Trust the Experts
they see it all so clearly
Only the NYU professor Ruth Ben-Ghiat, an expert on authoritarianism, had the years of deep study necessary to catch a stunning development at the Republican presidential debate tonight.
She caught them. Her research finding came to life, and all the aspiring monsters showed up as “proxies and imitators,” which she studies, wearing their fascist symbol. And so there it is, for the first time in American history, a bunch of aspiring authoritarians in their Trump uniforms, making the astonishing choice to wear red ties to a presidential debate for the purpose of signaling that they’re all vicious authoritarians just like Trump, and they’re his calculating imitators:
Always defer to the wisdom of the experts. They know these things. They can see more clearly than the untrained person. If Ruth Ben-Ghiat says that red ties at a presidential debate are an extremely significant development that signals the emergence of a new stage of authoritarianism, you can take that analysis to the bank.
Isn’t it great to see that an important public intellectual has helped you see something meaningful in a whole new light?
When I woke up this morning, I had no idea I'd be seeing a picture of Michael Dukakis
Don’t tell Ruth it’s called a “power tie” and we’ve been wearing them for generations. Trump didn’t invent red ties any more than I did.