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The Role of Fear in Moving to Fascism; How Much of that is Happening Today (Keeping the World Company - recorded on 1/29/2025). The hosts for this show were Jay Fidell and Tim Apicella. The guests were Jean Rosenfeld and Manfred Henningsen.

The discussion was: Thanks to Trump, there is much fear in the country. It has visibly increased since the election and his inauguration. It is a phenomenon that is in itself terrifying, leading to dark days for all of us, as Anne Applebaum has so often written.

It is in the media, where Trump tells us that we are all in great danger, where he makes his threats for vengeance, not only as retribution for things that people have said and done before the election, but for things people may do now.

There are so many conspiracy theories and threats, not only against migrants and immigrants and other countries formerly our allies, but against all of us. If we see him threatening others, we conclude, and rightly so, that we will be next.

Fear of arrest, detention and deportation for so many. Fear of attack by our own army, or his base or the insurrectionists he has pardoned. Fear of punishment for those who don’t turn in coworkers who oppose his destruction of government

Fear of speaking against him in public or in private. Fear of anti-semitism, just as Musk is spreading for Trump in Europe. Fear or the normalization of racism and bigotry in general. We all have good reasons to be afraid.

It has become clear that he is stoking fear intentionally and in all the ways he can. It is in his playbook as a way to enhance his own power and get to be a fascist dictator, suggesting obvious parallels to other dictators in history.

Think Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Xi Jinping, Kim Jong-un and certainly Putin.

We need to examine all the things Trump is doing and threatening to do to stoke fear among us, not only here but in Europe and Latin America too. At the same time, we need to examine how we can respond and resist his efforts to do that.

The takeaway was: Of Course, the Thing we Have to Fear is Fear Itself. What FDR was Really Talking About was the Use of Fear by These Fascists. Let’s Not Let that Happen Again.

The YouTube Playlist for this show is: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQpkwcNJny6lLnYB4hmXsiIXNcOEmb5Dg

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The hashtag keywords for this show are: #Manfred_Henningsen #Jean_Rosenfeld #Trump #fear #the_election #inauguration #threats #vengeance #retribution #conspiracy_theories #migrants #immigrants #arrest #detention #deportation #attack #US_military #Trump's_base #insurrectionists #pardons #punishment #turning_in_coworkers #dismantling_our_government #speaking_against_Trump #anti-semitism #Elon_Musk #Europe #normalization_of_racism #normalization_of_bigotry #stoking_fear #Trump's_playbook #Trump's_power #fascist_dictator #dictators_in_history #Hitler #Mussolini #Stalin #Xi_Jinping #Kim_Jong-un #Putin._Europe #Latin_America #FDR

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