Either I've been spending too much time on Reddit, or there is an uprising in a certain political agenda that I believe would lead us straight to fascism. It's typically known as the "woke culture".
I think you've picked the wrong side of that cultural war to describe as fascistic. Fascism is antithetical to democracy. Who incited a Capitol insurrection over the results of a free and fair election? Antifa means antifascism. They people crying "Antifa! Antifa!" while holding tiki torches are Profa - profascism. They wear the symbols and chant the chants. We saw it in Charlottesville, and in the insurrection.
The Republican party itself is nearly perfectly united in its unwillingness to call January 6th an attack on democracy. Multiple members are in the crosshairs of the House Select Committee now. They deflect and obstruct as the guilty must. None of them want the records of their communications on or immediately before the attack looked at.
Fascism isn't intolerance for somebody wearing a swastika and punching him in the face. That's a reaction to intolerance, and has the same status as a reaction to being shot at by returning fire.
Intolerance is wearing the swastika. And punching him in the face for so doing is intolerance of intolerance. However undesirable that response might be, it's not rooted in a fascist mentality.
This is neither a paradox nor hypocrisy, if tolerance is properly defined and limited to toleration of the tolerant only - a rational position). Once again, returning fire has a different moral status than initiating fire unprovoked.
It's an interesting thing to consider, but there is no paradox if tolerance is understood to mean mutually tolerant people living together in harmony, with those intolerant of them excluded (not tolerated). That's perfectly reasonable.
I'm reminded of the Republicans criticizing Biden for failing to get them to work with him after campaigning for unity. But the Republicans are not even American any longer except technically. They are enemies of Americanism, including democracy, egalitarianism, church-state separation, and the rule of law. They have no interest in any element in the preamble to the constitution. These are not people to unify with or even tolerate. They are people to be excluded and disempowered. They are not fellow anythings, not the loyal opposition, but the enemy. There is nothing hypocritical about wanting a society of tolerant people, and excluding those that are enemies of that philosophy.
From your link: "The paradox of tolerance states that if a
society is
tolerant without limit, its ability to be tolerant is eventually seized or destroyed by the intolerant." As I said, it's neither paradoxical nor self-contradictory be intolerant of such a presence. It's rational.
I'm often puzzled why so many people think the US is such a safe place. And I feel its becoming more unsafe as hostilities grow.
That's a topic of particular interest in my expat community here in Mexico, where 20-30% of the local population is American or Canadian. Many of us, including my wife and me, have never been visited by most or all relatives living north of our northern border because they are afraid. We've lived here a dozen years without feeling a need to go somewhere safer, but that means nothing to these people. Their media tell them that it is less safe here.
Their own media show us what they consider more safe, with examples of riots, people being shot in the back by police, insurrection, overt racism and racial violence, depressing urban gun death counts each weekend, school shootings, lead in the water, angry outbursts over vaccine mandates, extreme weather to beat the band, etc..
It's safer here. The cartels limit their violence to business interests, not people that aren't in the business, fighting it (journalists, judges, politicians, police) or relatives of any of those. Unfortunate as that is, it's not a threat to expats. Yet our American relatives are afraid to visit us. Shaking my head.
And certainly the left can be as fascist / authoritarian as the right.
Disagree. The violence from the left is reactive, and not motivated by antidemocratic or authoritarian urges. The left is defending democracy in America by itself now. Trump groomed his followers to violently overturn a free and fair election using violence and terrorism.
