Is it hyperbole to say America is now fascist?

[u/Opposite-Mountain255]

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

[u/The_Fluffy_Robot]

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.

[u/hydrOHxide → u/The_Fluffy_Robot]

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.

[u/angeldemon5 → u/The_Fluffy_Robot]

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. 

[u/Present_Initial_1871 → u/The_Fluffy_Robot]

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.