• yesman@lemmy.world
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    12 days ago

    That nearly half of Americans found themselves attracted to the likes of Trump should have prompted a moment of deep reflection among U.S. liberals a decade ago. It has not. Even in the course of this tragic presidential election, the Clintons and Obamas refuse to ask themselves what policies, techniques and political forces spawned such discontent and such will to destruction.

    This is good example of the left’s myopic thinking. The great near-enemy war between the left and liberals erases agency from Conservatives. They’re not responsible for the rise of fascism, just because they were the ones who support it. No, it’s the liberals of the past who didn’t manage the rabble properly who are to blame.

    • LillyPip
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      12 days ago

      It’s the victim-blaming mentality of an abusive relationship.

      ‘If the left hadn’t burnt the dinner, the right wouldn’t have hit them.’ We brought this on by not being perfect.

      Fuck that. Fascism does not ask permission. It actively foments and exploits any weakness, like a predator, then gaslights you into thinking it’s your fault.

      Could the left do better? Absolutely. But that doesn’t mean we deserve the fascism that’s been testing the fences like velociraptors for decades, eroding education and the media, sowing misinformation, conspiracy, and discord, and cultivating mistrust and apathy on a scale never before seen.

      They need us to blame ourselves, to stay divided, and to point our fingers everywhere but at them. We need to stop making excuses for them.

      Blame the fascists for fascism.

    • Eldritch@lemmy.world
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      12 days ago

      Yup. It’s shades of Reagan all over again. But you know, uh, solidarity would kill us. So were gonna have to keep infighting. Surely that will work.

    • electric_nan@lemmy.ml
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      12 days ago

      Look, fascists are gonna fash. There needs to be a credible opposition to them in order to obviate their appeal. Democrats have proven that they aren’t that opposition, and they constantly resist calls from the left to become it.