Tell Me How This Ends

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Inversion Blender

a visit from the eternally unsettled ghost of woodrow wilson

Chris Bray
Mar 14, 2023
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Ron DeSantis has now questioned the wisdom of endless American support for the war in Ukraine, and that’s very dangerous.

Twitter avatar for @djrothkopf
David Rothkopf @djrothkopf
Trump and DeSantis have both apparently decided they value Putin’s assistance with their election in 2024 more than they value America’s national security, international law, our allies, or fundamental human decency.
12:50 PM ∙ Mar 14, 2023
3,497Likes1,208Retweets

War is fundamental human decency, fascists! War is also anti-authoritarianism, and anti-war sentiment is pro-authoritarian:

Twitter avatar for @ruthbenghiat
Ruth Ben-Ghiat @ruthbenghiat
Of course. Putin & Xi appeared together in fall 2021 to kick off the new imperialist age. The GOP is not only trying to wreck democracy at home, but finish Trump's job of realigning the US with a global autocratic order.
Twitter avatar for @davidfrum
David Frum @davidfrum
The logic of the DeSantis statement on Ukraine also implies abandonment of Taiwan if the Chinese start pushing hard.
2:39 AM ∙ Mar 14, 2023
337Likes159Retweets

The capital-p Progressive journalist Randolph Bourne famously warned that “war is the health of the state,” foregrounding executive power and strangling dissent. His small-p progressive successors warn that shut up, Nazi, are you for PUTIN?!?!?

Similarly, Tucker Carlson and other vicious blackshirt monsters make hidden security footage public, warning that it appears to complicate the official narrative about a man sentenced to prison as a violent insurrectionist.

Twitter avatar for @ryanjreilly
Ryan J. Reilly @ryanjreilly
NEW: Body-worn camera footage of police clearing the Senate chamber on Jan. 6. Was introduced as evidence at Jacob Chansley's sentencing. A judge ordered it released after a request from the media coalition, and it was posted today:
6:37 PM ∙ Mar 13, 2023
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This, too, is authoritarianism.

Twitter avatar for @ruthbenghiat
Ruth Ben-Ghiat @ruthbenghiat
As I point out in a Lucid essay publishing tomorrow, the point of McCarthy giving Carlson that footage is to make false narratives about J6 that exonerate the guilty. All part of the massive coverup underway by the far-right.
Twitter avatar for @FrankFigliuzzi1
Frank Figliuzzi @FrankFigliuzzi1
Join me at 5p ET on ⁦@DeadlineWH⁩ as Proud Boys claim their case should be dropped based on Tucker Carlson’s make-believe footage: Prosecutors say newly aired Chansley footage paints misleading portrait of his Jan. 6 conduct - POLITICO ⁦@MSNBC⁩ https://t.co/OLMHhBul1A
7:32 PM ∙ Mar 13, 2023
593Likes249Retweets

Long and unexamined prison terms for critics of the government is anti-authoritarianism; arguing for a second look at the evidence is what fascists do. Somebody tell the authoritarianism expert Ruth Ben-Ghiat about the Innocence Project, and help the poor thing to process the fact of its existence. Why do progressive district attorneys create conviction review units? TO BE NAZIS, obviously. Our Democracy™ is that people sentenced to prison should always just shut up and take it. To avoid authoritarianism.

Here’s my bid for tenure at NYU: YOU KNOW WHO ELSE BELIEVED IN DUE PROCESS AND SECOND CHANCES FOR CONVICTS THAT’S RIGHT ADOLF HITLER THINK ABOUT IT. I would like my own research institute, please.

Some parents think that government-run schools shouldn’t manage the sexual identity of their children to the exclusion of parental involvement; this is obviously something that only far-right extremists think, because it’s dangerously authoritarian to raise your own children and have a role in their choices. Anti-authoritarianism is the opposite: it’s when government schools raise and shape your children without telling you what they’re doing.

Twitter avatar for @Scott_Wiener
Senator Scott Wiener @Scott_Wiener
A DeSantis-style bill was just introduced in CA to require teachers/counselors to inform parents if a kid id’s as a gender not on birth certificate. Even if the kid isn’t ready to come out to their parents. Even if ratting the kid out risks violence at home. Nope, not in CA.
3:33 PM ∙ Mar 13, 2023
507Likes75Retweets
Twitter avatar for @Scott_Wiener
Senator Scott Wiener @Scott_Wiener
@EricaJSandberg And the “are you a parent” line is pretty dismissive, Erica. I understand very well the ramifications of a teacher being forced to tell parents about a kid’s sexual orientation or gender identity before the kid is ready. It’s harmful, which is why it’s being pushed by the right.
5:34 PM ∙ Mar 13, 2023
83Likes1Retweet

“Ratting out” a child is when information about the child’s life is transferred from the government, the proper guardian of information about the child, to a parent.

Criticizing the government is authoritarian. Having doubts about war is authoritarian. Expecting social media to be a forum for free and open speech is authoritarian. Stepping in between the state and its children, as a so-called “parent,” is authoritarianism. Long pre-trial detention and harsh prison sentences for critics of the state are anti-authoritarian; raising questions about a conviction is authoritarian.

The aspiring fascists are warning you about fascism, inverting reality and blending facts into soup. Look at this again, because it plays second fiddle to Ruth Ben-Ghiat up above:

Twitter avatar for @FrankFigliuzzi1
Frank Figliuzzi @FrankFigliuzzi1
Join me at 5p ET on ⁦@DeadlineWH⁩ as Proud Boys claim their case should be dropped based on Tucker Carlson’s make-believe footage: Prosecutors say newly aired Chansley footage paints misleading portrait of his Jan. 6 conduct - POLITICO ⁦@MSNBC⁩
politico.comProsecutors say newly aired Chansley footage paints misleading portrait of his Jan. 6 conductThe Justice Department says a four-minute segment played by Fox News’ Tucker Carlson omitted the most incriminating aspects of the so-called QAnon Shaman’s time in the Capitol.
7:26 PM ∙ Mar 13, 2023
462Likes131Retweets

The point isn’t whether the “newly aired footage paints a misleading portrait.” The point is that it’s new, and they’re at trial without having seen it. The argument, not mentioned in the discussion between the experts on authoritarianism, is that the government has withheld evidence from a criminal defendant. And then the authoritarianism expert Ruth Ben-Ghiat says that oh, yes, this Brady violation stuff is a fascist plot. She’s agreeing with….

….a former FBI counterintelligence official, the author of a book on the indescribably glorious wonders of the state security apparatus:

You know you’re a true warrior against authoritarianism when you agree with a retired counterintelligence official that critics of the state don’t deserve due process and full access to the evidence in the government’s possession.

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Chris Bray
Mar 14Pinned

See also, from another California legislator:

https://twitter.com/alex_lee/status/1635400030000652288

Parenting is "policing bodies." Leaving your children to be supervised and counseled by government is freedom.

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Chris Bray
Mar 14Author

I have just taken another look at Ruth Ben-Ghiat's Twitter posts today, and I would like to formally announce that she is the stupidest human being who has ever lived.

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