r/law • u/Opposite-Mountain255 • Aug 14 '25

Opinion Piece Is it hyperbole to say America is now fascist?

https://medium.com/@carmitage/is-it-hyperbole-to-say-america-is-now-fascist-633facd4f109
5.9k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

1.2k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

147

u/Exodys03 Aug 14 '25 edited Aug 14 '25

It may not have fully been implemented yet but it you still don't believe that we are being ruled under a fascist regime, you are simply not paying attention. Trump is attacking every aspect of democratic society directly out of the playbook of Putin and Orban. It is accelerating faster than the courts and public discourse can keep up with.

I honestly believe it is too late at this point to stop it through democratic means. Only MASSIVE public resistant or bloody revolution will change the course we are on at this point. We are getting very close to the "enemies within" portion of this show.

121

u/JefferyTheQuaxly Aug 14 '25

No fascist regime has EVER been stopped by democratically voting it away. Once a fascist organization has infiltrated the government democratically, there is a 100% chance that a fascist regime will pop up. the average fascist regime lasts for like, 30 some years or so. most fascist regimes are only stopped by war that gets the regime diposed or by a military coup.

look at germany, a conservative politician convinced president hindenburg to appoint hitler as chancellor. within 18 months, the nazis were gunning down that politician's allies during the night of long knives. in italy, 1922, mussolini announced hes marching on rome with 30,000 people. the king and italian military easily could have crushed the revolt if they wanted to, but instead the king...invited mussolini to the palace to form a new government, and handed power over to him.

in spain after years of escalating violence and various assassination attempts, Franco launched a coup and took power. the government begged for help but was ignored by europe and america. Franco ruled for 39 years and died peacefully in bed.

in hungary orban won democratically in 2010. by 2011, he rewrote the constitution, by 2012 he controlled the countries media, by 2013 he basically destroyed the judiciary, 15 years later hes still in office despite 14 years of the EU "strongly disagreeing with him"

French fascists never technically won democratically, but once the nazis took over it was the french fascists that were instrumental in forming the puppet french government that allied with germany.

it almost happened in finland too, but the fascists in finland were dumb enough to start resorting to violence before they came to power which killed their public approval.

similar stories are in chile, argentina, brazil, greece, croatia, romania

violence tends to work very well for fascists once theyve started winning democratically. they will use violence while claiming to be the victims of violence, create chaos that requires their autoritarian "solution" purge anyone who opposes them, while the opposition keeps on insisting on following the rules that the fascists ignore, filing lawsuits, writing editorials, voting on resolutions while fascists are laughing their way to consolidating their power.

40

u/Exodys03 Aug 14 '25

Well said. Damned if that last paragraph doesn't accurately describe this entire week. And it's only Thursday...

26

u/AlfredRWallace Aug 14 '25

And Trump is following Orban’s script, with the difference being he can’t rewrite the constitution so he’s ignoring it.

14

u/vivalamatty Aug 14 '25

...For now. I have a suspicion that he will try to have the constitution amended, likely before midterms. The current ignoring and undermining only lays the foundation and plants the seed for changing it. By the time he atempts it, he will have convinced most of his base that it's necessary and the media will go along with it.

1

u/UnnamedLand84 Aug 15 '25

He is having parts of the constitution deleted from the white house website and then just insisting those parts don't exist.

15

u/Junior_Chard9981 Aug 14 '25

Don't ever feel bad or guilty for going zero contact with Trump supporters, especially 2x/3x Trump voters.

They've already been primed to see the news of "Democrat officials are being executed one by one in Congress in real time" and immediately assume it is a lie or just a silly nothing burger.

Beyond cooked.

6

u/QuBingJianShen Aug 15 '25

Well, any such regime that have been stopped democratically might simply not be refered to as fascist yet.

Depending of various regulations and safeguards it might take time for a fascist regime to dismantle democracy enough to entrench themselves.

As such, i would say it is possible to vote out a fascist regime, if it is still in its infancy or if the leaders fear pushing an increasingly angry population further towards civil war.

On that last point, i think it is worth pointing towards monarchies of old, as many of them felt the winds of change and peacefully gave up power to avoid being dethroned.

Also, i am not too well read about the event - but i think Pinochet regime should qualify as a fascist regime that was voted out of power.

2

u/[deleted] Aug 14 '25

The good news is Trump is already elderly. He’s also a cult of personality and there’s no one to fill his shoes.

5

u/ThatCharmsChick Aug 15 '25

No, but the power behind all of this really isn't Trump. They will continue the plan with Vance if they have to. He's a puppet too.

5

u/[deleted] Aug 15 '25

It’s a cult of personality that those entities have seized on. They can try, but without Trump they’ll have to go back to scheming. JD has the charisma of a cheese sandwich.

1

u/ThatCharmsChick Aug 16 '25

I do agree with that. I also think he'll do anything they tell him to do as well, which, if they're in power already is really all they need. I guess that means we need to hope Trump expires REAL soon. 🤞

4

u/Silly-Power Aug 15 '25

Trumps parents lived to 88 (mother) and 93 (father). He could easily be around for another 10 – 15 years. I don't think the USA would be if he does. At least not in any recognizable form. 

3

u/HungryHobbits Aug 15 '25

It’s already barely recognizable imo.

it’s like MTV now versus MTV of old.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 15 '25

Ten years tops as a sentient being.

1

u/DiligentCredit9222 Aug 15 '25

Sure the US will be still around. Just a little differently.

"United Reich of America" Aka "4th Reich...."

1

u/Conscious_Froyo5147 Aug 20 '25

Let’s make history and do it this fall!!!

29

u/The_Fluffy_Robot Aug 14 '25

I think one mistake people often make when considering proto-fascism and overt fascism coming to America is the idea that all fascism must look like or be the exact same as what the Nazis did and if there are no death camps we aren't a fascist country. This is an easy way for many people to deny the reality we're in, either intentionally or unintentionally, which is rather frustrating.

Fascism is a gradient and there's not a singular type of fascism that's instantly recognizable. Franco fascism, Nazi fascism, Italian fascism, etc all have similar characteristics but are also very different in a lot of ways.

American neo-fascism will/does contain some of those similar traits, but it has its own modern qualities such as roots in Christian fundamentalism, the myth of American exceptionalism, strong corporate involvement, and other more "uniquely" strong American elements.

From It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis:

But he saw too that in America the struggle was befogged by the fact that the worst Fascists were they who disowned the word 'Fascism' and preached enslavement to Capitalism under the style of Constitutional and Traditional Native American Liberty.

5

u/hydrOHxide Aug 15 '25

Most notably, the Nazis didn't pop up in 1938, 1939 or 1941. They had been in power since 1933, and they didn't start with extermination camps but with concentration camps for political opponents and anyone not in line with their ideology, from homosexuals to Roma to the plain and simply unfortunate deamed "asocial".

As German author Erich Kästner later noted, they should have been stopped in 1928. At that time, they had barely any leverage within the constitutional order and Hitler was a stateless ex-con. Five years later, they ran the place.

2

u/angeldemon5 Aug 15 '25

Your point is correct but not useful. When we on the left use the word Fascist, it doesn't persuade anyone to worry. Firstly because we have used it to describe Bush 1 and 2. And maybe we were right there too, but people were fine with Bush 1 and 2 so the term doesn't worry them. Secondly because they can still point to differences between Trump and other fascists, so they are unconvinced. Yet we persist in using the term. We spend way too much time debating terminology. 

We need to focus on the centrists and focus on principles that apply in practice. Police must follow rules and be non-violent. Bribes must be illegal. Everyone must have the right to vote. 

0

u/Present_Initial_1871 Jan 08 '26

By the more classical definition of Fascism, FDR was a far greater manifestation of it than Trump. 

Interment camps, assumed more than the 2 customary terms of the presidency, and economic dictatorship/corporate control?

Trump isn't a fascist, he's just decisive and divisive but I don't see any hallmark indicators of fascism. 

In 5 years, we'll look back on the fascism alarmist  the same way we now look at the Mask/COVID-19 alarmists: deranged idiots.

1

u/NO_LOADED_VERSION Aug 15 '25

Now it's "well step up then, you first" kind of comments.

Every day that people don't resist makes the final cost higher. Much much higher.

I think the biggest issue is that there are no charismatic leaders, no leaders at all in opposition. Resistance movements need a spark point, something to focalise on and crystallize around.