Let's be better than that and address all claims that you made (repeated) here:
> Trump routinely makes racist remarks and has been condemned by justice for racial discrimination. Most people around him have done the same. That’s an objectively true fact that’s been tested in court.
Opinions differ on whether Trump's remarks are indeed racist (his haters say that they, of course, are, and his supporters say that they, of course, aren't), so let's concentrate on the more verifiable part of your statement, that he has been condemned by justice for racial discrimination.
This statement appears to be false: the only more or less fitting case is 1973 DOJ case for his hiring practices, which was settled without admission of wrongdoing, which hardly counts as a "condemnation", that has been "tested in court".
Next, you claim, "most people around him have done the same". This is just a broad smear that you just feel to be true. Please, provide a full list of people around Trump and prove that most of them make racist remarks and were discriminating people based on race.
Next, fascism. It is ironic that you decided to base your case that Trump is fascist on his calls for unity and that unity is represented by fasces. Like, anyone, who calls for unity is surely fascist.
No. In fact, U.S. is practically a fasces fan convention: bundles of rods flank the Lincoln Memorial's columns ("E Pluribus Unum", anyone?), are present on the House podium, Statue of Freedom podium, are in the Senate seal, etc etc etc, all predating any fascists by millennia. And if calling for unity vs common opponent is fascism, then, of course Kamala Harris is fascist ("We must unite to overcome this season of darkness... Donald Trump’s agenda is a threat to our democracy, and we must stand together to defeat it."), as is Obama ("We need every patriot—civilian, soldier, veteran—to stand united against that kind of authoritarian nonsense.").
I am, of course, not suggesting here that Harris or Obama are fascists, I'm simply lamp shading the absurdity of your statement. In fact, calls for unity are bread and butter for any politician, and it is rather silly to throw accusations of fascism based on that.
Next, you state that Trump has Mein Kampf on his bed-side table and that he read it twice. This statement appears to be completely false. [1]
Btw, I actually did read Mein Kampf, and if you forget for a moment the infamous achievements and atrocities perpetrated under the leadership of its author, it would be a rather funny silly book written by a poorly educated person with rather narrow worldview. However, given an audience that lacks critical thinking and eagerly laps up propaganda, it became a blueprint for catastrophic harm, amplifying divisive narratives without scrutiny. Which brings us neatly back to Orwell's duckspeak: when you are uncritically pushing someone's talking points, stop for a second and ask yourself, aren't you the baddie?
[0]: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/duckspeak
[1]: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-hitler-mein-kampf/
> Testers from the New York City Human Rights Division had found that prospective black renters at Trump buildings were told there were no apartments available, while prospective White renters were offered apartments at the same buildings.[32] During the investigation, four of Trump's agents admitted to using a "C" (for "colored") or "9" code to label Black applicants and stated that they were told their company "discouraged rental to blacks" or that they were "not allowed to rent to black tenants," and that prospective Black renters should be sent to the central office while White renters could have their applications accepted on site. Three doormen testified to being told to discourage prospective Black renters by lying about the rental prices or claiming no vacancies were available.[33][34] A settlement was reached in 1975 where Trump agreed to familiarize himself with the Fair Housing Act, take out ads stating that Black renters were welcome, give a list of vacancies to the Urban League on a weekly basis, and allow the Urban League to present qualified candidates for 20% of vacancies in properties that were less than 10% non-White.[32][35]
> Elyse Goldweber, the Justice Department lawyer tasked with taking Trump's deposition, has stated that during a coffee break Trump said to her directly, "You know, you don't want to live with them either."[36]
> The Trump Organization was sued again in 1978 for violating terms of the 1975 settlement by continuing to refuse to rent to black tenants; Trump and his lawyer Roy Cohn denied the charges.[37][38][39] In 1983 the Metropolitan Action Institute noted that two Trump Village properties were still over 95% White.[40]
In what world your argument is anything but clutching at straws?! Get a grip, he openly hates Black and Latino people and has never been shy about it. The fact he came to an out-of-court agreement, and immediately had to come back… It’s so beautiful that your richly referenced note forgot that point.
> Like, anyone, who calls for unity is surely fascist.
No, but people who threatens to napalm-bomb a major city in their own country because the mayor isn’t in their party; people who threaten to court-martial any soldier who express an opinion critical of an influencer outside of the chain of command; people who call law enforcement officers to throw political opponents in a jail without due process… Those might be fascist. And that’s just this week.
Obama and Harris were not selling access to enrich themselves with the loincloth of crypto, for example. That’s a little different than century-old symbol about Unity between States…
Yes, billions of people noticed in horror the entire Republican Party in congress applauding a Nazi salute, twice, and yes, a handful of people used the same word to describe it. Do you really think lessons on grammar is the point to make here?! Because for someone who talks so much about how much you don’t like that Hilter guy, you seem to raise no qualms in your very detailed note with having with so many people in your party applauding that gesture. If you worried about people not thinking for themselves, I’d start there.
> In what world your argument is anything but clutching at straws?! Get a grip, he openly hates Black and Latino people and has never been shy about it. The fact he came to an out-of-court agreement, and immediately had to come back… It’s so beautiful that your richly referenced note forgot that point.
Yeah, right. You had to dig up a case from 50+ years ago, that concerned a policy likely was not directed from the top but was enacted by some middle managers, and which was corrected, and act like I'm grasping the straws and not you.
Then you try to strengthen your argument with a blatant claim that Trump openly hates Black and Latino people, when in fact in his public speeches he frequently says that he loves them. You will, of course, fail to provide a single quote by Trump that would prove your outlandish claim.
And also, I struggle to understand how could this horrible vile racist man significantly increase his support amond Black and Lation voters. [0]
> No, but people who threatens to napalm-bomb a major city in their own country because the mayor isn’t in their party; people who threaten to court-martial any soldier who express an opinion critical of an influencer outside of the chain of command; people who call law enforcement officers to throw political opponents in a jail without due process… Those might be fascist.
So, how many major cities were napalm-bombed?
How many soldiers were court-martialled?
How many political opponents were thrown in jail without due process?
We did, however, see one political execution this week, but the murdered man was definitely not a Democrat.
https://www.npr.org/2024/11/22/nx-s1-5199119/2024-election-e...
I can’t claim to know Kirk’s entire body of work -- just watched a couple of debates and his RNC speech -- but since of us two I’m the one who’s actually read Mein Kampf, I can say with a significant degree of confidence their views could hardly be more different:
Hitler pushed authoritarian control, racial hierarchies, and expansionist wars. Kirk was advocating for small-government conservatism and anti-woke culture fights. Even Barack Obama, with his big-government moves, like the ACA or his stimulus plans, had more in common with Hitler’s state-heavy policies, than Charlie!
Fascist works too: you can look at different combinations of nationalism, far-right ideologies and how they call for a combination of military power, education, businesses together (fasci means the "bundle"): that’s something that Trump has repeatedly called for, until today.
Trump has said he had _Mein Kampf_ on his bed-side table, read it twice. Elon Musk explicitly made a Nazi salute at a republican convention, repeated the gesture for emphasis, and the participants loudly applauded him for it. There is a lot of evidence that those people are very comfortable with Nazi ideas.