# Donald Trump is a fascist
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-a-fascist/988260
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Tags:** trump
**Created:** [August 8, 2023, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-a-fascist/988260 "2023-08-08T17:18:04Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)
#### Post date: [August 8, 2023, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-a-fascist/988260/1 "2023-08-08T17:18:04Z")
In case there was any doubt, Robert Reich, former labor secretary and now professor at UC Berkeley, spells it out for us in a succinct, seven minute video (below). I don’t think this is a surprise to anyone here but I believe this is a good summation that puts all the details together. Reich is a great educator and he does it here again.
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XTJNy_OrjE)
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### Author:  [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)
#### Post date: [August 8, 2023, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-a-fascist/988260/2 "2023-08-08T17:29:32Z")
I forgot to mention…@4:30 in the video above it notes male hegemony is the thing. Women and LGBTQ+…you’re screwed.
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### Author:  [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)
#### Post date: [August 8, 2023, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-a-fascist/988260/3 "2023-08-08T17:33:45Z")
I mean…this is preaching to the choir. The only people Reich will persuade are people who are long since already persuaded.
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### Author:  [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)
#### Post date: [August 8, 2023, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-a-fascist/988260/4 "2023-08-08T17:37:48Z")
True. I just think it is worth showing that this is real fascism and not some watered down euphemism for that. Make it crystal clear, in easy to understand terms, what we are dealing with.
Not some vague notion of “center-right” vs “center-left”. This is hard right. Make no mistake about that. Look at the current republican candidates for president. Fascists. All of them.
And what does that tell us? There is a large portion of this country that wants that. It’s scary.
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### Author:  [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)
#### Post date: [August 8, 2023, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-a-fascist/988260/5 "2023-08-08T18:01:24Z")
People on the left, probably including me, have cried wolf enough times in the past when it wasn’t warranted that some are reluctant to admit that this time it really is a wolf. Some of those people are members of the choir but don’t want to be too hasty and don’t want to be fooled again.
I’m ok with preaching to them.
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### Author:  [@Kropotkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kropotkin)
#### Post date: [August 8, 2023, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-a-fascist/988260/6 "2023-08-08T18:26:59Z")
The “preaching to the choir” argument is not without merit, but it often becomes an excuse to ignore the message and to underplay the good active “preaching” can do. There is, I agree, a difference in how one approaches consolidating and rallying “the choir” and how one seeks to convince others.
As to whether Trump is a fascist, the writer Jeff Sharlett long resisted calling Trump and others fascists, but in his new book, The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War, and in his interview with Doug Henwood, he concludes, yup, it’s fascism.
It is the 18 May interview in this link [Radio archives](https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html#S230518)
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### Author:  [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)
#### Post date: [August 8, 2023, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-a-fascist/988260/7 "2023-08-08T19:24:10Z")
Reich is cherry picking. Pictures of Hitler and Trump giving the same smirk, for example. Not that I don’t agree with him that Trump is a fascist. It would be nice to see a video he did in the past and to be able to find examples of how Trump fits.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)
#### Post date: [August 8, 2023, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-a-fascist/988260/8 "2023-08-08T19:40:14Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#):
>
> It would be nice to see a video he did in the past and to be able to find examples of how Trump fits.
Yeah he gets old. The first video you watch is great. The second is fine. But by the third Reich, you’re naziing anything new.
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### Author:  [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)
#### Post date: [August 8, 2023, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-a-fascist/988260/9 "2023-08-08T19:42:39Z")
That deserves an upvote…if we had those. 🙇♂️
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### Author:  [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Winston_OBoogie)
#### Post date: [August 8, 2023, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-a-fascist/988260/10 "2023-08-08T19:43:57Z")
Started binging [How To Become a Tyrant](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14832996/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_3_tt_8_nm_0_q_how%2520to%2520become%2520), and my wife and I quickly turned it into a game of “Does Trump Do This?”
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### Author:  [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)
#### Post date: [August 8, 2023, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-a-fascist/988260/11 "2023-08-08T19:49:23Z")
What does it mean, “upvote”?
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### Author:  [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)
#### Post date: [August 8, 2023, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-a-fascist/988260/12 "2023-08-08T19:50:25Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#):
>
> What does it mean, “upvote” ?
I think it’s like a like.
I.e., Thumbs up.
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### Author:  [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)
#### Post date: [August 8, 2023, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-a-fascist/988260/13 "2023-08-08T19:52:18Z")
Yeah. Specifically Reddit has upvotes and downvotes which is where it comes from. Basically thumbs up in approval or thumbs down in disapproval. Those up/down votes are tallied and you get an overall approval rating for a given post.
Just wanted to express my like for that particular comment.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)
#### Post date: [August 8, 2023, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-a-fascist/988260/14 "2023-08-08T19:54:06Z")
I appreciate the sentiment but I more likely deserve a good thwapping about the head and shoulders than anything.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [August 8, 2023, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-a-fascist/988260/15 "2023-08-08T19:58:50Z")
> [@74westy](#):
>
> People on the left, probably including me, have cried wolf enough times in the past when it wasn’t warranted that some are reluctant to admit that this time it really is a wolf.
I don’t think I’ve called G. W. Bush, for instance, a fascist. In fact, I think that he’s a basically decent person, who is unfortunately just dumb enough to be easily manipulated by evil people. I don’t think I ever even called Cheney a fascist, though I did probably mention at times that he was uncomfortably similar to one.
Trump, however, is a fascist.
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### Author:  [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)
#### Post date: [August 8, 2023, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-a-fascist/988260/16 "2023-08-08T19:59:58Z")
Here is another good documentary on fascism, by Rick Steves, the travel in Europe guy - I, too was thinking while watching it “yeah, Trump is doing that…” altho Rick alludes to some other current fascists around the globe, he stays away from mentioning Trump directly.
> **[Rick Steves' Europe | The Story of Fascism in Europe | PBS](https://www.pbs.org/video/the-story-of-fascism-in-europe-pthanf/)**
>
> Rick Steves travels back a century to learn how fascism rose and then fell in Europe
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### Author:  [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)
#### Post date: [August 8, 2023, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-a-fascist/988260/17 "2023-08-08T20:34:49Z")
Huh, what an awkward video, watching the nice middle-aged solo travel guy explain to use about Fascism. Kinda like watching a video where your sweet old lady neighbor explains the ups and downs of menopause.
Gonna keep watching it tho!
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### Author:  [@gnarator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnarator)
#### Post date: [August 8, 2023, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-a-fascist/988260/18 "2023-08-08T20:39:07Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#):
>
> what an awkward video, watching the nice middle-aged solo travel guy
Oh, there’s more to Rick Steves than meets the eye. He used to be a spokesman for NORML–a completely different trip.
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### Author:  [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)
#### Post date: [August 8, 2023, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-a-fascist/988260/19 "2023-08-08T20:41:00Z")
No way! Very cool 🕶
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### Author:  [@gnarator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnarator)
#### Post date: [August 8, 2023, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-a-fascist/988260/20 "2023-08-08T20:46:19Z")
Apparently he’s [chair of the Board of Directors](https://norml.org/about-norml/norml-board-of-directors/rick-steves/).
To get back on topic, he has a book entitled _Travel as a Political Act_
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