More People Are Recognizing the Reality That What We Have Now in the United States Is Indeed Fascism, published Thursday, January 29, 2026:
https://charbor74.blogspot.com/2026/01/more-people-are-recognizing-reality.html
Now, I did not have access to the full article. However, I did applaud Rauch for calling a spade a spade and calling what is happening with Trump and his mindless MAGA Moron cult fascism. At some point, we have to stop beating around the bush and be direct. Face the reality of the situation, and not split hairs or try to censor the term so as not to offend anybody.
Well in this video below, an interview with Sam Harris, Rauch goes into greater details. That helps, since I could not read the entirety of his article, much as I would like to.
To be sure, not everything fits neatly. And Rauch does say that the country itself is not quite fascist (yet) at this point.
Harris makes an interesting point. He says that, historically speaking, fascist figures tended to present themselves as almost comical, clownish figures. That certainly has been the case with Trump, but it also was true of Hitler. I remember hearing documentaries where people (before he took power) seemed almost to laughingly suggest that he looked like a hairstylist, or resembled Charlie Chaplin. Before Hitler took power, most people assumed that he would be a stooge, a mere puppet of the major businesses which really ran Germany.
Obviously, that's not how it actually worked out.
And Harris then made the related point that when people (like Harris and Rauch with this discussion) warn about the danger, people who buy into the comical aspects of a buffoon like Trump will dismiss it. How can such a clown actually pose any real danger?
Yet, look at the extent to which they have advanced the erosion of our American democracy.
Yes, the threat is real. If this is a battle, clearly opponents of what's going on are losing. Trump and MAGA are winning. Let's get real about that.
All of that said, I wanted to point one thing out. Rauch at one point suggests that Mussolini had been a socialist before he became a fascist, and suggested that there was no surprise there. Americans often tend to lump socialism and communism together, even though they are not the same thing. For example, what I see as at least versions of socialism, or socialist thinking, which have been working for western Europe or Australia or Canada or Japan and South Korea and on and on have. Identifying with that kind of socialism is not the same as fascism. Let's be clear on that point.
Otherwise, this was a pretty interesting discussion. Take a look and see for yourself. And please feel free to share your thoughts.
Below is the link to the article which I first wrote about in late January, and which one of the participants in this video discussion wrote:
Yes, It’s Fascism by Jonathan Rauch, January 25, 2026:
Until recently, I thought it a term best avoided. But now, the resemblances are too many and too strong to deny
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/01/america-fascism-trump-maga-ice/685751/?utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=the-atlantic&utm_medium=social&utm_content=edit-promo
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