Friday, September 19, 2025

Bill Kristol: We’re Gonna Call It What It Is…

Unlike [JD] Vance, who saw in Trump a wagon to which to hitch his star, [John] Kelly was at the end of a distinguished career when he joined the Trump administration. He meant to serve his country, not himself. He found that he was working for a fascist. As for the movement which Vance aspires to lead once Trump leaves the scene, it too has many features of fascism.

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In 1995, the Italian novelist and critic Umberto Eco perceived a "ghost stalking Europe (not to speak of other parts of the world)." That ghost was fascism.

Eco explained that "fascism was a fuzzy totalitarianism, a collage of different philosophical and political ideas." Nonetheless he argued that "in spite of this fuzziness, I think it is possible to outline a list of features that are typical of what I would like to call Ur-Fascism, or Eternal Fascism."

Among the elements of Ur-Fascism ... .

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Kristol explains:

"The first feature of Ur-Fascism is the cult of tradition," he writes, which implies "the rejection of the modern world."
"Ur-Fascism can be defined as irrationalism."

"For Ur-Fascism, disagreement is treason."

"Ur-Fascism grows up and seeks for consensus by exploiting and exacerbating the natural fear of difference. The first appeal of a fascist or prematurely fascist movement is an appeal against the intruders."

"Ur-Fascism derives from individual or social frustration."

"At the root of the Ur-Fascist psychology there is the obsession with a plot, possibly an international one. The followers must feel besieged. The easiest way to solve the plot is the appeal to xenophobia."

"The Ur-Fascist transfers his will to power to sexual matters. This is the origin of machismo. . . . Since even sex is a difficult game to play, the Ur-Fascist hero tends to play with weapons"doing so becomes an ersatz phallic exercise."

"Fascist schoolbooks made use of an impoverished vocabulary, and an elementary syntax, in order to limit the instruments for complex and critical reasoning."
Sound familiar?


No wonder Kristol asks: "Sound familiar?"

#1 | Posted by Doc_Sarvis at 2025-09-19 06:05 AM

His advice for those in MAGA?

If you're a MAGA supporter: Rethink your attachment to a movement to which, for various reasons, you became attracted. Its fascist elements"even its fascist core"are now evident. It's not something of which you should want to be a part. Leave it.

If you're a MAGA fellow traveler: Stop rationalizing, stop justifying, stop enabling it.

If you're trying to stay neutral: Stop acquiescing, stop ducking, stop evading responsibility.

If you're a MAGA opponent: Oppose the movement firmly and resolutely by all peaceful and political means. Defeat it.

#2 | Posted by Doc_Sarvis at 2025-09-19 06:06 AM

Umberto Eco's essay on Ur Fascism is at theanarchistlibrary.org

#3 | Posted by Doc_Sarvis at 2025-09-19 06:08 AM

So...Kristol shows his true colors and outs hisself as the radical leftist he's always been.

Laissez les bons temps rouler.

#4 | Posted by Angrydad at 2025-09-19 09:52 AM

Expect the righties here to just attack Kristol.

#5 | Posted by jpw at 2025-09-19 11:30 AM

For some, calling Trump a fascist was a blatant exageration. It still is for some (ahem, DR republiclowns). After all, publicly screaming TRUMP IS A FASCIST!!! is a bit ironic.

The rest of us have always seen Trump for what he is, and what he wants.

To Kristol's credit, he's been arguing like this for some time now.

#6 | Posted by horstngraben at 2025-09-19 12:45 PM

" Expect the righties here to just attack Kristol.

#5 | POSTED BY JPW AT 2025-09-19 11:30 AM | FLAG: "

He was a punching bag of or the left for decades.

#7 | Posted by BellRinger at 2025-09-19 01:02 PM

He was a punching bag of or the left for decades.

So what?

You see, Mr. "I'm not a complete hack", there are still "conservatives" that can agree with the liberals in this country. Even if they disagree on stuff that, by now, feel like a political eternity away.

Adult matters that MAGA turds like you can't comprehend. So go back to kid's table.

Or wait, you're MAGA. I take that back, stay away from the kid's table.

#8 | Posted by horstngraben at 2025-09-19 01:46 PM

He was a punching bag of or the left for decades.

#7 | POSTED BY BELLRINGER

I remember who he is and what his role was during the Bush years.

It's entirely irrelevant to the thread.

#9 | Posted by jpw at 2025-09-19 02:10 PM

Bill Kristol finally caught on to what we've been saying about the Republican party since he was supporting W's lies about Iraq. It's pathetic that it took him this long.

#10 | Posted by johnny_hotsauce at 2025-09-19 03:45 PM

I liked him in City Slickers.

#11 | Posted by YAV at 2025-09-19 06:56 PM

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