Angry white men playing soldier, thundering with red hats and bloodshot eyes. A loud red man-child spitting venom into a microphone, crowds of chanting supporters with MAGA hats, applauding at the feet of their self-made God. Blind devotion and salutes. Senseless, frenzied rallies. A dizzied chorus who doesn’t know what they’re preaching. This is what I picture when I think of the Trump Administration. 

The term “fascism” about Trump’s leadership style gets thrown around quite often, but it’s important to know that this term is layered, complex, and requires many boxes to be checked to be used correctly. Jason Stanley, Yale’s leading professor of Philosophy and author of “How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them,” labeled a few key components of fascist regimes that are strikingly similar to the actions of the Trump administration. What we’re gonna talk about today is what fascism is and how the Trump administration associates with it. 

First of all, fascism is inherently right-wing. It relies on this idea of a mythic past. The leader will say something like, “Yeah, we’re alright right now. But we used to be great.” They’ll vocalize a hierarchical social group, typically placing rich, white men the highest, and declare that things were amazing when they were on top. And their privilege has been taken from them by leftist and progressive ideals. 

They’ll say that these dominant groups of white men are victims of such movements. Men are victims of feminism. Whites are victims of African-American equality. German Christians are victims of Jews. They’ll instill sexual humiliation into the minds of followers, claim the queer community is coming for their families, or take over society. They’ll be told that these progressive ways of life are inherently contradictory to the ideals of their nation. The leader will promise national restoration in the face of such danger. That’s how they’ll gain trust. 

Chat, I’m already scared. This is literally Trump’s slogan… and there’s more.

Fascism is a cult of the leader. Regardless of scientific or quantitative data, the leader will determine fact and fiction. Like… claiming an election is rigged… perchance. 

The leader will only cite science if it strengthens the nation. There will be a fog of unreality. People aren’t encouraged to explore different modes of thinking… 

Sooo we know how the Trump administration cut funding for university medical research, right? And how he’s been arresting students protesting the war in Israel. And how they banned over a hundred books in our Naval Academy. They also contacted Colombia and Harvard in an attempt to adjust and change their modes of teaching radical thought. People are scared to release new scientific papers because of the fear of backlash from the Trump administration. 

The thing with fascist regimes is people will love this leader so much that they’ll follow him blindly. They’ll believe that even if this leader does something that hurts their livelihood, it is for the betterment of the nation: nothing he does is illegal because he determines who’s within the scope of legality. He’ll pardon those loyal– like those that stormed the Capital– and punish those who rebel. 

In a recent interview, Jason Stanley states that “Fascism is what the Trump administration is now doing” and labels this authoritarianism as dangerous. So uhh, yeah. 

Reading about all of this is pretty terrifying; it’s scary to think we’re being brought up in a world where this is actually happening. I think Americans have been pretty manipulated by the Trump Administration. 

However, resistance is starting to boil over. Top ten universities banded together to combat Trump’s educational takeover efforts. Several organizations have sued Trump. Courts are working against some of his executive orders, and journalists are not staying silent. Now more than ever, it’s important to remain educated on exactly what he doesn’t want you to know: your power. 

I know this is crazy overwhelming, but we only lose once we’re silenced. I don’t know about you guys, but I have zero plans to shut up in the foreseeable future, so uhh, we got this!!

 But seriously, we’ve got so much potential as a country; it’s time everyone started being forceful with it. Anyway, that’s all I’ve got today, folks; my apologies for the fascist scare, but also, you’re welcome for the info. See you next week.