What the right hears from the Left is that we are “FASCISTS!!!!” (among other epithets” meant to demean their targets and end all rational conversation). The nuance is that Fascists are kissing cousins to Nazis, and you can’t have a normal (sensible) discussion so it devolves into even more crazy screeching from them.
The proper reaction from us is to start laughing at them. They are not equipped to handle that.
They also can’t understand when a simple question is asked of them – stunned looks when I calmly ask:
OK, I’m dumb. WHAT is a Fascist (other than just pointing at me and repeating it)?
THAT turns out to be the “conversation ender” they intended to use on me. Or you, if you are so inclined to “run towards the sound of gunfire,” to engage. Most likely, you won’t be able to persuade them as they are so locked into the talking point, but it sure is fun to be their marionette master.
So, why all this? I was reading”Lessons from the past about how to deal with American Tariffs” because I knew I’d have an enjoyable time. Most, if not all, of the commenters, have NO inkling what is going on when Trump levies a tariff on a country (ditto all Democrats and most Establishment GOPe folks) as the only thing that registers is “A TAX.”
The author whipped himself up into a frenzy with a very long post with a lot of WWII posters concerning conserving food (progressives/socialists ALWAYS wish to invoke “WE’RE AT WAR” to whip others into a shared frenzy (most over not much)); a couple of snippets:
Subtitle: This would be a good time to buy Canadian, electrify everything, get off American gas and oil, and reduce our carbon emissions.
…So the President of the USA has ordered up a 25% tariff on most goods imported from Canada, suggesting that they don’t need anything that Canada makes. This will raise prices in the USA, hurting American citizens, and it will destroy demand for Canadian products, hurting Canadian citizens. It is likely that the Canadian Loonie will sink and unemployment will rise, causing economic hardship across the country.
However, it is also an opportunity to remake Canada with less reliance on American goods and services, to electrify everything, and to reduce our carbon emissions.
Yep, all is lost – he’s a rather jumpy kinda guy at times and the rest of his screed just raises his temperature. Certainly, he was parroting the Democrat talking points but from a Canadian viewpoint. And he had to get in that “reduce our carbon emissions” to boot. But he was in the mood to be certifiably “anti-American” (even as he was born in America – legally) even before the tariff went live.
And that had a couple of Lefty Americans spouting nonsense as well, including Stephen Sheehy from Maine, with whom I’ve already had a head-on collision. So, when he went stereotypically TDS (emphasis mine):
My house in Maine is all electric. But most people in Maine heat with oil. All the heating oil used here comes from New Brunswick. Same with gasoline. Advice to my Canadian friends. Please don’t elect a fascist idiot to lead your country nor your provinces. Fascist is bad enough. Stupid is bad enough. But combined? We’re screwed.
Sidenote: What Sheehy doesn’t understand is that Trudeau, being a Davos Man/WEF disciple, is a Fascist in part. Remember the trucker’s strike up there when they were protesting get vaxxed, drove their rigs into the capital and essentially blocked the roads? He silenced them, jailed some, confiscated some of those rigs, and slurped out the money in their bank accounts – he brooked no dissent at all in invoking the Emergencies Act that aggregated great Power into the central government.
So I asked the question (emphasis mine):
Pray tell, can you elaborate on what the major doctrine is for Fascism? “Facist” is thrown around with so much alacrity these past couple of decades (or more), I’ve discovered that most people have no idea what its history is.
Go ahead, prove your point, bub. Enlighten us as to why Trump is a fascist EVEN AS HE IS RETURNING POWER back to the States as well is trying to shrink the Federal Government – the OPPOSITE of what Fascists attempt to do (as one part of its doctrine requires).
But alas, this turned out as I described above – he couldn’t answer or got embarrassed that someone challenged him on it. He ghosted outta there.
To two days later, I added a REPLY to my above comment to call him out on it:
So I was right – Stephen has NO idea of what a true fascist is nor what Fascism stands for. Merely a talking transformation for “I HATE you” and need a handy label that goes along with the crowd.
<Crickets> would mean there was some noise in response. Instead, dead silence like one would get in an anechoic chamber. No one else tried to help him out, either.
A conversation walkaway.
The moral of this anecdote IS to challenge the Left against their taunts – you can win those exchanges. By not responding, they get the sense that they win, especially if it is you that walks away. Sure, there are times that “banging head against the wall” for too long may need to cut it off – but they have at least heard your words – or by someone standing near them that is getting near to being red-pilled.
However, it does mean that you need to do your homework, prepare for what is said and their questions. Wargaming out responses ahead of time is needful (unless you really are someone that can “wing it” at the drop of a “FASCIST!!!”).
I took the win. And later on, really winding Lloyd up badly. Another post to be written, I guess.
Part 2
