memes

I would just say there are some differences even still. Trump is massively losing support even with the republicans, because most care more about the economy and inflation than whatever random agenda trump decides on that day. The firehose of falsehood I agree with, but it seems they're incompetent even at that because most still blamed the government shutdown on Republicans. Many states are fighting against the consolidation of power and the illegal acts, like California's redistricting and the massive protests around the country.

I'm aware of the polyanya principle but in this case it feels like most of the country isn't just unified in not supporting him, it seems most are actively against him. The no kings protests were the 2nd largest in US history, and all the people actively fighting against ICE shows me people aren't afraid to fight back. Also just the incompetence, ICE is a bunch of untrained overweight thugs, rather than a strong military force. The national guard being deployed to Oregon is maybe a special case since the idea that Portland was a war zone somehow was a conspiracy for quite a while. If that happened across the country I think we'd see massive revolt.

What actually happened here? Rights were flagrantly violated, then they soft backtracked, and then they issued the same threats again (on going) where they will likely backtrack less this time, and so on.

I mean maybe it's similar to what happened in China, where they can suppress it but everyone has phones so it's extremely difficult to actually hide it. Pretty much everyone in America heard about the Jimmy Kimmel firing, and if something like that happens again it's a free viral story. I would agree they're trying to normalize it, and they will try to keep taking it further and further, but we still have a ways to go considering the country's reaction.

If it practically doesn't, it practically doesn't.

I mean not false, but to some people it really matters the reason. If you tell an average person "trump is a fascist" they may or may not believe you, but if you say trump is a narcissist who wants to be surrounded by yes men and fires anyone who disagrees with him and tries to get more power, almost everyone would agree. The effect is essentially the same but the intent behind it makes it feel different to people. I think maybe I would say they're trying to be fascist, but they don't have the support /brainpower or the ability to hide it very well.