Inversion Blender Goes to "High" Setting
If you’re not following the Twitter account of the NYU professor and authoritarianism expert Ruth Ben-Ghiat, you’re missing the best comedy in the country. I’ve written about her before, but the Trump indictments have caused her to turn it up to eleven — and that’s one more than ten, innit?
As always, the new RBG flips the meaning of political norms. The accused is represented by defense lawyers: TEXTBOOK authoritarianism!
The replies are a whole world of good times, like this one from Rowanchats:
Not only is Trump allowed to have lawyers to defend him, which is authoritarian in the extreme, but they’re even allowed to speak in public in his defense! NOW DO YOU SEE HOW WE’RE HURTLING INTO FASCISM!?!?!?!? How does allowing a political figure’s defense lawyers to speak in public serve the public good?
For those of you who are keeping score at home, the First Amendment is authoritarian, the Second Amendment is authoritarian, the Fourth Amendment is authoritarian, the Fifth Amendment is authoritarian, and the Sixth Amendment is authoritarian. (The Ninth Amendment doesn’t really exist, and the Tenth Amendment is racist.) We need to get rid of all that crap so we can FIGHT TRUMP’S AUTHORITARIANISM! It’s time to stand up against Literally Adolf Hitler’s so-called Bill of Rights!
By the way, it’s also textbook authoritarianism for the political opposition to investigate and criticize the Great Leader:
“….designed to counter all the good economic news.”
Like this:
Ruth Ben-Ghiat is a national treasure. Imagine how much fun it would be to take a class with this person.
So utterly convinced of their virtue, the self-righteous are incapable of self-refelction or self-awareness.
She has the pained, querulous look of someone whose nurse is late with the afternoon enema. I know that makes me Hitler, but some things can't be helped.