I think we can put a peg in this. For years everyone’s being “we’re going fascist.”
It’s done. It’s over. The US has gone fascist.
- Purges of the military, intelligence and law enforcement agencies to install personal loyalists;
- Troops in the capital, armed, with law enforcement rights, and a promise to do the same in other cities;
- Vast personal corruption by the man at the top, including blackmailing companies into personal bribes;
- Masked men who often don’t show badges or warrants roaming the lands, forcing people to prove their citizenship (and often ignoring proof) and seizing people and throwing them into unmarked vans;
- Full executive immunity;
- A supreme court which has or appears poised to legalize all of the above; and,
- Threatening ABC and NBCs broadcast licenses.
- Yada, yada (add your examples in comments)
There isn’t much point in dancing around this. Perhaps there’s a technical case that this isn’t fascism, but some other form of nasty right wing government ideology, but whatever it is, the constitution and the important pieces of the constitution and bill of rights are dead or dying, including habeas corpus, the principle that no one’s above the law, the idea that troops shouldn’t be used domestically, etc, etc.
This has been coming for a loooonnnnngggg time, and plenty of people have warned about it. The fascism experts from Harvard who fled the country, much as many sneered at them, weren’t wrong in their diagnosis. Remember, a lot of people who left it too late to flee Germany (or Pinochet’s Chile, or your choice of example) got a permanent plot of land, a long government paid for stay in a small room or in Argentina a helicopter trip ending with a spectacular fall
(Pinochet is notable for training dogs to rape the wives of his opponents. Hopefully Trump won’t sink quite that low.)
I would suggest that the UK is almost there, and so is Germany. The EU as a whole, with its growing habit of just making protest and unwelcome parties illegal is trending hard. (Or, if you’re lucky, they’ll just make you a non-person, making it illegal for any bank or credit company to do business with you, or anyone to give you money.)
I don’t expect to spend a lot of time on this, though I’ll keep covering it. It’s been coming for a long time, it’s not a surprise and in some ways it’s not news. But a lot of people with suffer as a result.
For those who say “but Kamala” I note only that to win she had to either:
- Not say that she wouldn’t have done anything different than Biden; or,
- Come out against genocide.
Apparently supporting genocide was a red line for her, and fascism in the US a secondary issue. Neoliberals will always choose fascism over anything remotely left wing, including the left wing value of opposing a new Holocaust.
This is where we are.
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bruce wilder
the long time coming part is what I expect most of those invested in traditional partisanship to be in denial about. many key precedents and foundational developments were set by the younger Bush and Obama; and, I do not refer only to the well-deserved loss of trust and confidence in the integrity of institutions, which accelerated with Hilary Clinton’s candidacy and the Democrats and neocon never-Trump Republicans that put Biden in. they were acting in authoritarian and anti-democratic ways to an extent that made cries of “fascist” more projection than effective push-back. putting the billionaire Zionist boys club in charge of everything was a bipartisan project. letting Trump play dress-up games and indulge in political playback is anticlimax.
i wear my own kind of sorta participation in the empty, purely performative Son of Soros “No Kings” protest as a badge of personal dishonor. But, I do think it worth noticing how little mass popular mobilization is involved in this tech bros ™ sponsored fascism as contrasted with the 1930s version. this is very much a top-down, the fish rots from the head affair.
someofparts
Back in the days of the dinosaurs, mammal species remained small. No creatures the size of modern horses or primates could survive when the big reptiles ruled. I will be pinning my own hopes for survival on being small and insignificant, as my fellow mammals were in previous reptile administrations.
My closest relations are hardcore MAGA and hardcore neoliberal, respectively. For my part, whether it is wise or foolish, I am glad to at least live in a majority black city. Even as it has become impossible to talk sense with any of my white friends/relations, it has never been easier to be in agreement with my black neighbors. If there is any population in this nation that will resist fascism as much as possible I expect it to come from blacks and I will be on the barricades beside them.
BC Nurse Prof (ret.)
Ian, Canada won’t be a safe place going forward. I am too old and too sick to go anywhere. Are there any strategies to keep safe here? You already have a target painted on your back, where will you go?
Bullweather
Flag burning now “illegal”.
cc
Isn’t this a Zionist fascism?
That started pre-Trump, and not just in the US, as a crackdown to silence anti-genocide protesters? Ex. clamping down on anti-genocide student protests on university campuses, including in Canada. Ex. attempts across the Western world to make it illegal/career-ruining to even mildly criticize the Anglo-armed-and-supported Zionist regime?
That also relates to Kamala’s refusal to come out against the genocide, and also manifested outside the US, ex. in Europe and Canada, before Trump’s re-election. Was Trump’s loyalty to Israel reinforced by the assassination close calls and Netanyahu’s gift of a gold-plated pager? Why are so many Western politicians and media in our ostensible “democracies” so fearful of speaking up against the well-documented genocide and the deliberate sniper-shootings and starvation of children?
From an online comment read somewhere:
“Nazism and Zionism are just different versions of Fascism.”
cc
“Nazism and Zionism are just different versions of Fascism.”
Our Western governments are supporting and arming both the right-wing neo-Nazi fascist regime in Ukraine and the right-wing Zionist fascist regime in Israel, fueling and sustaining both conflicts that would stop without Western taxpayer-funded support.
Haven’t the fascist forces of WWII (Germany, Italy, Japan, Banderite Western Ukraine, Romania, etc.) since been absorbed into and become part of the US side?
As this recent article suggests “Fascism didn’t have to come to America.”
“Everything Hitler did, everything you read about now, America did first, all the way back in the 1830s. Americans invented modern genocide.”
“Hitler studied British extermination policies against the Irish and American extermination policies against the Native Americans. He used them as a blueprint for his own plans to expand Germany.”
“George Washington ordered the “total destruction and devastation of their settlements” so they would be “driven” out by “terror,””
“Thomas Jefferson directly threatened to exterminate all Native Americans who didn’t leave voluntarily from areas they wished to settle.”
https://www.the-sentinel-intelligence.com/p/the-great-confinement
We now see the very same genocide playbook being carried out by the white Zionist settlers supported by the US and the West.
“History teaches us that fascism didn’t arrive here from Germany. The ideas that inform today’s understanding of fascism go back hundreds of years, and they lie at the roots of American and European history.”
David in Friday Harbor
Whatever we call it — I personally prefer Sheldon Wollin’s construct of “Inverted Totalitarianism” — what we are seeing is the naked substitution of state-sponsored militaristic repression of the rule of law in support of the hoarding of diminishing resources by the few in the face of 8.25 billion human lives in simultaneous being.
It should be noted that Harris and the Democrats have never opposed this — in fact Wollin believes that they actively constructed the system under Clinton and Obama. They just mistakenly believed that they could easily subvert the electoral process via propaganda and elite impunity in order to anoint themselves to live among the few.
Feral Finster
You are correct as regards America , but don’t kid yourself if you think europe is any better.
Dan Lynch
I don’t care for the “is this facism?” debate because there has never been any agreement on the definition of facism, internet memes to the contrary. It’s just a word. Better to specify what a country or a person is doing that is bad. 1930’s fascists loved wars of aggression, and wars of aggression are bad. (Of course, you can always blame the other side for provoking the conflict and then claim you were the victim.) Even so, many U.S. wars are flat out wars of aggression, and that did not start with Trump, nor with Bush. It’s what we do, and have done for a long time.
Jailing people or even firing people for saying unpopular things is bad. Again, it did not start with Trump, it goes back at least to WWI when anti-war protesters were prosecuted under the Espionage Act, and that law is still on the books. And then there is the whole slavery and genocide thing. As Howard Zinn emphasized, the claim that the U.S. is a shining beacon on the hill has always been bull puckey. We do a lot of bad things.
Bob
Yes.
I’m one of those annoying people who thinks their society (UK) has always been fascist.
Essentially this means being someone who calls the chocolate cake mix in the oven that still has ten minutes to go, chocolate cake. People say – it’s not chocolate cake, it’s chocolate cake mix in the oven with ten minutes to go, you can’t call it chocolate cake.
But it’s chocolate cake. In ten minutes you’re not going to open the oven and fond a Victoria sponge or a roast duck.
The US oven went ding.
In the UK it’s got another thirty seconds, give or take?
Nasty stuff but no surprises.
mago
A couple of incidental items: the US now owns 10% of Intel after some strong arming by our Glorious Leader.
And the tech bros with their toxic transhumance fuck the proles fantasies wield outsized influence in that military zone and insane asylum known as DC, and we’re not talking direct current here.
Yes, it’s been a long time coming. . .
To see where we’ve been look where we are now.
To see where we’re going, look where we are now. (Paraphrasing 10th century pandita Shantideva.)
Hiero
“Holocaust” thank you for calling it what it is
Joan
Ian, do you see Canada following this trend? What would you recommend for a young-ish (30s) American trying to get out?
I have been trying to get back to a country in the EU because I lived there for five years, loved it, and speak the language. I only wound up Stateside again due to visa issues during covid. I have good friends there who love me and are ‘found family’ since my family of origin is either dead or scattered far and wide. But if Germany is trending in that direction I’m worried about other places in the EU.
Jessica
You are correct but I am not sure that it adds any information or strategic insight to use that label. Particularly since the Dems have long been using the notion that Trump is a threat to democracy to try to garner support for their own variety of threat to democracy.
I hope you are also do whatever keeps you in touch with the deeper spiritual realities too. Difficult now but precisely for that reason, important.
Ian Welsh
BC Prof Nurse / Joan.
Yeah, headed down the same lane. BC, sorry to hear about the sickness.
There really aren’t a lot of of options left. Ireland perhaps, I have some Irish ancestry and they are at least anti-genocide. Perhaps South America. I hear good things about Vietnam (but climate). In terms of free places, very few left. I admire China, but I couldn’t write this blog there.
Oakchair
If society has gone fascist what does that tell us about the veracity and moral quality of the institutions, powerful and gospels of that society? Think maybe we should keep on obeying and trusting them?
—-
they actively constructed the system under Clinton and Obama.
—–
Controlled opposition knowingly or unknowingly.
We can view Trumps “opposition” to the FBI & CIA as controlled opposition as well. The effect of his “opposition” was to send the Dem establishment into full support of the spy state.
Under Trumps first admin America sent Ukraine billions and billions in weapons and money along with technological, and spy support. The real effect of Trumps “Putin love” was to get the Dem establishment to support sanctions, war and censorship against Russia.
Interesting how Trump’s aggressive behavior towards Iran and support of Israel didn’t stop the Dem establishment completely supporting genocide and more middle eastern wars.
Ian Welsh
Jessica,
just a mark in the sand. It’s worth noting, but no, it adds nothing.
Seattle Resident
Jessica
I get that the democrats are not as good at defending democracy as they should be, but comparing them to a regime that will pick up black and brown people at will, detain them, and ship them off to places like El Salvador and Uganda is an apples and oranges comparison, which may not be appreciated if one is not black or brown.
Ian
I get that Kamala was not the best campaigner, but did what she could with 3 or so months to campaign, but in spite of her verbal muffs, e.g., not changing anything from Biden, she did, unlike Trump, offer expansion of medicare to cover home care services for the elderly, unlike the goodness we’re getting after the midterms, and a child tax credit as well as student debt relief – stuff that would have helped Main Street Americans. I guess “they’re eating the dogs, they’re eating the cats” isn’t a disqualifier?
Also contributing to Harris’s loss other than, Gaza, the price of eggs, racism, and sexism, was the possibility of tampering with the vote: Trump kept saying “we got the votes, we got the votes”, and pointed out Elon’s ability to use the phones and his knowledge of the PA voting machines. Elon admitted that he helped Trump win the Presidency and the House. Some groups are looking into some funny business with the voting machines in NC.
https://thiswillhold.substack.com/p/she-won-part-viii-north-carolina
Ian Welsh
Enough people didn’t vote at all who had voted for Biden who said their reason was genocide to have won the election for Kamala. Mass murder was more important to her than winning the election.
Purple Library Guy
Looking at some of the comments here, I see that many people underestimate words.
Bill Bradford
I really hope this comment posts. First, have any of you actually read the U.S. Constitution? The word “democracy” does NOT appear in it. The word “republic”, – meaning our form of government, DOES appear several times. America is NOT a “democracy”. Why are you all so hung up on that stupid concept? That word “democracy” was invented by our puppet-masters, TPTB. And, your exaggerated, paranoid, psychotic hatred of Trump only serves to pollute your own minds. “Hatred is like drinking poison to kill your enemy.” Now, please just go back to your pointless navel-gazing and teeth-gnashing over Herr Trump. You people are ridiculous….
Feral Finster
“Our Western governments are supporting and arming both the right-wing neo-Nazi fascist regime in Ukraine and the right-wing Zionist fascist regime in Israel, fueling and sustaining both conflicts that would stop without Western taxpayer-funded support.”
Note that europe used the The War On Russia to end freedom of speech and association, not to mention to cancel unwanted election results.
The United States is using the War On Palestine as its excuse to do the same. At least the American hillbilly can tell himself that it is “his” dollar and “his”. empire.
NR
“When the American empire finally collapses, historians won’t be stunned by the greed of the elite; They’ll be stunned by the loyalty of the poor.
The working class didn’t just vote against their own interests. They worshipped the billionaires robbing them.
They slashed their own benefits, gutted their own healthcare, and cheered while the rich wrote off private jets as tax deductions.
Not because it helped them.
But because they were told it would hurt someone else.
And that, right there, is how you rig a democracy without ever breaking a single law.”
-Brian Allen
mago
PLG. What do you mean by underestimating words?
Words and meanings?
Words carry no inherent weight.
Tony Wikrent
“I researched every attempt to stop fascism in history. The success rate is 0%. Once they win elections, it’s already too late.”
“We live in a Fascist nation, what now?”- by Chris Armitage
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/8/25/2340181/-We-live-in-a-Fascist-nation-what-now-by-Chris-Armitage
kumarplocher, August 25, 2025 [Daily Kos]
“I researched every attempt to stop fascism in history. The success rate is 0%. Once they win elections, it’s already too late.”
“In 1933, German conservatives thought they could control Hitler. Two years later, they were being executed in their own homes. I spent weeks researching this question, desperately looking for counter-examples, for hope, for any time in history where people successfully stopped fascists after they started winning elections.
Here’s what I found: Once fascists win power democratically, they have never been removed democratically. Not once. Ever.
I know that sounds impossible. I kept digging, thinking surely someone, somewhere, stopped them. The actual record is so much worse than you think….
And here’s the part that breaks your heart. Violence works. For them. Fascists use violence while claiming to be victims. They create chaos that “requires” their authoritarian solution. Then they purge anyone who opposes them. Meanwhile, democrats keep insisting on following rules that fascists completely ignore. They file lawsuits. They write editorials. They vote on resolutions. And fascists just laugh and keep consolidating power….
The statistics are brutal. Fascist takeovers prevented after winning power democratically: zero. Average length of fascist rule once established: 31 years. Fascist regimes removed by voting: zero. Fascist regimes removed by asking nicely: zero. Most were removed by war or military coups, and tens of millions died in the process….
Based on the historical record, there are exactly three ways this goes. Option one: Stop them before they take power. Option two: War. Option three: Wait for them to die of old age….
So let’s stop pretending we’re in the “prevention” phase and start talking about what you do when fascists already control the institutions but haven’t fully consolidated power yet. Because historically, nobody’s been here before, not like this….
Tc
“Neoliberals will always choose fascism over anything remotely left wing, including the left wing value of opposing a new Holocaust.“
Truth! The replies on Bluesky are STILL full of outrage at those “purists” and their “pet issues” who wouldnt vote for their allegedly lesser evil genocidal candidate and party. As much as I hate rightwingers, I must confess neo liberal tears are delish, possibly habit forming. Doesnt make up for the End of the World, but it’s not nothing. So much for their I Got Mine version of liberalism.
Lex
I remember discussing the coming of fascism to the U.S. back at The Agonist. It seems so quaint now, but we were all right that the path was being laid.
The real hope now is that the degeneracy of the U.S. has caused a serious crisis of competence, that might half save us. Or give us room to save ourselves. Though I don’t see any serious desire to do so.