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Brian J Griffith

@brianjgriffith.bsky.social

2.6K followers 4.4K following 54 posts

Modern European historian. Writing book on 🍷 in Fascist Italy. . . Projects: @NewFascismSyllabus.bsky.social @WMAB-2018-2019.bsky.social . . Websites: https://www.brianjgriffith.com https://www.newfascismsyllabus.com https://www.wheremonstersareborn.com

www.brianjgriffith.com

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Brian J Griffith @brianjgriffith.bsky.social · 14h

Brian J Griffith @brianjgriffith.bsky.social · 21h

“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn't become a king, the palace becomes a circus.” — Turkish Proverb

Brian J Griffith @brianjgriffith.bsky.social · 1d

The capacity of the American far right for self-delusion and projection would be laughable if it wasn't so frightening, politically speaking.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

Schmitt: "Let's just call it out. We need a cleansing here. Let's just be truthful about what's happening. This left-wing political violence is not a both sides thing. It's not."

Brian J Griffith @brianjgriffith.bsky.social · 3d

"... a sense of communal belonging and drained modernity of meaning and transcendence and usher in a new era of cultural homogeneity and health." -- Roger Griffin, historian of comparative fascisms 2/2

Brian J Griffith @brianjgriffith.bsky.social · 3d

"Fascism is a form of programmatic modernism that seeks to conquer political power in order to realize its totalizing vision of national or ethnic rebirth. Its ultimate end is to overcome the decadence that has destroyed ..." 1/2

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Brian J Griffith @brianjgriffith.bsky.social · 5d

Not to be mixed up with Vox, the Spanish far-right party!

Brian J Griffith @brianjgriffith.bsky.social · 6d

SCREENSHOT 3: A 20th century German cartoon depicting a Jewish "puppet master" controlling politicians on the stage below.

Brian J Griffith @brianjgriffith.bsky.social · 6d

SCREENSHOT 2: A graphic sent out in one of Donald Trump's 2023 newsletters depicting George Soros -- a Jewish billionaire and liberal philanthropist -- as a "puppet master" looming ominously over the White House.

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Brian J Griffith @brianjgriffith.bsky.social · 6d

Something for everyone to consider:

SCREENSHOT 1: An announcement by the CFA explaining that the Trump administration's USEEO Commission has filed an "antisemitism complaint" against the CSU system for systemic discrimination against Jewish applicants/faculty members.

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Brian J Griffith @brianjgriffith.bsky.social · 7d

Screenshot 2: Italo Balbo -- one of four "quadrumviri" or fascist hierarchs -- on his time as a Blackshirt terrorist in Benito Mussolini's early Italian Fighting Squads movement, targeting leftists for organizing working people in post-WWI Italy. 3/3

Brian J Griffith @brianjgriffith.bsky.social · 7d

Screenshot 1: An Alternative Press headline quoting Trump proclaiming his intentions to combat the "enemy from within." 2/3

Brian J Griffith @brianjgriffith.bsky.social · 7d

Carrying out acts of "war" against an "internal enemy" (which is defined in ideological and, oftentimes, racial terms) is one of many markers of a fascistic political culture. 1/3

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Brian J Griffith @brianjgriffith.bsky.social · 9d

See also:

Brian J Griffith @brianjgriffith.bsky.social · 9d

Far from being factually true, this obsession with the Rapture should be interpreted in the same way that Blackbourn analyzed late-19th century Germany's Kulturkampf: Americans, in wanting to escape from this dystopia... If anyone is going to save us... (10/10)

Brian J Griffith @brianjgriffith.bsky.social · 9d

...of the United States' global reputation, preferring a neo-imperialism to international cooperation. And it is in this moment that Americans are apparently turning to their TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook accounts to doomscroll over "the Rapture." (9/10)

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Brian J Griffith @brianjgriffith.bsky.social · 9d

Our public education and health systems are in decline everywhere, leading to a less informed and less healthy populace. And America's standing in global affairs continues to slip by the day, as our "President" and his minions stamp out whatever is left... (8/10)

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Brian J Griffith @brianjgriffith.bsky.social · 9d

...against cities and citizens that he perceives as being unworthy of constitutional protections. On top of this, we have a mass murder epidemic, with wanton mass shootings and politically-motivated assassinations taking place on a weekly basis now. (7/10)

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Brian J Griffith @brianjgriffith.bsky.social · 9d

Our "President," and soon to be Duce, is slowly suffocating our constitutional order, injecting Big Lies into our collective understanding of the truth, breaking our laws with impunity, normalizing political violence, and even mobilizing American troops... (6/10)

Brian J Griffith @brianjgriffith.bsky.social · 9d

...and protection during a "dangerous" moment in their country's history. Fast forward to the contemporary United States, and we're experiencing our own Kulturkampf moment. There is a budding authoritarian movement taking root within our body politic. (5/10)

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Brian J Griffith @brianjgriffith.bsky.social · 9d

...events). Put more plainly, ordinary Germans, anxious about the hyper modernization taking place around them, projected their concerns onto imagined sightings of a mystical character whom they deeply trusted; a figure who could provide them with reassurance... (4/10)

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Brian J Griffith @brianjgriffith.bsky.social · 9d

...Church and Imperial Germany), Blackbourn essentially demonstrates that this uptick in Virgin Mary "sightings" maps perfectly onto the extraordinary political, social, and cultural disruptions of these years (as opposed, of course, to being supernatural... (3/10)

Brian J Griffith @brianjgriffith.bsky.social · 9d

...for studying the socio-cultural impacts of Otto von Bismarck's so-called Kulturkampf (cultural struggle or culture war), during which the Second Reich attempted to institutionalize a separation between Church and State (specifically the Roman Catholic... (2/10)

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Brian J Griffith @brianjgriffith.bsky.social · 9d

In his 1993 monograph, Marpingen: Apparitions of the Virgin Mary in Bismarckian Germany, David Blackbourn analyzes the sudden explosion of Virgin Mary "sightings" across post-Unification Germany. Using these alleged sightings as an interpretive lens... (1/10)

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Brian J Griffith @brianjgriffith.bsky.social · 10d

But tell me again how "creepy" China is for developing the largest, most repressive Panopticon in human history...

Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 10d

Larry Ellison envisions a surveillance state in which techbros rule. '“Citizens will be on their best behavior, because we’re constantly recording and reporting everything that is going on,” Ellison said in an hour-long Q&A during Oracle’s Financial Analyst Meeting last week.'

Larry Ellison predicts rise of the modern surveillance state where ‘citizens will be on their best behavior’ | Fortune

Oracle's Larry Ellison believes citizens and police alike will be under constant surveillance of each other.

fortune.com

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Brian J Griffith @brianjgriffith.bsky.social · 12d

"... radicalization, threats, and violence designed to silence opposing speech, limit political activity, change or direct policy outcomes, and prevent the functioning of a democratic society."