The Skinny: Fascism, Tyranny and the Smear Machine

NinaIllingworth September 23, 2019November 5, 2022 "both sides" nonsense, 2020 Democratic Party Nomination Contest, activism, Andy Ngo, Andy Ngo provides kill lists for Atomwaffen, antifa, antifascism, antifascist action, Arun Gupta, Bernie Sanders, blog, Chuds, class war, concentration camps, corporate media, Democratic Party, DHS, direct action, DoJ, Donald Trump, FA1, Fantastic Lies, far right violence, fascism, fascism for profit, fascist free speech rallies are not about free speech, fascist street gangs, ICE, Jacobin, Justice, liberal media, manufacturing consent, Media, media narratives, militias, MP6, National Low Income Housing Coalition, New York Times, NIMBYism, Nina Illingworth, Offsite Writing, Patreon, Patreon Blog, Patriot Prayer, Police, police state, Politics, Portland, private prisons, Proud Boys, right wing violence, Stephen Miller, The Skinny, War on California, white nationalism, white nationalist immigration policy

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Normalizing Fascism While Othering Leftism for Fun and Profit

When historians look back on this time of rising, unchecked fascism in America, one of the first things they’re going to realize is that our society was so vulnerable to the reactionary siren song because the “very serious” people in our media simply refused to name the beast, or drop their standard faux-balance/both sides formula for covering U.S. culture war politics.

In this September 2019 edition of The Skinny, I look at corporate media’s refusal to cover Trump’s war on the homeless as part of the fascist creep, a left wing writer’s willingness to give Andy Ngo too much benefit of the doubt even while noting that he’s a fascist, and the unity of purpose corporate media found when facing down Bernie Sanders and young American socialists – but not, when writing about fascism.

“For starters the widely-publicized justification for the assault on Andy Ngo is that he publicly broadcast the names and addresses of anti-fascist protestors arrested at a previous rally, apparently with the help of a sympathetic police officer. This action put lives in danger and whether or not you agree that this justification is sufficient to give Andy Ngo a decidedly non-lethal shiner for his trouble, it is not non-existent. If Gupta was unaware of these facts, he’s failed his readers and he’s helped Andy Ngo hide the fascist violence behind his actions – actions that then lead to the assault; please keep in mind that nobody punched Andy in the face during the numerous previous rallies he attended and filmed, after all.”

Check it out on my (always free to read) Patreon Blog by clicking on the quotation block above, or the title header below:

How Not to Write About Fascism and Politics

nina Illingworth

Independent writer, critic and analyst with a left focus. Please help me fight corporate censorship by sharing my articles with your friends online!

You can find my work at ninaillingworth.com, Can’t You Read, Media Madness and my Patreon Blog

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