Fascism

Accusations of "fascism" are what the Left uses to electrify its adherents and frighten the general public. In this context, the Left claims that Donald Trump is a "fascist" and the country is under threat as a consequence. As they do with the much overused pejorative term, "racism," the Left trots out the word "fascism" every time Donald Trump expresses an opinion (however ill-crafted or dumb) that they disagree with.

For example, Trump is absolutely correct when he notes media bias and the strong predisposition of the trained hamsters to produce 'fake news.' That isn't "fascistic attacks on the press" as the left claims. American media continues to have freedoms and broad protections almost unheard of in any other countries. Trump is expressing an opinion (accurate in my view) and at the same, his administration is far more transparent and accessible to the media than his predecessors'. He's harshly critical of the media, no doubt, but given their blatant bias, his criticism is justified.

In a typical scare piece in the New York Times, Yale professor Jason Stanley, tells us all that "If You’re Not Scared About Fascism in the United States, You Should Be." It's nonsense interwoven with Trump Derangement Syndrome to be sure, re-enforcing the notion that progressives are the true "anti-fascists. It's interesting, BTW, that the militant/extremist arm of the Left, Antifa, uses violence and intimidation tactics (not to mention black uniforms and masks) that have been adopted from the play book of true fascists.

David Bernstein at Instapundit comments:

Blustery quotes from Trump aren’t “fascism.” You know what actual fascism looks like? A judiciary controlled by the executive, militarization of civilian life, rubber-stamp legislature, no free elections, government control of industry, severe restrictions on press freedom, and cooptation of religious entities by the state. You know how many of these we have now? None. Nor is there any real threat of any of these occurring. Even if we were to accept Stanley’s claim that Trump uses fascist-style rhetoric, fascism is not looming in America. This sort of nonsense should be beneath a serious academic, but, hey, it’s 2018, and everyone has gone crazy.

There's a lot nonsense masquerading as serious commentary coming out of academia at the moment. Then again, it could be argued that's always been the case.