Fascism expert Jason Stanley opines about DJT & the MSM

Chauncey Devega at Salon published an interview he had with fascism expert Jason Stanley. 

Jason Stanley on “undermining propaganda” with fascism: 

“Trump is robbing democracy of any meaning”

“We have a classic fascist situation in this country right now,” according to the author of “How Fascism Works”

Like other dictators, Trump is a megalomaniac, possessed by delusions of grandeur and omnipotence. As part of that pathological and extremely dangerous behavior, Trump has repeatedly demonstrated that he appears to be profoundly mentally unwell. As seen last weekend in Iowa, Trump is now going so far as to basically declare that he is some type of Chosen One, and that “God” and “Jesus” will intervene on behalf of him and the American neofascists in their campaign to defeat President Biden and the Democrats.

Fascism, as an extension of today’s version of American conservatism, is a form of religious politics (a movement of faith, action, and violence more than reason and reflection) that is largely immune from empirical reality and the type of obsolescent normal politics that the mainstream news media and larger political class are slavishly devoted to.

In total, the MAGA movement and American neofascism are revolutionary projects, decades in the making, to end multiracial pluralistic democracy and replace it with an American Christofascist Apartheid plutocracy. As seen with Project 2025, Agenda 47, and the Red Caesar scenario for example, the Republican fascists and "conservative" movement have made great progress in creating the infrastructure to implement these plans.

The mainstream American news media and responsible political class, however, continue to act shocked and surprised by Trump’s Hitler-like threats and agenda. In so many ways, this is all anticlimactic and obvious: Trump and the other American fascists have been telegraphing and announcing in plain sight their plans to end the country’s democracy for more than seven years. To be in denial for so long is a form of malpractice and betrayal of the responsibilities by the so-called guardians of democracy. 

Stanley comments:

The elite news media is finally waking up, if only for a second, to the reality of Trumpism and American fascism and how he is going to be a dictator. But here is the problem: they sound the alarm, but I don't think they really believe it because the next day it is back to the obsolete horse race coverage and ill-conceived "hot take" and superficial controversy of the day. These stories about Trump and fascism should be on the front page every day. The mainstream news media is so late to the reality of the situation they really have no credibility left as I see it.

It's surreal. No amount of reality will change them. I'm shocked, by the way the media is reacting to every new claim that Trump is a fascist as if this were news. Those like me, you, and a select group of others have been saying for years that Trump was a potential fascist dictator and there is a movement behind him. They dismissed us and laughed at us. Now instead of turning to those of us who were accurate and sounding the alarm years ago, the media is turning to people, supposed experts, who only now are realizing that we're facing a fascist, social and political movement.

Trump is doing something very sophisticated right now that is going to take these people who are late to the danger by surprise. Trump is saying that Joe Biden is the real threat to democracy. That is such a smart move. Every horrible thing Trump is accusing Biden and the Democrats and his other opponents of being is a reflection of Trump. These are expressions of intent by Trump. In his own fascist twisted way Trump is the most honest politician of my lifetime. Trump is a master of politics. He says what he means, and he means what he says. If you know how to read Trump correctly then you understand his intentions and plans. If you are just now realizing that Trump is a fascist, you're going to be looking for signs to assuage yourself that you are just being hysterical, because you spent so many years calling those of us who have been correctly describing reality, hysterical. The people who the media are turning to now as alarm sounders are not equipped to understand what is really happening.

The commentariat– especially too many centrist and liberal types — really are in denial about Trump's deep strategy. It is easy for them to call him names and mock him and the MAGA movement and the Republicans. When I look at Trump and his machine, I see something very sophisticated. For example, so many of the usual suspects who have been so late and so wrong about the crisis, are saying that Trump's attacks on Biden as an "enemy of democracy" won't work because "who would believe it?" — "It is so obviously wrong." They aren't the audience. Their egos and hubris and narcissism will not allow them to see that fact. They are not the center of the political universe.

Salon: Do words and language like "fascism" and "democracy crisis" actually have any currency anymore in the popular discourse?

Trump is trying to rob those words of meaning, which is very smart. Trump is so much smarter than the people in the media who he is manipulating. As I discuss in my book, a method of propaganda is to try to rob the language of ideals of meaning. To that point, by accusing Joe Biden of being the one that threatens democracy, Trump is robbing “democracy” of any meaning. That is called “undermining propaganda.” As applied here, the proponent of democracy is labeled as being the antidemocratic one. What Trump is doing with language and propaganda is very clever. Moreover, when you use the correct words to condemn Trump as a fascist or corrupt or what have you, those words will not have any force behind them because of how they have been weakened by Trump and his agents.

Salon: How do we balance hope and optimism?

I think a sense of urgency is required. Unfortunately, the news media is intentionally trying to destroy that sense of urgency. The mainstream media is all about telling people what they want to hear, and what makes them feel good, and not about real news that is upsetting. And if you tell people that the country is experiencing an extreme emergency from Trump and this fascist threat to the country, most Americans don't want to hear that.

The Salon article goes on at length, but you get the picture.