All posts tagged: Fascist

Alan Cumming Says Donald Trump’s America Is A ‘Fascist Country’

Alan Cumming Says Donald Trump’s America Is A ‘Fascist Country’

Published by Sam Flores

Alan Cumming has spoken candidly about living in the United States during Donald Trump’s second tenure as president. The Scottish actor holds dual US and UK citizenship, and currently resides in New York with his husband, the visual artist Grant Shaffer. Later this week, the Emmy winner is due to make his debut in Tip Toe, a new Russell T Davies drama which takes an unflinching look at modern life in an ever-divided world. Speaking to Radio Times to promote his new show, Alan claimed: “Of course, there are kind people in America, and I live in New York, which is a different kettle of fish to the rest of America.” “But the government…” he continued. “It is a fascist country and I’m paying taxes to it. It’s horrible.” Riffing on Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan, Alan remarked: “Make America like the 1950s again, more like. When Black people would serve you, you could do whatever you liked, and anyone who you didn’t like, you would get the boys to duff them up. That’s …

Was Chiang a Fascist? | Paul R. Goldin, Orville Schell

Was Chiang a Fascist? | Paul R. Goldin, Orville Schell

Published by José Betancourt

To the Editors: Orville Schell’s whitewashing of Chiang Kai-shek, as though he was merely a well-meaning patriot whose character flaws “were sadly amplified by chaotic circumstances largely beyond his control” [“China’s Leader Manqué,” NYR, March 26], demands a response. Lloyd Eastman is by no means the only serious historian who has accused Chiang of fascism. If Chiang himself was careful about using such language, publications sponsored by the Kuomintang party in the 1930s openly adopted the term “fascism” (for example, Qiantu 前途 and Shehui xinwen 社會新聞). As for being “a faithful ally of the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition”: this did not happen until well after the Nazi alliance with Japan. Before that, Chiang had been a great admirer and indeed benefited from cordial relations with the Nazi government. But the strongest indictment of Chiang is that, under his rule on both the Mainland and in Taiwan, there were never free and fair elections. His motto was “political tutelage” (xunzheng 訓政), a phrase self-servingly borrowed from Sun Yat-sen and based on the premise that China …

Russian TV host brands Meloni ‘fascist scum,’ sparking diplomatic fracas – POLITICO

Russian TV host brands Meloni ‘fascist scum,’ sparking diplomatic fracas – POLITICO

Published by Sam Flores

Russian Ambassador Paramonov dismissed Tajani’s protests in a post on Facebook, saying Rome had “missed the mark” by summoning him over comments made by a television host and insisting the remarks did not reflect the position of the Russian government. “No reasonable person would treat purely personal remarks as an official statement,” he added. Russia’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to POLITICO’s request for comment. Rome has firmly backed Ukraine efforts to end the Russian full-scale invasion of its territory, with Meloni standing out as one of Kyiv’s most reliable European allies. The prime minister has ramped up military cooperation and recently hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for talks on expanding defense support, including drone production. That stance has exacerbated internal tensions in Italy, where far-right coalition partner the League, energy giant ENI and the opposition 5Star Movement have floated resuming Russian gas purchases amid mounting energy pressures. Meloni on Tuesday dismissed Solovyov’s tirade as propaganda. “A diligent propagandist of the regime cannot give lessons in coherence or freedom,” she wrote on social media, …

Trump is something worse than a fascist

Trump is something worse than a fascist

Published by Sam Flores

Two weeks into the new year, the Trump administration has already deposed a foreign leader, bombed several countries, threatened to invade several more, unleashed a secret police force on the city of Minneapolis — killing one protester, shooting an immigrant in the leg and brutalizing many others — and started a criminal investigation, based on bogus evidence, on the chair of the Federal Reserve. It’s a lot. So perhaps it’s not entirely surprising that Donald Trump giving a two-hour interview to the New York Times has been somewhat ignored.  That’s too bad. Considering all those events and more, the conversation is an interesting insight into his thinking. As much as we think we know about how his mind works, the president’s interview with four Times reporters showed that he has evolved into something much more dangerous than he was in his first term.  Many Americans have finally wrapped their minds around the idea that we are dealing with a presidency and political movement that can be defined as authoritarian, and even fascist. But after observing …

The Evil Genius of Fascist Design: How Mussolini and Hitler Used Art & Architecture to Project Power

The Evil Genius of Fascist Design: How Mussolini and Hitler Used Art & Architecture to Project Power

Published by José Betancourt

When the Nazis came to pow­er in 1933, they declared the begin­ning of a “Thou­sand-Year Reich” that ulti­mate­ly came up about 988 years short. Fas­cism in Italy man­aged to hold on to pow­er for a cou­ple of decades, which was pre­sum­ably still much less time than Ben­i­to Mus­soli­ni imag­ined he’d get on the throne. His­to­ry shows us that regimes of this kind suf­fered a fair­ly severe sta­bil­i­ty prob­lem, which is per­haps why they need­ed to put forth such a sol­id, for­mi­da­ble image. The IMPERIAL video above explores “the evil genius of fas­cist design,” focus­ing on how Hitler and Mus­soli­ni ren­dered their ide­olo­gies in art and the built envi­ron­ment, but many of its obser­va­tions can be gen­er­al­ized to any polit­i­cal move­ment that seeks total con­trol of a soci­ety, espe­cial­ly if that soci­ety has a suf­fi­cient­ly glo­ri­ous-seem­ing past. Fas­cis­m’s visu­al lan­guage has many inspi­ra­tions, two of the most impor­tant cit­ed in the video being  Roman­ti­cism and Futur­ism. The for­mer offered “a long­ing for the past, an obses­sion with nature, and a focus on the sub­lime”; the lat­ter “wor­shiped speed, …

Finally, “The Man in the High Castle” fascist fantasy ends amidst America’s sobering reality

Finally, “The Man in the High Castle” fascist fantasy ends amidst America’s sobering reality

Published by Sam Flores

A show within Amazon’s “The Man in the High Castle” resembles “The Twilight Zone,” a speculative tale that appears to take place in a timeline closer to the one we know. It could even be our own. In the scene shown, a contented office working merrily hums along in his duties as the Rod Serling-style narrator speaks in ominous tones about the comfortable way that the world works: If he works hard at his job, the disembodied voice says, he will be rewarded. Sure enough, he’s called into his boss’ office . . . only to be met by a black man. This sight more than shocks him – he’s horrified. But his nightmare doesn’t end there, because in walks his replacement – a younger man, also black. Cue the trumpeting thriller music. Shows within shows can be clever spoofs, or they may operate as deft winks acknowledging some broader point that can’t cannot be adequately finessed within the main narrative. This small narrative aside does a bit of both. The “Twilight Zone” doppelganger is …