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I think there needs to be precision in categorizing sets of authoritarian political ideas - responses also vary according to the nature of the authoritarian political ideas.

Fascism is ideological in ways Trump isn't - Trump is still a danger in terms of democratic backsliding


An important difference between 20th century fascism and 21st century right-wing authoritarian populism is that fascism was explicitly deadset on exposing democracy as bad - people like Orbàn or Erdogan or Trump are fine with the superficial trappings of democracy.

Mussolini shut down true accusations of voter intimidation through the intimidation of his critics, which led to the assassination of Giacomo Matteotti, who had exposed the fascist intimidation at the polls. Trump spread and encouraged conspiracy theories about voter fraud.

Why does this matter? Because right-wing populist supporters make arguments that THEY are the ones defending not just the abstract "will of the people" (that's common in fascism too) but the procedures of democracy itself. They accuse their rivals of authoritarianism.

People like Mussolini or Hitler made no secret that they thought of democracy as decadent and corrupt, not just morally, but politically, as a system. Trump or Erdogan or Orbàn (or to a lesser extent Putin) claim that it's LIBERALISM which is decadent and corrupt.
THREAD

1/ Yesterday's indictment of Douglass Mackey was deeply satisfying in that a co conspirator that was identified in the indictment ; Microchip. This Alt Right troll targeted me, & many others in 2017

cc
@thespybrief
@RVAwonk
@JamesFourM
@TheRickWilson
@DrDenaGrayson


2/ Microchip specifically targeted my account & others for mass reporting efforts by his followers (he offered $5000 per acct suspended by Twitter) and encouraged harassment & threats towards those accounts. Threats of violence were directed at me (it didn't intimidate me)


3/ Additionally in the Mackey indictment, Baked Alaska aka Tim Gionet, was also named . Gionet was recently arrested for his role in the assault on the Capitol building. Now, this indictment of Mackey would seem to be just the beginning, because these guys connect to everyone


4/ For starters Baked Alaska & Microchip connect to this guy, Charles "Chuck" Johnson. He's the redheaded guy , standing on the steps of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London with Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R) , about to meet Julian Assange. We'll get back to JAss later.........,


5/ Baked Alaska & Chuck C Johnson have also been linked to Roger Stone . Hey, there's Roger Stone at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London too. Presumably Roge got lost in London to end up at Assange's bolt hole...........,
The NRA is already trying to juice gun sales by creating fear around a new Biden administration. “Stay vigilant and engaged” sounds a lot like “shoot people who disagree with you” to their supporters - too many of whom have been radicalized by the gun lobby’s extremist agenda.


This NRA owns much of blame for the armed white supremacists trying to undermine American democracy: “The gun-rights movement cleared the path for insurrection. It blew a hole in the rule of law—and Donald Trump’s would-be soldiers clamored through it.”

Many members of the mob that rioted inside the Capitol lead or belong to so-called “gun-rights groups,” and were motivated by the warnings of tyranny issued by the @NRA.

Guns are an integral part of anti-government and white supremacist violence. In 2017, a joint report from the FBI and DHS said “firearms likely will continue to pose the greatest threat of lethal violence by [extremists] due to their availability and ease of use.”

Here’s an example. In October 2018, Donald Trump claimed a “caravan” of migrants was heading to the US from Mexico. NRATV, then the propaganda arm of the NRA, claimed Jewish billionaire George Soros was conspiring with Venezuela to send migrants here to influence the election.