, I think, of AI is going to happen in Q1 and Q2 of 2024 and that is:
if I'm Putin and I'm spending 100 billion and 100,000 lives in what so far has been kind of a failed venture, failed war in Ukraine, the fastest Blue Line path to victory for me is the following:
I use my incredibly brilliant scientists (they have great scientists), I get a Albanian troll farm with thousands of people, I take 5 billion dollars and then I couple that with an amoral management team at social media firms (that are there just to cash checks and then worry about what happened after the election) and I AB test deep fakes and AI to de-position whoever is Trump's opponent and I get Trump reelected because:
the cheapest way for Putin to win the war in Ukraine is to get Trump reelected. . ."
Another front for attacking propaganda: empathy and compassion. Authoritarians need a reservoir of hurting puppies to feed their cause. Especially vulnerable, dispirited macho types who are feeling disempowered and don't want to talk about it, because that's not the macho way to deal with it. Macedonian teenagers (https://www.wired.com/2017/02/veles-macedonia-fake-news/) would not have been able to line their pockets without an audience that was ready and willing. It's not like they created this audience - it was already there.
Also, some rational grievances are driving part of this. Political scientist Nicholas Jacobs (whose work was (mis)cited in White Rural Rage) talks about misinterpreting resentment as rage. Great article here: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/04/05/white-rural-rage-myth-00150395
I'm not sure how to approach this. Any shrinks out there? The direct approach of saying "I know you're a hurting puppy" to someone who's a hurting puppy and doesn't want to be seen as a hurting puppy is probably not going to fly. Brendan Nyhan (https://govt.dartmouth.edu/people/brendan-nyhan) is a political scientist who has done some research in this area.
Groups like Braver Angels (https://braverangels.org/) are working to bridge this divide. Unfortunately, they can only draw from people on both sides who are willing to talk, so this is only a partial approach.
I think that asking a question of someone like that might work. You could just start with asking, "This really bothers you, doesn't it?" and finding out what particular grievances the person has, then draw out one at a time. I say this because I've done that on voter phonebanks, when I've gotten disgruntled and angry voters; if I just agree that they are really upset, that can get them to start talking. Once I find out what they think ("all Mexicans are criminals!!") I have been able to ask, "All women and chlldren, too? They cross the border." I'm experimenting to see how honest these guys (it's always the men) will be.
Interesting that they chose to advertise their Reich in black and white, reminiscent of Nazi German newsreels. They’re really going for the full effect.
Who gets to remind the dictator of his "one day" promise? And how many times?
Sociopaths do not take reminders kindly, nor do they tell the truth. His one day promise has the value of a $3 bill.
When all of this happens we can thank Garland for doing next to nothing to stop it and Biden for not taking the threat seriously. Every time Biden thinks he’s scoring points by cracking a joke about trump I want to throw up. He was so not who we needed 4 years ago and we still don’t. We needed a President and AG who fully understood the threats we faced and who had the fire, resolve and tenacity to do everything in their power to prevent America from becoming a Christfascist state kept in place with violence and death.
So who should have been elected in 2020? Extra points if you can come up with a plausible strategy whereby this individual could have been elected, or even made a strong enough showing to influence whoever did get elected.
“Extra points”? Seriously? What we are facing is not a game. It’s deadly serious and the inactions of Garland and Biden will go into the history books as one of the major reasons why America became a Christofascist nation if/when it does with the far-right’s takeover. The Democratic Party, the DNC and the DCCC are all complicit in presenting Biden as the only choice and he is responsible for putting Garland in charge of the DOJ as well as not stepping aside after one term as he suggested he would do.
I could write in depth about three politicians who would have been far better choices than Biden but I don’t need to score points with a stranger to justify what I said. If you disagree with what I wrote, that’s fine. It’s your prerogative and for now in America, your right to do so. In keeping with that prerogative and right, I disagree with your attempt to challenge me by framing it as a game of oneupmanship when it so very much is not.
I know it's not a game. That's why I asked for your ideas about alternatives to Biden-Harris in 2020. The fact that you've gotten all huffy rather than come up with any tells me all I need to know.
🙄 As does your challenging to earn points and you calling me huffy for disagreeing with you. Go play your childish passive aggressive game with someone else - or better still, learn how to engage in discussion and disagreement as an adult. Until then, I have nothing else to say to you.
Good luck getting those types elected.
AGREED!!
I cannot imagine that trump has sufficient intellect to set up a trump-reich. Who are his enablers? While he sleeps and farts in a court room he does not appear cognizant of his surroundings. And we think he can implement a dictatorship? No. There are the ones in this country who expect to gain through manipulating him. Just as Putin has made him his puppet, who else is manipulating him? His puppet masters must be uncovered. He is their tool; they must be identified.
Steve Bannon does. Check out the link to his thoughts about Auschwitz being a tribute to German engineering.
Do you think Bannon has the ability to organize such a thing? He strikes me as a guy that the puppet masters would use until he showed signs of getting the bit between his teeth. Then he'd be disposed of. I'm thinking of Röhm and the SA, though I doubt Bannon could pull together anything like the SA.
I hope not but I wouldn’t underestimate him. We’ve seen the results of having “a failure of imagination “ when it came to Nazi Germany. To think those forces aren’t present in the USA would be an error. Look at some of Trump’s pardons and you see a deeply troubling pattern.
There was indeed a failure of imagination in the early Hitler years, notably among the conservatives who thought they could control him. But the non-Jewish Germans mostly knew what they were supporting. What they failed to imagine was the resulting war, especially the U.S. involvement in it -- but that failure isn't hard to understand, not least because they saw the strength of the America First movement but not the clever maneuvering of FDR et al. to mobilize support for the Allies before the U.S. entered the war, and they sure couldn't have foreseen Pearl Harbor.
I totally agree that "those forces" are present in the U.S. They're so obvious in virtually all Republican-run states that one would have to be in serious denial to miss them. Knowing a little U.S. history also helps.
Bannon is a creation of Robert Mercer. He definitely has access to the funds that it would require.
OK, but it takes more than funds to create a movement. If money were all it took, the plutocrats would be totally running the show by now. They have the dollars, but they don't have the votes, or the boots on the ground.
Regrettably I disagree. Paul Weyrich was able to “marry” this group with the Christianism (Christian nationalism) movement. This is the MAGA base.
Not sure what you're disagreeing with. Weyrich didn't organize the Christian nationalists or the white supremacists, or the anti-choice Catholics and white evangelicals either.
I believe it's Leonard Leo, the Heritage Foundation, and the rest of the Project 2025 crowd, backed up by the GOP mega-donors. They're not exactly operating in the shadows.
"Elect our guy Trump! We want to recreate the 3rd Reich just to hang onto our precious Trillions (with a T.)"
I agree.
There have been plenty of power brokers in the past in this nation that wanted fascism or quasi-fascism. Our CIA's fascination with fascism is little known. Their hatred of the left is documented in the book "The Devil's Chessboard". The former head of the CIA, Allen Dulles was very pro fascism and backed right wing domestic political candidates via the CIA. Their Council on Foreign Relations was an organizing unit for far right domestic policy. Charles Koch and the Libertarian movement has had similar designs on power that did not include democracy. The Mont Pelerin Society is another authoritarian-loving organization and aligned with Koch. The Business Roundtable was/is another far right entity with power. The historical foundation for Project 2025 are the above players.
Yep! I followed Rachel Maddow's PREQUEL with Jacob Heilbrunn's AMERICA LAST (subtitle: The Right's Century-Long Romance with Foreign Dictators). I need to check out DEVIL'S CHESSBOARD. I'm more aware of the CIA's effects (Iran, Chile, Latin America, etc.) than of its internal workers, and for some reason John Foster Dulles seems to get more attention (and well-deserved opprobrium) than his brother, at least in the circles I've moved in over the decades.
Yes John Foster is better known than Allen. Allen was a sociopath and fascist, with this combination being quite common in the past 100 years.
The CIA was quite involved in the press and in political campaigns here. They were well connected to big business here as well.
The trump supporters pushing a “trump- reich” are the dangerous ones - not trump. They are Putin’s puppets, out to destroy the USA from within. Those “puppets” need to be identified.
Here is another good Substack I found written by a woman who lived in Russia for many years and used to work for the CIA. She talks about these "puppets."
https://open.substack.com/pub/egraham/p/american-traitors?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=2o7uvb
Thank you Ruth!
Unified Reich= Unitary Executive + Project 2025; Vote Blue!
The fingerprints of Stephen Miller, a Goebbels clone who feeds Trump the most vile of his historically horrific allusions to Nazi Germany, are all over the push for repression and retribution in an intended revenge presidency. He operates from the shadows, but his propaganda flourishes in Trump's fascist rhetoric are unmistakable. MAGA doesn't use dog whistles like GOP campaigns of the past. Rather, it's totally at ease with overt hate and threats of violence. Its campaign has no subtleties or nuances, and its goal is clear. The question is whether, in 2024, our democracy will be able to repel the onslaught.
Check out Steve Bannon’s ode to Auschwitz as a tribute to German industrial design:
The banality of evil personified. Trump is the frontman, but he has no shortage of enablers.
Bannon is one sick fool! I suspect him of being a psychopath.
At a bare minimum, an anarchist, a seditionist and a traitor.
What a great day to be a Supreme Court Justice in a Trump Reich.
Isn't that the truth?! I wander what Samuel Alito is doing this weekend and I hope to God he has taken down that horrible flag if he happens to be at the beach!!
After Ruth's post today, I shudder to think of what flag Alito will display next.
No kidding. Let's pray it doesn't have a Swastika on it David.
It’s all messaging to his civilian army
The more trump's mental condition deteriorates, the more grandiose he gets. But the part that is so scary is that he means all of it, and his followers believe all of it. I feel grateful that I need for things to make sense before I believe them. America needing a repressive authoritarian government is a proposition I will never be able to see or believe.
An idea must make sense to non-brainwashed people!
Good point. Thank you!
MAGA & others like them have been brainwashed and will never accept any version of information except Trump’s
What scares me is his repeated statements that he is targeted for death by Joe Biden. It's typical of Trump to "project," i.e., point the finger at someone else while three fingers point back at him. As with Jan 6 dog whistles, I believe he is calling for an assassination. His demented mind is stuck in evil-drive.
Wow! That thought stops me in my tracks. But I'm sure you are right. What scares me is the fact that he really wants to go after Obama. Killing Biden wouldn't have the same satisfaction level… I think it's been a long time since our country has been sane, but the current state of craziness is beyond the pale.
"The more trump's mental condition deteriorates..."
The general public is just unable to detect sociopaths/psychopaths among us. It's how someone like tRump comes to power. The public just does not understand how abnormal these people are. They are the great deceivers. Their total lack of a conscience seems to go unnoticed by their flock. They get suckered into having a sociopath as their hero. We've seen this movie before, in Italy, Germany and Serbia.
Point taken. I guess PT Barnum was right: "There's a sucker born every minute." I get what you are saying, but I can't fathom being suckered by a sociopath. In the case of trump, the rhetoric is always empty and/or nonsensical.
tRump apppeals to the narcissists, sadists, Machiavellians and sociopaths/psychopaths in our society...... and there are millions of them. They see a kindred spirit in tRump.
I appreciate knowing who he appeals to. It's really scary to think that so many people see him as a kindred spirit. I have a sister who is a sociopath, but unless she's changed greatly (I haven't seen or talked to her in years), she would never be seduced by trump. Something to be grateful for.
Agree Trump doesn’t have the ability to imagine TrimpReich but Steve Bannon does. This is a link to the opening sequence of the documentary film THE BRINK where Bannon muses on filming at Auschwitz and how the murder factory Ina tribute to German engineering. Clearly he and others surrounding Herr Trump identify with the perpetrators of the enormous Nazi crimes. Ruth thank you for sharing your knowledge of this horrible movement and these dangerous people.
https://vimeo.com/409043293/90aaa0982a
Oh my God that is so frightening David. Steve Bannon is a total POS. What is "The Brink" and why haven't I heard more about it? I'm going to get on Google right now!!
It’s a documentary film circa 2019. Available to rent on Prime.
Thank you Dr. Ruth for continuing to enlighten and inform us of the horrors awaiting us if Trump manages to win another term. While I don't want to face it I know I need to.
Chilling.
I agree with the comments that we have to look to Trump's enablers. Does Bannon with his background in the film industry have the knowledge to pull in all the 1930-style Fascist innuendo? While he likely had no direct hand in creating this particular piece, Putin has also been doing his best to prime America for authoritarianism https://substack.com/home/post/p-144974998?source=queue
This cancer could have been nipped in the bud back in 2015, but I fear it has metastasized.
Oh good for you. Glad you found Elizabeth's Substack too. She is amazing!! I am going to get her book very soon. I've been sharing her links too.
Yes, this could have been nipped in the bud in 2016 via the Electoral College. They have the power to stop a president from entering the White House by refusing to allot votes to him if they feel the voters made a huge mistake. They missed their chance.
If a Maga is speaking, they are 1. Lying, 2. Gaslighting, or 3. Spreading disinformation. And they have nothing new to say. They are just "repeating a lie until it is perceived as truth. It's Election time and we are being bombarded with MAGA propaganda. Not a shred of truth in any of it.
Or they are delusional. Many have so bought into it they truly believe it. Sadly.