Lincoln Project Videos
- Thread starter The Thriller
- Start date
That one really hit me. That absolutely drives home what is so despicable about Trump and what I can't wait to move past.
fishonjazz
Well-Known Member
Contributor
2018 Award Winner
2019 Award Winner
2020-21 Award Winner
2022 Award Winner
2023 Award Winner
Not going to lie, I watched it a second time and cried a second time.
I believe in a beautiful strong America that fights for the good. A nation that is a beacon of hope for the destitute. A people that stand together to make the world a better place.
What happened to that vision? What happened to the pride that came from making that the cornerstone of our identity? Why do so many of my fellow Americans hate that part of who we are?
I just don't understand it.
Red
Well-Known Member
It is still there, but a darker vision, with a long past in America, has experienced an ascendency at this time. And I was reminded of that other America, and its past incarnations, in an essay I read, and posted in the impeach Trump thread. I’m posting it again here, if it helps you understand that this uglier vision, far uglier, has manifested several times in our history. I’ve been a lifelong student of history, but I realized that I needed to read this, and remember, remember that this opposite vision has long bubbled under the surface, and erupted at times. Like now. Trump is just the latest example. I’m still very hopeful for our future, despite having to live through this:
“Paxton has argued influentially that fascism is as fascism does. But conspicuous features are recognizably shared, including: nostalgia for a purer, mythic, often rural past; cults of tradition and cultural regeneration; paramilitary groups; the delegitimizing of political opponents and demonization of critics; the universalizing of some groups as authentically national, while dehumanizing all other groups; hostility to intellectualism and attacks on a free press; anti-modernism; fetishized patriarchal masculinity; and a distressed sense of victimhood and collective grievance. Fascist mythologies often incorporate a notion of cleansing, an exclusionary defense against racial or cultural contamination, and related eugenicist preferences for certain “bloodlines” over others. Fascism weaponizes identity, validating the herrenvolk and invalidating all the other folk.”
American Fascism: It Has Happened Here | Sarah Churchwell
“When Americans think of dictators they always think of some foreign model,” wrote the anti-fascist journalist Dorothy Thompson in the mid-1930s, but an American dictator would be “one of the boys, and he will stand for everything traditionally American.” And the American people, Thompson added...
www.nybooks.com
Keefe
Well-Known Member
Money. Money happened.
leftyjace
Well-Known Member
Money... and success.
Think about it.
The roots of this country that Gameface are referring to are entrenched in a single, massive, important attribute: Humility.
Yes, we took pride, but that's because we knew we started from nothing, and have come a long way. It was justified pride in comparing our current position to our history.
We have now had success for so long that a sense of entitlement and arrogance has become a very tangible part of our national fabric.
Couple this with the gradual polarization of the populace over time due to a two-party political system, and we have a culture of confrontation and extremism that is now the norm.
Hence, the focus has shifted from the "common good" to the "I'm better than you" and the "what's in it for me" perspectives, and individuals no longer concern themselves with what's best for all of us as a whole.
Don't know if the above makes sense - having a hard time putting my thoughts to words right now. Ugh.
leftyjace
Well-Known Member
Well, you have the advantage of me... because you know who I am, and you also know who I was... but I do not know who you are (or were).
<sigh>
I don't know who anyone is anymore.
One Brow
Well-Known Member
I believe he used to be SerpicoNJ.
As for me, a long time ago I joined this board as One Brow.
Keefe
Well-Known Member
You take the time to post this but don’t take the time to play these supposed stats that demonstrate that right-wing idiots are starting more of the rioting/looting.
NAOS
Well-Known Member
He’s an idiot by one name or another. That’s all you really need to know.
Keefe
Well-Known Member
Hey, it’s dip ****! What’s up dude?! Still whining about expensive living in a big city?
NAOS
Well-Known Member
This has always been a deeply flawed country. A settler colonialist State with an economic foundation in slavery. That’s about as brutal of a recipe as you can get. Trump baits and stokes the elements that have grown out of those roots, and have been unable to have real conversations about our shared history.
NAOS
Well-Known Member
You’re a ****ing moron. I’ve never complained about the expenses of LA. You misread what I said, per usual. **** off now, bai.