Is describing the current political situation in the USA as fascism accurate and useful?

[evan@cosocial.ca]

Is describing the current political situation in the USA as fascism accurate and useful?

#EvanPoll #poll

[jszym@cosocial.ca]

@evan Fascism is not a switch you turn on. It's a slow frog boil, a creeping weed.

Some people are equating the level of facism in the US by the amount of control its currently exerting on its people, which is a bit like saying someone doesn't have cancer because a growing tumour hasn't become invasive and metastasized yet.

ICE and the National Guard are being used as the brown shirts were, television censors are empowered, unprecedented levels of corporatism...

[mpjgregoire@cosocial.ca]

@evan As Orwell told us, people use the term "fascism" with a range of meanings, so whether it is accurate or not has no clear answer [0].

I think it *is* clear that to describe the Trump Administration as fascist is not useful. Americans who pay attention to politics either believe it's obviously true or obviously false, so using the term changes no minds. Arguing about the term can indeed be a misuse of energy — it's more productive to criticise specific policies.

[0] https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/orwell/essays-and-other-works/politics-and-the-english-language/