Ganz on Trumpism as a form of “reactionary modernism.” Trumpism/Muskism’s blend of pastoral nostalgia and authoritarian tech futurism harkens back to the John Birch Society, which appealed to a disproportionately large number of aerospace engineers & airline pilots. open.substack.com/pub/johnganz... - ThreadSky

sethcotlar.bsky.social • 41 days ago

Ganz on Trumpism as a form of “reactionary modernism.” Trumpism/Muskism’s blend of pastoral nostalgia and authoritarian tech futurism harkens back to the John Birch Society, which appealed to a disproportionately large number of aerospace engineers & airline pilots.
https://open.substack.com/pub/johnganz/p/does-trumpism-have-a-future?r=alsf&utm_medium=ios

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vulgareconomics.bsky.social•41 days ago

This has a name among the far right actually

vulgareconomics.bsky.social•41 days ago

Also @ruthbenghiat.bsky.social and others often talk about fascism as an "alternative modernity" (contra post-Enlightenment modernity)

norcalgardenofeden.bsky.social•41 days ago

Taylor and Klein believe that this makes it, at least on an ideological level, kind of worse than the original fascisms. Basically: “Say what you will about the tenets of fascism, at least it had a vision of the future.”

sethcotlar.bsky.social•41 days ago

As John points out in this paragraph, it’s not as if Trumpism has NO vision of the future, it just can’t abide a future orientation that involves recognizing any limitations to the MAGA will to power. Neither climate change nor pandemics nor food borne illness nor Canada’s sovereignty can stop us.

sethcotlar.bsky.social•41 days ago

Compare Trumpism/Muskism, for example, to this 1963 manifesto by Portland's National Party, a white nationalist, neo-Nazi organization with ties to GL Rockwell's group. They wanted to restore US sovereignty, bring unity to the nation, restore prosperity, & build a space force with cool laser guns.

sethcotlar.bsky.social•41 days ago

The other visionary engineering project Portland's National Party was super excited about in the 1960s was building a big beautiful wall on America's southern border to turn the nation into a white Christian citadel. https://sethcotlar.substack.com/p/speaking-at-reed-college-in-1965

sethcotlar.bsky.social•41 days ago

Those young fascists in the National Party had started attending John Birch Society meetings as high schoolers around 1961. They moved right from there, finding even more right wing mentors like Walter Huss who taught them about the Silver Shirts of the 1930s. https://sethcotlar.substack.com/p/silver-shirts-for-reagan-walter-huss

sethcotlar.bsky.social•41 days ago

At the time he was serving as a mentor for those young, reactionary modernist fascists, Walter Huss was organizing a grassroots, hostile takeover of the OR GOP that would eventually result in him getting elected chair in 1978. https://sethcotlar.substack.com/p/walter-huss-knew-that-if-fascism

chris-mas.bsky.social•41 days ago

Throughout my engineering career, I have come across other engineers and technicians who ignored fundamentals from school and compartmentalized what was needed for work from what sounded/felt good - too often pseudoscience and conspiracies - unfortunately wrt environment as well as social issues.

codykinski.bsky.social•41 days ago

One thing on my bucket list is to take my big cast-iron skillet and bonk all these knuckleheads who think they can FORCE us into any kind of "national unity" right on their noggins with it. Those are my politics and I'm sticking with 'em.

surfingthepast.bsky.social•41 days ago

But Trumps look to heavy industry and manufacturing is looking backwards to an old economy whereas for the fascists of the 1930s these sectors were looking forward to what was the cutting edge of the economy of the future.

broken-human.bsky.social•41 days ago

📌

thetheredundant.bsky.social•41 days ago

You call it Trumpism, I call it Republicanism because they’re one in the same.

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