Former President Donald Trump heaped praise on authoritarian Chinese President Xi Jinping during a lengthy interview Friday with the podcaster Joe Rogan.
“We’re dealing with the smartest people,” Trump said, referring to the leaders of U.S. adversaries, about an hour and a half into their conversation.
“They hate when I say, you know, when the press — when I called President Xi, [the press] said, ‘Well, he called President Xi brilliant.’ Well, he’s a brilliant guy. He controls 1.4 billion people with an iron fist. I mean, he’s a brilliant guy, whether you like it or not. And they go crazy.”
This is the 100% the “how did the other Germans, who weren’t nazis, just let it all happen?” period. Gives you a bit more empathy for just how helpless those people must have felt and how complex those developing emotions must have been.
No it doesn’t, because I know that even at its darkest there was a resistance movement and that his enablers chose their path.
The “not Nazis” chose to side with him against his “enemies” because it was easy, not because it was right.
Yes, that’s the complexity I’m talking about. The fact that you have time to post on Lemmy, as I do, and aren’t setting something on fire, knocking on doors, etc. right now is the point. But we’re in it now, make no mistake, this is that developing moment, this is the time it can be reversed, if ever. We’re either lazy, or feel like we have too much relative comfort/friends/career standing to lose to be loud and active right now. But this is that moment, we are the frog in the pot. We’ll never realize it’s actually possible until the day after, because we need to hold on to the hope that it’s actually impossible for it to happen again, but it is possible.
You speaking with confidence here it’s also a way for you to personally calm yourself and reaffirm that same “actually, it will never happen” mentality. That’s “them” not “us”.
As with anything, there’s a spectrum and plenty of the complicit German citizens were all too ready to drop to their knees early - the “anticipatory obedience” that bezos and the LATimes billionaire just demonstrated by not endorsing a candidate. Some of us will always stay quietly defiant, until enough of our comfort is taken away and we’re left with no choice but to be active. But this is definitely a “flood the streets to denounce the steady rise of fascism” moment, and the streets aren’t full, and you and I are both inside right now.
I’m not claiming a moral high ground, or providing forgiveness for bootlickers - I’m speaking to a place in the middle, where capitalism has worked very hard to make us comfortable enough, docile consumers. I include myself, because it’s all fucking hard, and society is engineered so we can find our minor reliefs, while never forgetting about the looming absolute failure waiting for you if you get off the treadmill for too long. Where your life will peel away from you in layers, until you’re left cold in the streets while pandemics rage, atmospheric rivers pour, heat domes wait around the corner and it’s illegal to sleep outside and the shelters (built by the private prison companies) are all full.
Don’t be afraid to talk out loud about this reality we share right now, fascism is on the rise throughout the whole world now. Russia is the instigator, US is the theater and the whole world is given permission as more is tolerated here. We can feel some shame and some anger, that’s okay. Maybe it will motivate us or hopefully, maybe it will piss off the younger kids with less “stuff” and comfort amassed to lose. I was that kid, quick to jump into a dangerous crowd with a cause, with lines of tactical swat cops surrounding major intersections/freeways we occupied. I was able to do that then, because it was my decision, but my decisions are attached to other people now and, again, there’s just more complexity.