The important difference this historian highlights between fascism now and fascism before is that the violence and henious behaviour was hidden and every effort was spent to hide it, the lies crafted to bend the truth in intelligent ways to front a consistent alternate truth.
Today, that alternate truth is not only completely detached from reality but changing frequently from one thing to another, the number of lies and henious actions that have been widely publicized are of such number that most people cannot track it anymore, leading to a paralysis, a nihilism, or a belief that nothing is true (which is the goal of the people flooding the zone with obvious lies and crimes).
The people that were supposed to have protected the US from it (Congress, the Supreme Court, federal agencies, the media, lawyers, community elders, state and local politicians, educational institutions, major corporations) have been hollowed out over decades, leading to this situation where the honest ones are in positions of minimal power, and the ones with power stand to gain from post-truth fascist corruption.
The antidote is to establish the ground truth with the people around you, to lower the level of powerlessness that arises solely from uncertainty and chaos. A robust long term solution will be electoral reform, for example so that a consesus of various viewpoints lead to government than having to select between two hegemonies of disparate ideas.
The important difference this historian highlights between fascism now and fascism before is that the violence and henious behaviour was hidden and every effort was spent to hide it, the lies crafted to bend the truth in intelligent ways to front a consistent alternate truth.
Today, that alternate truth is not only completely detached from reality but changing frequently from one thing to another, the number of lies and henious actions that have been widely publicized are of such number that most people cannot track it anymore, leading to a paralysis, a nihilism, or a belief that nothing is true (which is the goal of the people flooding the zone with obvious lies and crimes).
The people that were supposed to have protected the US from it (Congress, the Supreme Court, federal agencies, the media, lawyers, community elders, state and local politicians, educational institutions, major corporations) have been hollowed out over decades, leading to this situation where the honest ones are in positions of minimal power, and the ones with power stand to gain from post-truth fascist corruption.
The antidote is to establish the ground truth with the people around you, to lower the level of powerlessness that arises solely from uncertainty and chaos. A robust long term solution will be electoral reform, for example so that a consesus of various viewpoints lead to government than having to select between two hegemonies of disparate ideas.