Recommended Reading: Fascist Fight Clubs and Strongmen Political Candidates

This Week's Recommended Reading on Substack: Karim Zidan, Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Jack Crosbie, Talia Lavin, Ben Cohen, and Parker Molloy.

The Week's Recommended Reading on Substack:

Karim Zidan

writes that “since its formation in 2020, Active Clubs has been formed in more than 30 states, including California, Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Massachusetts, Montana, New Hampshire, Ohio and Pennsylvania. The network has also expanded beyond the borders of the U.S. to include an array of chapters in countries such as Canada, France and Finland.”

The evolution of fascist fight clubs

Ruth Ben-Ghiat

writes “who would Trump be if he withdrew from the race? A nobody —and a nobody with no protection from the law. The authoritarian playbook dictates that it’s precisely when you have serious legal problems that you are most motivated to run for office, so you can gain (or regain) power and domesticate the judiciary so your legal exposure will vanish. This theme runs throughout the corruption chapter of Strongmen.”

Running for Office While Under Indictment is What Strongmen Do; The Role of Co-Conspirators

Jack Crosbie

writes that “as the charges against Trump escalate, so do the stakes of the election he is all but certain to run in next year. As the Times points out, Trump is being prosecuted in a variety of jurisdictions, but there’s nothing directly in the Constitution that stops him from running in or winning an election while he’s on trial for multiple felonies.”

Donald Trump is in Deep Shit, But So Are We

Talia Lavin

writes that “the real truth about the Satanic Panic — the war waged by fundamentalist Christian parents and law enforcement officers convinced that the most banal of interactions were influenced by Lucifer himself — is that it never really ended. The same toxic brew of antifeminism, patriarchal Christianity, attraction to conspiracy, and desire to punish those who break with very particular norms around gender is alive and well in the USA, and it continues to influence our nation’s politics, punditry, and policy.”

The Christian Right's Deal With the Devil

Ben Cohen

writes that for Joe Rogan, “his claims don’t have to make any sense because his audience isn’t interested in objectivity or truth. They want contrarian takes that conform to their conspiratorial worldview where Deep State Democrats, Anthony Fauci, Bill Gates and the World Health Organization want to control your mind and make you eat insects.”

Joe Rogan, Moron

Parker Molloy

writes that “Ben Shapiro rolling his eyes and telling people to just stay where there’s air conditioning is meant to make people go, ‘But Ben, that’s not an actual solution to this problem.’ But see, the problem with the analysis ending there is that you’re conceding that he’s at least suggesting something. You might even be tempted to go, ‘Ah! So, you admit that climate change is real!’ and see that as a step in the right direction. But it’s not. Not really, at least.”

Man, It's a Hot One!

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