Michael TraceyVerified account

A fascist seizing control of the US presidency *would* in fact be "world-historic," given the awesome, unparalleled power of that office.

@mtracey Crises come as a surprise to the naive and unprepared. Just because US has been stable for 150 years doesn't mean it will remain so

@mtracey Michael why is "world historic" the only form of fascism? are you straw-manning this discourse?

@kfrydl "World historic" because a fascist takeover of the US would represent unprecedented in power in the hands of fascists, no?

@mtracey as you know Berlusconi did tremendous harm to judiciary & Italian economy; still not "world historic" in sense of "takeover"

@kfrydl I would say that a Berlusconi type assuming the US presidency would qualify as "world historic" due to the power of the office.

@mtracey oh, that's a bad style of argument to make on the internet, especially if you have a job. Or a nervous system.

@quinnnorton Eh, I'm just probing the content of people's beliefs. As we do.

@mtracey actually, *that's* really hard to do in this format, which is reactive, performative, and small.

@quinnnorton Hard, but possible. I find it fascinating in this format, actually. Often leads to interesting truces.

@mtracey and what if you're wrong and the people shouting "fascist" are in actuality the fascists?

@YungNamek That should lead people to question whether Trump really is in fact a world-historic fascist menace.

@mtracey I don't think these protesters are asking questions, or interested in any dialogue, and that's the problem

@YungNamek That is probably true to a large extent.

@mtracey I was at depaul last week for Milo & most of those protesters weren't interested in dialogue either, just make-believe activism

@YungNamek yes because if there's one thing fascists are interested in it's a frank and honest exchange of ideas. fuck out of here,