Why sustained opposition to China? For the same reason Hitler invaded Russia - a large autocracy which is a racial 'other' and whose authoritarianism is predicated on different principles. Why talk of annexing Canada and Greenland? Fascists do love wars of conquest. 4/ - ThreadSky

bretdevereaux.bsky.social • 8 days ago

Why sustained opposition to China? For the same reason Hitler invaded Russia - a large autocracy which is a racial 'other' and whose authoritarianism is predicated on different principles.

Why talk of annexing Canada and Greenland? Fascists do love wars of conquest. 4/

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bretdevereaux.bsky.social•8 days ago

In short, I think the foreign policy Smart People need to wake up to the idea that maybe these guys Really Do Believe What They Say, they are not playing 4D chess but are in fact ideologically committed to notions which do not match reality, but do dictate policy.

Maybe they're just fascists./end

pemryjanes.com•8 days ago

Any analysis of Trump's behavior that starts with the idea he's playing chess of any kind or dimension is doomed to fail.

Garbage in, garbage out.

He's not that complicated or capable of complex thought. As you wrote, it's just simple fascism.

geekgirl397.bsky.social•8 days ago

your analysis makes a great deal of sense. One thing I wonder, is how many of them are self-consciously Nazi adherents and how many of them think that their form of Fascism is "different". Like, how do you get a modern Western education and not realize that you are behaving like the "baddies"?

seanmac31.bsky.social•8 days ago

It becomes easier when you ignore Trump to some extent and just focus in on who the people are who put information in front of his nose.

eerikpeeker.bsky.social•8 days ago

They are! /end.

yoyotheassyrian.bsky.social•8 days ago

So many right of center people just can’t accept that the current administration just is what it says on the tin. Tarriffs, foreign policy, they seem to think they can will another bush presidency into being through vibes.

loukas.bsky.social•8 days ago

It reminds me of a historian that @euraknot.bsky.social interviewed about what he discovered upon finally getting to read USSR Politburo meeting notes: "Well what do you know, these guys actually were Communists." Sometimes people do care about ideology; it's not a mask for other 'real' interests.

bretdevereaux.bsky.social•8 days ago

Yes! Likewise, the Nazis made many of the decisions they did not because they were masking other real intentions, but because they were Nazis. They assessed the strength of their enemies and the value of decisions through the prism of Nazi race ideology, to their great ruin.

spiritusnox.bsky.social•8 days ago

Similar token to how Imperial Japan assumed those weak degenerate Americans would quail on contact with the might of Bushido and wouldn't have the stomach to prosecute a long war in the pacific after Pearl Harbor, I would think.

telson.bsky.social•8 days ago

Distressingly plausible.

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