Fascism Begins With Banners, Ends With Camps

Halls of Shrewd'm / US Policy

Unthreaded | Threaded | Whole Thread (1)

Post New | Post Reply | Report Post | Recommend It!

No. of Recommendations: 5

Washington is entering the adolescence of its Fascist Era, with giant banners of Donald Trump’s scowling visage staring down at the little people scurrying to their government jobs—reminding all who pass that the Dear Leader is omnipotent and omnipresent.

There’s a reason and a method to this, as with so much else in Trump’s emerging autocracy: in fascist and authoritarian regimes, symbols and spectacle meet. They demand your gaze, your internalization of the primacy of the Dear Leader, and ultimately, your obedience and subservience to a culture that is inescapable and immovable.

Large banners installed on the facade of the U.S. Department of Agriculture show President Donald Trump and President Abraham Lincoln (Eric Garcia/The Independent)
Under his eye.
In fascist systems, the leader is transformed from man into myth, into a superhuman figure—unbeatable, inevitable, omnipotent. Trump has his own modern iterations of Joseph Goebbels, Leni Riefenstahl, Julius Streicher, and Hans Fritzsche working to saturate public and private spaces with his face, his brand, his ideas, his name, and his mythology.

Whether in the form of signs, banners, statues, murals, or big, synchronized military parades like the one coming up for the Dear Leader’s birthday, the imposition of image and symbolism serves as a critical instrument of control, unity, and intimidation...

Rick Wison
open.substack.com - Trump enters his fascist era

Post New | Post Reply | Report Post | Recommend It!

Print the post Share: X · FacebookFB · LinkedInLI · WhatsAppWApp · Email

Members reply directly to wzambon here — and replies get answered. Reading is free; so is joining the conversation. Join Shrewd'm »

This community has written 84,309 posts about US Policy. The article-length ones it recommended most:

It's going to get worse · 33 recs · 2025

G’day Donny · 30 recs · 2026

Old Related Story · 28 recs · 2026

HCR is a national treasure · 27 recs · 2025

Fascism in America · 27 recs · 2025

Unthreaded | Threaded | Whole Thread (1)

Prev | Next

Announcements

US Policy FAQ

Contact Shrewd'm
Contact the developer of these message boards.

A community forum supporting civilized, and highly helpful, self-educating investors that come together for Shrewdness and merry spirits. These message boards closely follow the look and feel of the old message boards at boards.fool.com prior to the boards redirected to discussion.fool.com. Shrewd'm is not affiliated with the comprehensive and excellent investment website The Motley Fool (TMF) in any way. The Shrewd community here has owed, and continues to owe, gratitude to The Motley Fool for nurturing a culture of jovial irreverence towards Wall St, and that tradition will continue here.