Fascism became an all-purpose term because one can eliminate from a fascist regime one or more features, and it will still be recognizable as fascist. Take away imperialism from fascism and you still have Franco and Salazar. Take away colonialism and you still have the Balkan fascism of the Ustashes. Add to the Italian fascism a radical anti-capitalism (which never much fascinated Mussolini) and you have Ezra Pound. Add a cult of Celtic mythology and the Grail mysticism (completely alien to official fascism) and you have one of the most respected fascist gurus, Julius Evola. But in spite of this fuzziness, I think it is possible to outline a list of features that are typical of what I would like to call Ur-Fascism, or Eternal Fascism. These features cannot be organized into a system; many of them contradict each other, and are also typical of other kinds of despotism or fanaticism. But it is enough that one of them be present to allow fascism to coagulate around it.
2 – How a Trump presidency could destabilize Europe (Anne Applebaum)
Russia is clearly participating in the Trump campaign. The theft of material from the Democratic National Committee a few weeks ago was the work of Russian hackers. Russian state media and social media, together with a host of fake websites and Twitter accounts with Russian origins, actively support Trump and are contributing to some of the hysteria on the Internet. I’m not arguing that any of this has been decisive. But whatever resources Putin wagered on Trump, they are paying off.
3 – Putin’s Puppet (Franklin Foer)
Donald Trump is like the Kremlin’s favored candidates, only more so. He celebrated the United Kingdom’s exit from the EU. He denounces NATO with feeling. He is also a great admirer of Vladimir Putin. Trump’s devotion to the Russian president has been portrayed as buffoonish enthusiasm for a fellow macho strongman. But Trump’s statements of praise amount to something closer to slavish devotion. In 2007, he praised Putin for “rebuilding Russia.” A year later he added, “He does his work well. Much better than our Bush.” When Putin ripped American exceptionalism in a New York Times op-ed in 2013, Trump called it “a masterpiece.” Despite ample evidence, Trump denies that Putin has assassinated his opponents: “In all fairness to Putin, you’re saying he killed people. I haven’t seen that.” In the event that such killings have transpired, they can be forgiven: “At least he’s a leader.” And not just any old head of state: “I will tell you that, in terms of leadership, he’s getting an A.”
4 – Report: Trump campaign pays female staff much less (Reena Flores)
Trump’s campaign, meanwhile, has faced scrutiny before over its pay practices. One former employee in Iowa blamed her firing on sexual discrimination by the Trump campaign, charging that men were getting paid more for the same jobs women had.
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Vale a pena notar que a foto acima é, com o benefício da dúvida, um resultado do acaso: Laura Ingraham começou por saudar a multidão no comício de Trump com o braço esticado e a meio parece ter-se lembrado de que não podia fazer esse gesto e mudou para um aceno mais inocente. Vale a pena ver o vídeo abaixo que é, dadas as circunstâncias, mais divertido do que assustador. Mas uma coisa é certa, quando se joga com a cenografia fascista tanto quanto os republicanos fizeram nesta convenção, o que não falta são imagens com ar fascista. Quem diria?
