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this post was submitted on 22 Apr 2025
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politics
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My brothers and sisters in Christ...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guantanamo_Bay_detention_camp
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1985_MOVE_bombing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Wetback
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supermax_prison#United_States
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Crow_laws
We've always been here.
What these scholars are finally stumbling into is our age-old horrifying authoritarianism directed at upper-middle class gender normative white people. But to believe the nation that's been indulging in plantation farming and zero-hour contracts, bloated national security institutions and public-private surveillance plans, institutionalized misogyny and evangelized genocide for practically every year of its near-250 year history wasn't already authoritarian...
Who knows. Maybe now that the current administration is no longer carving us apart and harvesting from the national body like a surgeon and just coming at us with a rusty machete we can find some kind of intersectional unity. But the way I see people freaking out because pretty blonde girls and middle-aged white men are running afoul of a police force that was exclusively fixated on the epigenetic underclass a few of presidents ago makes me think this is still a nation of white supremacists who feel betrayed because the Supremacist In Chief is simply doing a clumsy job.
The US has done plenty of racist, shitty, inexcusable things. But "authoritarian" doesn't mean "does racist, shitty, and inexcusable things".
When the state is imposing shitty racist inexcusable policy via the institutions of the bureaucracy, that's exactly what it means.
The FBI is authoritarian. The DEA is authoritarian. The DHS is authoritarian. Always have been, since their founding. They exist to extract labor from the political underclass by forcing submission on pain of imprisonment and death.
USA hasn't just done a bunch of racist, shitty, inexcusable things. USA is a bunch of racist, shitty, inexcusable things.
It's literally a regime founded by rapist slavers to violently preserve their disgusting privilege. Always been authoritarian.
That’s awfully absolutist of you not seeing the huge difference in scale, the blatant ignoring of checks and balances, states rights, and the resulting constitutional crisis. Never before have so many government leaders so blatantly committed so many acts of corruption while holding themselves above the law. Never before have we so intentionally cut so many services and intentionally disrupted the economy so much. Never before have we done so much harm to the US’s stature in the world, damaged our future so much. Previous attempts to ruin education for religious or other malicious reasons have been mostly local, never before has there been such an attempt to control education across the board, everywhere, at every level
You're describing any number of prior administrations. The phrase "Constitutional Crisis" absolutely echoed through the Bush 43 administration, as his bureaucracy was constantly ignoring court orders (FISA most famously) and end-running legislative constraints through EOs and Signing Statements.
Everything is glaring in the moment. But all of Trump's malfeasance is just an extension of the breaches of decorum, precedent, and law executed by prior administrations. Our status as world leader wasn't single-handedly wrecked by Trump. It has been systematically distorted and eroded since at least the Reagan Administration.
This isn't a Never Before situation. It is a long continuation of horrible policies.
It's like you skimmed their reply and didn't get it. You certainly didnt refute anything.
If you can't see the massive, massive upswing in all these "existing" authoritarian behaviors that has happened in the last 4 months, that is entirely on you.
All y'all are fighting the wrong people in this thread. We all agree it's a bad situation and there's no prize for "best degree of historical nuance in an opinion". We all agree the enemy is present in the moment.
Explicitly on the college/professional classes, sure. It's abundantly clear that the Imperialism of the Periphery is returning to the Core as a Fascist tendency. We're treating Mahmoud Khalil like he's Sandra Blande. We're treating Professor Steve Tamari like he's Rodney King. We're losing our ability to distinguish between neighborhoods in the US and those in Baghdad or Tripoli. That's unforgivable, because that's not how we're supposed to treat the Professional Managerial Class in this country.
Exactly. One glance at the list of countries by incarceration rates will confirm that the US has been a police state for a while now; it's just who is being targeted that is changing.
In the Chinese VN White or Black, one of the first things the church guys did after taking control of the US was trim the prison populations. Though I imagine being able to see the future helped a bunch.
World War 1 was so traumatic for Europe because the terrible weapons of mass destruction that they had been using to dominate the rest of the world were suddenly being used on them.
I think this is probably similar for people in the US who are not in a minority now, along the lines you describe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6k1iv4obNrw
Dont forget The Trail of Tears, or that they tried to starve Indians to death right after.
You're not wrong, but I don't see the advantage of turning your nose up at people who want to be your allies.
nicely put!