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Notes -
The irony calling Trump and his supporters "Fascist" is that MAGA does not buy into the idea of the state as ultimate sovereign/final arbiter of authority. MAGA does not want a rational materialist technocracy society run by "Elite Human Capital" (or a racial spoils system for that matter) nor does MAGA see itself as socialist (though they are certainly nationalist).
To the extent that mid 20th century fascism is an active and vital force in US politics today, it is embodied by the sort of affluent white liberal who writes for the New York Times and voted for Zohran Mamdani on the high-end, and would-be brownshirts like Alex Pretti on the low end.
I would argue that MAGA is (amongst many things) a popular reaction against the fascistic and anti-western tendencies that have been allowed to fester amongst our so-called "best and brightest" for far too long. But acknowledging that would force the NYT to grapple with their own checkered history regarding Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, the German Bund, Et Al, whereas doubling down on calling anyone to the right of Karl Marx a secret Nazi costs them nothing but readership.
Much of MAGA buys into the idea that Trump ought to be the ultimate sovereign/final arbiter of authority. There's a short distance from the type of cultism the rank-and-file MAGA voter shows, and the idea that Trump should be some sort of dictator, if only to stop those evil leftists!
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