this post was submitted on 25 Jan 2026
782 points (99.1% liked)

politics

27480 readers
3061 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] DarkFuture@lemmy.world 22 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Fascism is a big word with a lot of weight to it.

The more you get into politics and the more you debate with people across the aisle, the more you realize you have to be careful what words you use, so as not to lose credibility.

That being said.......this is fascism. Period.

It's happening. It's happening now. It's happening here. It's not debatable anymore.

[–] DirtyAnCom@discuss.online 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Well, the US has arguably always been fascist. Essentially fascism is copratist control of the economy and a merger of corporations and state. Of course corporations as entities have evolved after the US's conception, but we've never been a democracy of the people, with only wealthy white business owners calling the shots.

We stole the land with genocide and apartheid, then built it on the backs of slaves. The house the president lives in was even built by slaves. When we "abolished" slavery, we had to make sure that we had a way out through incarceration. Guess which nation incarcerates more citizens than any other nation?

Not only that, but the US was a major inspiration for both Hitler and Mousolini.

And not to mention how we are constantly starting wars and instability around the world for our oligarch's own benefit. And that out biggest enterprise is weaponry and war technology.

The US is and has always been a fascist nation.

[–] But_my_mom_says_im_cool@lemmy.world 14 points 1 day ago (4 children)

You guys are so screwed, I left Reddit cause of all the censorship and siding with the government.

I’ve had comment removed from this community for being incendiary, for saying Trump and ICE agents need to feel the force of the second amendment.

You guys are not even allowed to discuss anything further than a useless peaceful protest, or you get banned or shut down and silenced.

Even regular folk who mod on Lemmy are tripping over themselves to stop us from actually doing anything

[–] samus12345@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 day ago

.world communities are particularly squeamish about not toeing the corpo line.

[–] DarkFuture@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

No sub, on Lemmy or Reddit, is safe from power tripping mods. I'm currently dealing with a Lemmy mod on a few other Lemmy subs that's abusing his mod powers.

The bottom line is the other mods either need to step in and reign the bad mods in or remove them, or their sub dies. Seen it on Reddit plenty of times. But I've also seen Reddit mods that successfully removed their bad actors and then everything was fine. So it could go either way.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] architect@thelemmy.club 41 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Oh well now that YOU say it, king of the obvious, now we are allowed.

You know, Start by saying you’re fucking sorry for being an idiot. Because that’s what you’re actually reporting.

I am so upset by articles like this, but the saddest part is that they're needed. Months ago a professor who studies fascism fled the country due to rising fascism. There were articles about it. I sent them to family and friends in an attempt to warn them about what was coming. Some did listen, but there are so many people we will have to pick up along the way and "meet where they're at". I wish all articles like this were "I'm a huge idiot and was horribly wrong and will devote myself to fixing this now", but in reality that helps no one. I can keep sending out articles like this and since it's not "wow! I and by extension you were a dumb idiot" people may feel like maybe realizing it now is smart and can have their minds changed. I would appreciate a better note at the end, once the reader may be swayed, that was about what to do going forward and how to learn to listen, but it is what it is.

[–] Tiger666@lemmy.ca 9 points 1 day ago

How can I upvote this comment more than once?

[–] iridebikes@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yay, The Atlantic gave us permission!

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

I've lived my entire life in fear of being called uncivil.

Free at last, free at last.

[–] Minimac@lemmy.ml 5 points 22 hours ago

Donald Trump is a complete scumbag.

[–] sturmblast@lemmy.world 4 points 21 hours ago

Fascism brought to you by full blown dementia and criminal behavior. Wheeee!

[–] technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 1 day ago

The Atlantic is trash. Lib bullshit late to the party and faking it. These are the same people who enable fascism. Not to mention the zios...

[–] brachiosaurus@mander.xyz 6 points 1 day ago

Now it's fascism even for idiots to see

[–] bitjunkie@lemmy.world 14 points 1 day ago

Thinking it a term best avoided for reasons of decorum is part of what got us here.

[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 31 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Yes, we know.

See, everyone knows that fascism is a bad thing. That has been taught in every school since the end of WW2.

It's just a shame that most people never bothered to look up what fascism actually is, and it can be something your guys do as well.

[–] ameancow@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Our general discourse has been so deeply and deliberately poisoned that people don't pay attention to words broadly anymore. So many different foreign and domestic forces have worked so tirelessly to amplify the chaos and boost the worst takes on both sides of every social issue, that the general population of the US stopped paying attention. (The horrific 2024 exit-polling confirms this too.)

This is why people are latching onto character over policy, it's why Trump retains power despite not having any clue what he's doing and is just obviously being led around by his cabinet. It's why we all seem to care a lot more about what our favorite internet streamer has to say about a candidate than AP our Routers or the evening news, because the words have been said so much that people stopped paying attention.

This is not a new, modern ploy either. The KGB and CIA both have written how to destabilize nations using these tactics as far back as the 50's or earlier.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] iridebikes@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

The sad and dangerous thing is that many are actually starting to come around to the idea that fascism is good. They have spent years denying that Trump is a fascist and are now fully embracing it.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] TronBronson@lemmy.world 15 points 1 day ago

So you literally ignored hitlers plot playing out until it was to late, and now it’s okay to call them hurtful name. Another banger from the Atlantic.

[–] Allero@lemmy.today 26 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I feel like this debate over whether it's fascism or not misses a big point:

It's an oppressive nationalist state with practically unchecked presidential power. It is responsible for numerous war crimes. It instates hardline policies targeting everyday Americans. It puts people in detention camps. It is fueled by exceptionalism on all levels, from foreign policy to religion. And at the same time, it doesn't provide for its people, cutting all forms of social support.

It also erodes democratic institutions in an attempt to cement itself, so that other powers couldn't change course.

You can call it fascism. You can call it authoritarianism. What matters is that America is turned into an angry shithole hostile to both others and it's own people. Isn't that a reason good enough to stand strongly against it? Why do people wait for a "fascist" label, like it's some sort of red cloth, and would it change much if tomorrow Trump would plead allegiance to Hitler?

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 196 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (4 children)

"I resisted calling it fascism until it was too late and people were dying at the hands of monsters."

Get fucked. It was fascism when it was George Floyd and it's fascism now. It's been a fascism white people were willing to ignore because it didn't impact them directly for fucking decades, if not a hundred years or more.

Great job joining us in reality.

[–] kylie_kraft@lemmy.world 102 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (3 children)

[Fascism] has been overused to the point of meaninglessness, especially by left-leaning types who call you a fascist if you oppose abortion or affirmative action.

Yeah, this guy can fuck right off.

[–] LillyPip@lemmy.ca 1 points 23 hours ago

This is infuriating.

We’ve been calling it fascism for at least 10 years because that’s what it’s been.

We were trying to get you fucks to wake up and stop it before it was too late, and now that you’re finally willing to acknowledge it, it’s too fucking late.

Thanks for ignoring us and enabling it. You can fuck all the way off.

[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 37 points 2 days ago (10 children)

Scratch a liberal and a fascist bleeds.

Maybe he's been in opposition of using the term because he's fucking fascist-lite himself. Fascist with half the calories.

load more comments (10 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)
[–] DylanMc6@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 day ago

We need more community defense classes now more than ever. Seriously!

[–] FreddiesLantern@leminal.space 18 points 1 day ago

“Oh gee wiz, turns out he’s doing the dictator thing like he said he would”

[–] daannii@lemmy.world 110 points 1 day ago (3 children)

It was fascism this time 12 months ago when Trump had women and people of colors plaques and images covered at national museums and at nasa.

When they banned words from research. Like: women. Female. Bias, transgender, equality. Privilege.

When they prosecuted women as murderers for having a safe first trimester termination of pregnancy.

When they started demanding a woman must die before any medical procedures would be performed that could harm a fetus, even if that fetus was dead or non viable.

When they removed black veterans stories from the VA websites and other government websites.

When they changed the dod to the department of war.

My gawd. This all started a year ago. It was fascism then.

[–] Hamartia@lemmy.world 39 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It was clearly fascism when Project 2025 was leaked.

[–] FreshParsnip@lemmy.ca 37 points 1 day ago (2 children)

It wasn't leaked. The people who made it made a website and publicly posted it. They announced their fascist agenda and still people ignored it

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] dantheclamman@lemmy.world 19 points 1 day ago

It was fascism in 2016 when he promised to ban people from entering the US based on religion.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] explodicle@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

For another, the term has been overused to the point of meaninglessness, especially by left-leaning types

Jonathan Rauch is holding out on the one thing we want to see: the websites of these left-leaning types, because they're the ones whose voices we should be hearing and promoting.

[–] untorquer@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

LMAO they're calling people fascists for acting like a fascist 🤷 not sure how that makes it meaningless.

[–] ayyy@sh.itjust.works 52 points 1 day ago (5 children)

I’m glad you got there eventually. Keep listening closely to the people who told you this years ago, they are clearly more perceptive than you.

load more comments (5 replies)
[–] xenomor@lemmy.world 69 points 1 day ago (6 children)

I’d like to take this opportunity to express the profoundly tragic failure of Democrats to mount any kind of meaningful opposition to this fascist project, that has been underway since at least the Reagan administration.

[–] WanderWisley@lemmy.world 33 points 1 day ago

Also the fact that Donny got off for January 6th still blows my fucking mind.

load more comments (5 replies)
[–] baller_w@lemmy.zip 26 points 1 day ago
[–] idiomaddict@lemmy.world 40 points 1 day ago (2 children)

So the United States, once the world’s exemplary liberal democracy, is now a hybrid state combining a fascist leader and a liberal Constitution; but no, it has not fallen to fascism. And it will not.

Well that’s alright then. I almost thought the Atlantic was becoming less useless for a second there

[–] Danquebec@sh.itjust.works 1 points 11 hours ago

the United States, once the world’s exemplary liberal democracy

When?

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] merdaverse@lemmy.zip 33 points 1 day ago (1 children)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] otacon239@lemmy.world 40 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I wonder which of the 3000 things over the past decade changed their minds.

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›