Ron DeSantis has now questioned the wisdom of endless American support for the war in Ukraine, and that’s very dangerous.
Trump and DeSantis have both apparently decided they value Putin’s assistance with their election in 2024 more than they value America’s national security, international law, our allies, or fundamental human decency.
— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) March 14, 2023
War is fundamental human decency, fascists! War is also antiauthoritarianism, and antiwar sentiment is pro-authoritarian:
Of course. Putin & Xi appeared together in fall 2021 to kick off the new imperialist age. The GOP is not only trying to wreck democracy at home, but finish Trump’s job of realigning the US with a global autocratic order. https://t.co/ft9JpVVN5k
— Ruth Ben-Ghiat (@ruthbenghiat) March 14, 2023
The capital-p Progressive journalist Randolph Bourne famously warned that “war is the health of the state,” foregrounding executive power and strangling dissent. His small-p progressive successors warn that shut up, Nazi, are you for Putin?!?!?
Similarly, Tucker Carlson and other vicious blackshirt monsters make hidden security footage public, warning that it appears to complicate the official narrative about a man sentenced to prison as a violent insurrectionist.
NEW: Body-worn camera footage of police clearing the Senate chamber on Jan. 6.
Was introduced as evidence at Jacob Chansley’s sentencing. A judge ordered it released after a request from the media coalition, and it was posted today: pic.twitter.com/Y9IwStEjWS
— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) March 13, 2023
This, too, is authoritarianism.
As I point out in a Lucid essay publishing tomorrow, the point of McCarthy giving Carlson that footage is to make false narratives about J6 that exonerate the guilty. All part of the massive coverup underway by the far-right. https://t.co/mIL7ypTi0v
— Ruth Ben-Ghiat (@ruthbenghiat) March 13, 2023
Long and unexamined prison terms for critics of the government is antiauthoritarianism; arguing for a second look at the evidence is what fascists do. Somebody tell the authoritarianism expert Ruth Ben-Ghiat about the Innocence Project and help the poor thing to process the fact of its existence. Why do progressive district attorneys establish conviction review units? To be Nazis, obviously. Our Democracy™ is that people sentenced to prison should always just shut up and take it. To avoid authoritarianism.
Here’s my bid for tenure at NYU: YOU KNOW WHO ELSE BELIEVED IN DUE PROCESS AND SECOND CHANCES FOR CONVICTS THAT’S RIGHT ADOLF HITLER THINK ABOUT IT. I would like my own research institute, please.
Some parents think that government-run schools shouldn’t manage the sexual identity of their children to the exclusion of parental involvement; this is obviously something that only far-right extremists think, because it’s dangerously authoritarian to raise your own children and have a role in their choices. Antiauthoritarianism is the opposite: it’s when government schools raise and shape your children without telling you what they’re doing.
A DeSantis-style bill was just introduced in CA to require teachers/counselors to inform parents if a kid id’s as a gender not on birth certificate.
Even if the kid isn’t ready to come out to their parents. Even if ratting the kid out risks violence at home.
Nope, not in CA.
— Senator Scott Wiener (@Scott_Wiener) March 13, 2023
And the “are you a parent” line is pretty dismissive, Erica. I understand very well the ramifications of a teacher being forced to tell parents about a kid’s sexual orientation or gender identity before the kid is ready. It’s harmful, which is why it’s being pushed by the right.
— Senator Scott Wiener (@Scott_Wiener) March 13, 2023
“Ratting out” a child is when information about the child’s life is transferred from the government, the proper guardian of information about the child, to a parent.
Criticizing the government is authoritarian. Having doubts about war is authoritarian. Expecting social media to be a forum for free and open speech is authoritarian. Stepping in between the state and its children, as a so-called parent, is authoritarianism. Long pre-trial detention and harsh prison sentences for critics of the state are antiauthoritarian; raising questions about a conviction is authoritarian.
The aspiring fascists are warning you about fascism, inverting reality, and blending facts into soup. Look at this again, because it plays second fiddle to Ruth Ben-Ghiat up above:
Join me at 5p ET on @DeadlineWH as Proud Boys claim their case should be dropped based on Tucker Carlson’s make-believe footage: Prosecutors say newly aired Chansley footage paints misleading portrait of his Jan. 6 conduct – POLITICO @MSNBC https://t.co/OLMHhBul1A
— Frank Figliuzzi (@FrankFigliuzzi1) March 13, 2023
The point isn’t whether the “newly aired footage paints a misleading portrait.” The point is that it’s new, and they’re at trial without having seen it. The argument, not mentioned in the discussion between the experts on authoritarianism, is that the government has withheld evidence from a criminal defendant. And then the authoritarianism expert Ruth Ben-Ghiat says, oh, yes, this Brady violation stuff is a fascist plot. She’s agreeing with . . .
. . . a former FBI counterintelligence official, the author of a book on the indescribably glorious wonders of the state security apparatus:
You know you’re a true warrior against authoritarianism when you agree with a retired counterintelligence official that critics of the state don’t deserve due process and full access to the evidence in the government’s possession.
Editor’s note: A version of this article appeared originally at Chris Bray’s Substack, “Tell Me How This Ends.” Subscribe here.