Remember, All This Fascism Would Feel Way More Fascismy Under Trump

Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley):

Okay, yes, police are currently in the process of violently stomping out political dissent on university campuses across America following multiple statements from President Biden attacking the protesters as “antisemitic” for opposing the genocide he’s been enthusiastically facilitating in Gaza. And okay, fine, bands of right wing thugs are currently going around terrorizing students who don’t align with the US government’s support for the state of Israel.

But before any of my fellow liberals get any wild ideas about ceasing their support for Biden during an election year just because of a little tyranny and genocide, I think it’s important to remind everyone that all this fascism would feel way more fascisty if Trump was president.

Think about it. If Trump was presiding over jackbooted authoritarian suppression while mobs of marauding fascists attack dissident youths with impunity, wouldn’t that just feel way worse? Wouldn’t it feel way more scary and upsetting in your feely bits? When cops are cracking skulls at Columbia University to punish young people for protesting their government’s actions, wouldn’t the cracking sound way worse if the president was being all crude and impolite about it?

CNN's @miguelmarquez: "I've covered lots of this sort of stuff around the world, and i've never seen this many police moving into one area." pic.twitter.com/ktRfqDBkoy

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) May 1, 2024

After all, if Trump was allowing these things to happen in the United States it would be because he is the second coming of Adolf Hitler, but when Biden does it it’s because he’s walking a fine line of nuance and diplomacy and something something political pragmatism. Whatever, my point is we don’t have to think about it too hard or feel too bad about it.

And if there’s one thing we’ve learned over the last seven months it’s that the only thing that matters is you and your feelings, and the way your feelings are feeling inside. Are campus protests making you feel unsafe and threatened? Then that’s all that matters; we needn’t get into the details of whether those feelings are based on any factual circumstances. Does someone saying “from the river to the sea” make your feelings more uncomfortable than US war machinery being used to massacre children? Then we’ll focus on that to the exclusion of all else.

If Trump was letting these horrible things happen, we’d feel outraged and upset. We might even feel obliged to get up and go protest the things he is doing, which as we all know can often cause us to miss brunch. But because a trusted Democrat is in office, we can just relax and think pleasant thoughts and drink bottles of wine and Nyquil in the bathtub.

You don’t have to like what’s happening to your country. You don’t even have to pay attention to it. All you have to do is make sure you keep telling everyone to shut up and stop criticizing the president and to tick that little box next to Biden’s name in November. Because it’s just a tough fact that in order to defeat Orange Mussolini, we’re going to have to get comfortable with fascism.

https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/remember-all-this-fascism-would-feel