They Are Actually Serious
They really think Donald Trump will do Nazi things
I’ve seen numerous articles in the press saying that Trump is a Nazi etc. My general reaction to this was that it was idiotic hyperbole (after all every Republican apart from Ford has been called a Nazi since ww2) and that no one would be dumb enough to really believe it. As I don’t live in the US and most of the people I deal with are generally on the pro-Trump side I don’t see a lot of the commentary by actual non-”journalist” sorts. But the Trump rally at Madison Square Gardens seems to have brought enough of them out of the woodwork that even I can find them - for example a bunch of the Xeets reposted by this german Xeeter. As can this (German origin) new American citizen:
It seems clear to me that these people are deluded. Becky Jones (retired politics professor) wrote a useful post about what fascism actually is. Based on his observed behavior from 2017-2020 and what he says he plans to do if re-elected, Trump is going to be neither a National Socialist nor a Fascist (nor an International Socialist a.k.a. Communist). But thanks to the endless drum beat of the Commie La Whoreish campaign and its sympathetic coverage by the MSM many people believe that Trump will be a (insert insults)-ist dictator.
In most cases this is really a case of projection, for example the Never Trumper RINOs at the Bulwark:
The Bulwark thinks that billionaires etc. must bend the knee to Trump lest his administration cut them from lucrative contracts and/or conduct lawfare against them. This is of course a complete contrast to the Biden administration and its behaviour against Trump, Musk and so on.
Actually when you look at what Trump says he will do, it can mostly be summed up as “drain the swamp, and this time I mean it and I’m hiring the right people to be sure it happens”, which is just like Hitler.
Actually for most Trump supporters, this meme applies
Hence people who might not normally vote Trump, e.g. libertarians, are planning on doing so
Another libertarian adjacent voting for Trump (I think) is ESR - Eric Raymond, the open source evangelist - who notes that Trump supporters are embracing and mocking the Nazi charge. For more in that vein read this:
Yet, despite Trump supporters of all religions and ethnicities joking about their Nazi tendencies, it seems that there are in fact millions who really sincerely believe Trump will put them or their acquaintances in concentration camps. They believe he’ll go all Ceaucescu and ban any kind of contraception. They think he’ll force illegal immigrants on a trail of tears back to the Mexican border; that he’ll send storm troopers in to congress to ensure it votes the way he wants. And so on. There seems no way to convince them otherwise.
My friend Vodkapundit thinks we need to stage an intervention, but there aren’t enough mental health professionals (and that ignores the fact that many mental health professionals seem to be believers in this lunacy). I agree with him that they probably can’t be convinced by logic and reason. If you point out that it hasn’t happened yet then they come up with excuses like he’s lulling people into a false sense of security or he’s being stymied by the brave #resistance. These people are what someone recently called “High Disinformation Voters”, who have been brainwashed by the MSM and the like into believing any number of things that aren’t true from the efficacy of masks to the wonderfulness of intermittent electricity and they are also unshakeable in their belief of OrangeManBad
I have no idea how the sane parts of the US are going to handle their insane neighbors but I think they really ought to make some plans because, presuming Trump triumphs in a week’s time, there are going to be many people like Akiah Hughes in 2016.
I had a typical baby boomer US liberal (no wokebag, though) spout this arrant nonsense "Nazi" dreck at me, and simultaneously arguimg what a pervert Trump was and what a paragon of moral virtue the Biden family is. It qualified as deadpan comedy --- except that the tosser is dead serious.
I dunno. Even Bezos doesn't believe it. The only people hysterical about potential things they think could be bad have simultaneously exactly no concerns about actual things in evidence now that are existentially bad. The vocal screechers are amplifying imaginary fears over their true fear: a loosening grip on status, influence, lives of excess, droits de seigneur, and avoiding prison for fraud, corruption, *cough EpsteinPDiddy pervs/traffickers cough cough* and the like.