authoritarianism != fascism There are lots and lots of kinds of authoritarianism, and Democrats et al have embraced a Leftist type which pushes for egalitarian

authoritarianism != fascism There are lots and lots of kinds of authoritarianism, and Democrats et al have embraced a Leftist type which pushes for egalitarianism through violence, which is antithetical to fascism (the egalitarianism, not the violence). There are a few big name Dem politicians who are pushing a modern brand of fascism, but they're the minority now. Nothing that follows should be viewed as a defense of the Right. > Somehow the folks that have traditionally been the champions of civil rights, anti-war, and watchdogs against the growth and abuse from corporate power, have instead become cheerleaders for an authoritarian state controlled mostly by the military industrial complex and big pharma. Ah, see, that's your mistake. You were fed the cherry-picked history where the Democrats et al were the Good Guys of the 20th Century; this is a common problem when government schools are run by teachers unions that are in bed with one party. Progressives were never liberal; they were always authoritarians. If you read some of the fascist writers before WWII, they often praised the progressives in the US, including FDR. Marxists were never liberal; they've used various names over the years to avoid taking responsibility for the tens of millions of people they killed to achieve their utopia, but it's important to recognize how much of the modern US Left draws from Marxism. During the anti-Communist years after WWII, the Communists tried to rebrand themselves as civil libertarians and the like. This was a show. The ACLU was genuinely liberal, but the Left was also committing terrorist acts as "champions of civil rights, anti-war, and watchdogs against the growth and abuse from corporate power". The terrorism part doesn't get taught in school. Kids hear that the Black Panthers set up lunchrooms, but so do Hamas and Hezbollah. They're still terrorists. So we should recognize that Democrats et al were never the liberal champions we were taught in school or heard on TV. The reality is always dirtier and more complicated. Pretend that I also spend 20 minutes typing up why I think the Right is awful, because they've rarely been liberal either.