Portland Protestors abducted by secret police

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Armies have guns. These men have guns. These men must be an army!

Also, platypuses have webbed feet. Donald Duck has webbed feet. Donald Duck is a platypus.

Yes being armed is an intrinsic aspect of an Army/Armed Forces, (shocking I know) it's not the only factor of course but from what I can tell from the outside that info is not available.

It's tough, looking from the outside in.

[Rocketboy1313]

https://www.opb.org/news/article/federal-law-enforcement-unmarked-vehicles-portland-protesters/

In the march of Facism, there is no one single point that is "too far". They never cross the line because they keep moving it. Then, before you know it, it's too late.

Man the left has been desperate to play the Fascist card on Trump for a while now. Ya'll got blue balls when he decided not to sent in the army, but kept suggesting it. (all the while reminding people that every governer and mayor could send in the national guard at any time). Now you're trying to suggest that plain clothes officers are the secret police. It's the SS and Drumph is literally Hitler!!1!!1

I don't know what events, methodology, iconography, or whatever else would have to happen for you to come around on something.
It should bother you that protesters are being taken by people who are dressed up like storm troopers. It should bother you that these guys do not identify themselves. Part of being in a democratic style government is that legal authorities have to on some level be known by and answerable to the public, this behavior does not follow that.

In regards to fascism, I don't know what events, methodology, iconography, or whatever else would convince you that Trump is a fascist in a very textbook sense.
Trump is a fascist in a very textbook sense of the word.
Here is a list of commonly held criteria for fascism.
http://www.openculture.com/2016/11/umberto-eco-makes-a-list-of-the-14-common-features-of-fascism.html

This does not go into real detail on each point, and they each have more elements to them that might not be immediately obvious by their titles, for instance the "Machismo" element for instance covers aspects of fetishistic behavior toward weapons and the demonization of sexual and gender behaviors other that heterosexual male dominance.

Feel free to ignore everything I have written here. I don't regard you are someone I need to convince or someone I want to spend a lot of time trying to convince. But do try to think more critically about what is going on in the world beyond, "they broke the rules, clearly it is okay to punish them with (X) levels of force". Because you have to ask yourself if a rule is just and if the force being used to enforce it is justified.

Don't let, "they broke the rules" be used to justify bad things happening to desperate or oppressed people.

[GreyICE]

You ever wondered what a police state looked like from the inside...

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

Further confirmation that we have armed federal goons disappearing people.
https://www.npr.org/2020/07/17/892277592/federal-officers-use-unmarked-vehicles-to-grab-protesters-in-portland?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20200717

I hate that I'm still recovering from surgery. I hate that I have been repeatedly advised by doctors to avoid falls, and that I won't have much of a running speed. I hate knowing that going out to a protest with a mobility aid in case of falls will make me more of a target for cops, as we've seen. I want to make a donation to fight this and I'll still feel like a cowardly shit because I'm not doing more.

[Madner Kami]

Trump is a fascist in a very textbook sense of the word.
Here is a list of commonly held criteria for fascism.
http://www.openculture.com/2016/11/umberto-eco-makes-a-list-of-the-14-common-features-of-fascism.html

There's a great many things that can be said about Trump, but being a fascist? Nope. He's the poster-child of the phrase "Don't ascribe to maliciousness, which can be adequately explained by stupidity." He literally does not care about the nation or society, as long as people do as he says. His actions and thinking is very much missing the very core component of fascism, which is nationalism, though that obviously does not preclude him from using totalitarian means or paying lip-service to the concept of nation, in order to drag people into his con. He wants to be an autocrat, an absolute monarch, nothing more, nothing less.

[G-Man]

Meh.

[G-Man]

Oh noes, we can't riot and loot and destroy stuff!

[Draco Dracul]

Trump is a fascist in a very textbook sense of the word.
Here is a list of commonly held criteria for fascism.
http://www.openculture.com/2016/11/umberto-eco-makes-a-list-of-the-14-common-features-of-fascism.html

There's a great many things that can be said about Trump, but being a fascist? Nope. He's the poster-child of the phrase "Don't ascribe to maliciousness, which can be adequately explained by stupidity." He literally does not care about the nation or society, as long as people do as he says. His actions and thinking is very much missing the very core component of fascism, which is nationalism, though that obviously does not preclude him from using totalitarian means or paying lip-service to the concept of nation, in order to drag people into his con. He wants to be an autocrat, an absolute monarch, nothing more, nothing less.

Being a complete fucking moron and being a fascist aren't contradictory and in fact because fascism is a system that both demands and offers easy solutions to complex problems they often go hand in hand.

[GreyICE]

It's really no coincidence that Cardassia was sculpted as a fascist society and Gul Dukat's slogan was "Make Cardassia Strong Again." Literally. Direct quote.

The fascist form of nationalism is different from more traditionally nationalist philosophies, like neo-conservatism. Fascists believe in the nation not as a block of land or the people who live there, but as a vision of an all-encompassing identity. Thus the fascist leader can embody the perfect avatar of that identity - the perfect American, the perfect ideal of America. That lets the fascist leader merge the nation and themselves in their own ego. Self-glorification becomes combined with nationalism, because they are the perfect avatar of what the state should be.

For fucks sake look at Mussolini and Hitler, two people who were just overflowing with ego.

[G-Man]

It's really no coincidence that Cardassia was sculpted as a fascist society and Gul Dukat's slogan was "Make Cardassia Strong Again." Literally. Direct quote.

The fascist form of nationalism is different from more traditionally nationalist philosophies, like neo-conservatism.

Neoconservatism is not nationalist. It is imperialist. The goal of neoconservatism is for the United States to rule over a vast empire of client states.