Fascism Watch for 22 January 2024: the Simonyan/Fatale Intersection

Yeah, I’m so far behind on things I want to post about, and I want to stress: not even just fascism watch shit. I’m trying to figure out how I’m going to manage all of it this year, because the flood is going to be absolutely massive.

Before we get into domestic matters – that’s coming out later in a separate post – I had a couple of interesting notes from Russian state media. It’s propaganda for the domestic audience, though one should assume they’re well aware we’re listening in.

First, Russian Media Monitor highlighted this particular clip with the title “Margarita Simonyan says Russians don’t want a normal life.” But much more interesting to me is her commentary here on the US, specifically, her exact and repeated invocation of American fundamentalist evangelical rhetoric, including describing “woke” – using the word in English – as a “new religion.”

I have to stress that this is all very exact, hitting the same notes and hitting the same language points – up to and including an actual English word they’ve appropriated. There’s not one word out of her that I don’t recognise from the GOP core voter block.

That doesn’t mean they’re in lockstep. But just as with the last fascist upsurge a century ago, they’re listening to each other, exchanging ideas – and language. It’s not even new. For example, “cuck” – /pol/’s favourite insult when it was the centre of online fascist recruitment? That’s from 1930s French fascism, straight up. They used it first, in the same ways and for the same reasons.

Secondly, here’s Margarita Simonyan condemning democracy in very clear and explicit language, saying that the Russian people will never accept it again after the events of the 1990s. It’s in a clip entitled “Scott Ritter guarantees the US will soon betray Ukraine,” and they do have Ritter up there doing his usual Death to America shtick. But I’m more interested in Simonyan, the self-described Russian imperialist and defender of true Russian freedom and… democracy? Against “western Fascism”?

Have fun reconciling that. I don’t know how their viewers are going to square that circle, or if they’re even going to try. It’s still interesting, not for the usual fashy “100% bad faith say whatever is best at the moment” bullshit spew, but for the fact that the more obvious you make this kind of bad faith, the more people fall into cynicism about everything you say. Outside the committed block, of course.

As for Ritter being there, well, they’ve had him doing the rounds a lot lately, doing the whole Lord Haw-Haw routine for domestic audiences (and those listening overseas, such as myself), giving Vladimir Soloyvov a challenge coin, proclaiming that “Russia has already won” and “the US will betray Ukraine” and “NATO has already collapsed” and all that.

I’m sure it’s good for boosting morale at home, but it is interesting that they’re having to bring him out to do the round again. You can only do that so many times, and they’re always very careful to say that the war will go on for a long time – something else I’m not sure how domestic viewers are going to square.

Maybe those protesting Russian war wives are making Kremlin propagandists a little… nervous.

We’ll see.

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Fascism Watch for 22 January 2024, the Cultural Warfare Edition

There are people out there who are dismissive of the whole term “culture war” and “cultural warfare,” and I can see their point a little – a very little – but the idea that somehow “war” and “warfare” is downplaying what they’re committing on us frankly blows my mind.

I mean, the point of war is to kill enough of the enemy until they surrender, and that’s what they’ve been doing my whole life. So even though they used it first, frankly, I’m kinda good with that description.

So, what’d you miss last week? Let me catch you up with a comment-heavy linkfest.

I want to lead with this because it happens literally every time fascists take over: The brain drain from red states continues as 73% of college applicants consider reproductive rights, and a quarter are ruling out colleges based entirely upon political politics such as abortion bans. It’s a video-only story, unfortunately, but that’s the key takeaway.

Mind you, the people behind thes laws are against education in general anyway, even if it’s free, if any “liberal” politics are are involved. It always ends up with the smart and motivated people going anywhere else they can – if they can.

Which is why so many fascist states work to close their borders. Like Republican states are toying with, regarding women and abortion. This is not a coincidence.

Now, let’s get into some of those laws – new ones showing up in state houses, and court cases as they unfold:

The Utah Republican State House passed an invasive anti-trans bathroom ban, and it’s a bad one. “Papers, Please” is how Law Dork describes it and he’s not wrong.

The Supreme Court is allowing Idaho to enforce its strict abortion ban, even in medical emergencies. I’ve been saying it for a long time, and the reality is self-evident, and sometimes they even say it themselves: they want women with bad pregnancies to fucking die already, because God Said.

Reporting on the Idaho Republican Party’s official position opposing abortion even to save the life of the parent is what got me my first Twitter ban, back in the day. If you have friends still in denial about this, find some way to get them out if it. See also Slate doing the same.

There’s more on Indiana’s attempt to re-ban same-sex marriage in “Indiana Republicans want to re-write the law to eliminate the word ‘gender’” In addition to eliminating ‘gender’ in law in favour of ‘biological sex’ as defined as Republican fundamentalists would insist, it specifically also says that the queers can’t marry. So there you go, yet another example of “they won’t stop with the T” in action.

They’ll make all of us illegal again if they can.

Kansas Republicans are putting together an abortion ban despite the state passing a constitutional amendment guaranteeing abortion rights in the state in 2018. This is again because – as Beau says – they don’t give a fuck what you want, they don’t want to represent you, they want to rule you.

Oklahoma’s got a real two-fer going: first, the state chairman of the Oklahoma Republican Party has proposed licensing for journalists. That’s not fascist at all! Secondly, Republican Representative Justin Humphrey filed a bill targeting furries, banning them from schools and extracurricular events, and requiring them to be removed by parents – or animal control.

This is how far Republicans are willing to go to find people to oppress. Jesus fuck.

These are a little ancillary, but it’s still about the effects of Republican cultural warfare laws:

In leopards and faces news, Bill O’Reilly Is Furious As His Own Titles Get Removed After Supporting Florida Book Bans.

It’s only a letter to the editor, but the Columbus Dispatch not only published it, but pushed it to wire services and Apple News, and that’s good: A disturbing sight. Ohio Republicans joy over hurting kids, families show true hatred. It’s pretty solid, and shows how letters to the editor can still be meaningful – particularly when syndicated. This got put in front of a lot of people.

Finally, let’s move to propaganda and knock-on effects. These might not be laws, but they’re still important:

“Dr. Phil’s upcoming show, developed in partnership with Christian media, will feature a doctor who admits to leaking trans children’s private health information to a right wing think tank,” reports Assigned.

People ask me, sometimes: what can I do about all this? Well, this is one of those cases what you do is get ahead of this story if you know people who watch this kind of show. Talk to them about the reality first, before the propagandists can plant their disinformation flags.

It really does help, because even if they believe the disinformation, they’ll still be less likely to take it up as unquestioned truth.

But you have to get there first for it to work.

Missouri health clinics priced out of gender-affirming care by rising malpractice premiums. This is intentional, and a technique from before they overturned Roe v. Wade. If you can’t ban health care, you can at least make it impossibly expensive. Either way, you get what you want: no health care for the people you hate.

Conservative Magazine Wonders Why Women Don’t Accept Transphobia as the New Feminism, also writes that women would be happier if they’d just accept that “evolutionary biology” says that women are different to and therefore lesser than men. Astoundingly, this has had some traction in the UK. Less, happily, in the United States so far.

Also in the UK: James Cleverly to ease restrictions on anti-abortion protesters outside clinics. They’re coming for abortion rights there, too.

This Week in Barrel Scraping: Chaya Raichik Accuses United CEO of Wearing Drag. It’s because United supports having a diverse workplace, because of course it is.

Finally, let’s wrap up on a long-read: The Outing of Bubba Copeland:

Before Stonewall, getting outed could be deadly. After an Alabama mayor’s suicide, it’s clear that’s a climate some want to revive.

— By Evan Urquhart, for Slate

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o brother

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