Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

bucolic_frolic

(42,663 posts)
Sun Feb 16, 2020, 06:20 PM Feb 2020

Can Americans Stop a Demagogue?

https://prospect.org/politics/can-american-stop-a-demagogue/

Can Americans Stop a Demagogue?

Roberts-Miller: When demagoguery gets drawn back, it’s because people say that this is too much. And typically it’s in-group: McCarthy got called out by fellow Republicans. That’s what finally put an end to what he was doing. Roosevelt got called out by fellow Democrats when he was really trying to pack the Supreme Court and do something that was extraordinarily authoritarian and very anti-democratic. The words have to get to a point that, that in-group people will call him out.

_____________

Roberts-Miller: It’s a kind where you don’t know if they’re kidding or not. I’m kind of fascinated by the way that humor works in demagoguery because for one thing, as I said, it gives, it enables people to be unaccountable. I crawl around dark corners on the internet and argue with jerks and they do that all the time, you know, and the second that they get called out and you, and you prove that beyond reasonable doubt, they are completely and totally fabricating information, that’s when they’ll say jokes on you. I was kidding. But the, so it’s always a kick-down humor.

The humor is always jokes on you. That’s what Hitler did. If you listen to some of his speeches, the audience is laughing. And one of the most famous is a 1939 speech about Roosevelt, in response to Roosevelt’s attempt to bring peace and to find some way to kind of resolve things.

The audience is laughing the whole time and it’s completely that kind of satire. With Hitler he said very clearly, very early on in “Mein Kampf” exactly what he was going to do. And people didn’t take it seriously because they thought it was that kind of hyperbole in which he often engaged. And hyperbole has also a way of evading, enabling you to evade any kind of accountability.
3 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Can Americans Stop a Demagogue? (Original Post) bucolic_frolic Feb 2020 OP
Insight is useful. Thank you delisen Feb 2020 #1
Can? YES. Willing to? Want to? Think they should? Too concerned they will make a "scene"? ck4829 Feb 2020 #2
Americans set the standard in anti-demagoguery. Remember the Revolutionary War? We broke abqtommy Feb 2020 #3

ck4829

(34,974 posts)
2. Can? YES. Willing to? Want to? Think they should? Too concerned they will make a "scene"?
Sun Feb 16, 2020, 06:54 PM
Feb 2020

There's the rub.

abqtommy

(14,118 posts)
3. Americans set the standard in anti-demagoguery. Remember the Revolutionary War? We broke
Sun Feb 16, 2020, 09:08 PM
Feb 2020

new ground then but now we know our duty and the way to achieve our goals.

Latest Discussions»General Discussion»Can Americans Stop a Dema...