• PoliticalAgitator@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    because apparently we learned nothing during the four years this trash ran the country

    His victory wasn’t because his supporters were ignorant. They knew exactly what kind of shithead he was, they just couldn’t admit out loud they wanted the sexism, homophobia, racism and authoritarianism.

    Remember that when he was first elected, his support flowed out from the “alt-right”. They were nothing more than rebranded white supremacists, but the name change gave them enough plausible deniability to dodge deplatforming.

    When “Unite the Right” rolled around, many of them triumphantly tore of their masks, waved their swastikas, grabbed their tiki torches and started an antisemitic chant. One of them even started executing political dissenters then and there.

    But their “ha, we were nazis all along” celebration was short lived. They’d undermined their plausible deniability and their platforms were crumbling. Even Fox News was hesitant to put any alt-right figureheads on air.

    So the rule became “never go mask off”. They could be openly advocating sending Jews to concentration camps but if someone says “that is blatantly Nazi behaviour”, their reply will always “the left just call anyone they disagree with nazis”.

    They still want to do it. They’ll still try to do it. The vast majority of their supporters know they mean it and that’s exactly why they support them.

    But as long as they never say it out loud, there will always be an army of useful idiots giving the benefit of the doubt.