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Craig Franson @craigfranson.bsky.social · 4d

Reposting to read later.

Boston Review @bostonreview.bsky.social · 5d

“Much about what Ezra Klein argues is objectionable,”—including “the appeal to debate as ’persuasion,’ which confuses the mere appearance of giving and responding to reasons with the substance of good-faith rational inquiry,” writes columnist @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social.

How Can We Live Together? - Boston Review

Ezra Klein is wrong: shame is essential.

www.bostonreview.net

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Craig Franson @craigfranson.bsky.social · 5d

Pinning to read later.

Boston Review @bostonreview.bsky.social · 5d

The flip side of this exceptionalizing is to erase and excuse the slow and less spectacular violence of American political life. When ICE agents raid homes, when Medicaid is stripped from millions, both politicians and media speak of “policy” rather than “violence.” @eric-reinhart.com

What Is Political Violence? - Boston Review

Pundits and politicians conceal the truth: it’s all around us, perpetrated by our political system itself.

www.bostonreview.net

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Craig Franson @craigfranson.bsky.social · 13d

You can't understand U.S. politics today without making a serious study of antisemitism.

Timothy Snyder @timothysnyder.bsky.social · 13d

This is, without any exaggeration, exactly how Putin and Orbán proceeded — using antisemitism to discredit the idea of civil society and political opposition, and as an excuse to undo the rule of law.
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/25/u...

Justice Dept. Official Pushes Prosecutors to Investigate George Soros’s Foundation

www.nytimes.com

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Craig Franson @craigfranson.bsky.social · 17d

Time for everyone to read up on the Spanish Falange & the Romanian Legion of the Archangel Micheal.

No reason.

Craig Franson @craigfranson.bsky.social · 17d

How did the national enshrinement of Kirk sound to scholars & journalists who specialize in the far right?

Jared Yates Sexton @jysexton.bsky.social · 17d

Man alive. I have studied Right Wing authoritarianism for years and have watched some truly fucked up shit and today’s memorial service is maybe the most concentrated example of how messed up and disturbing that sector truly is.

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Craig Franson @craigfranson.bsky.social · 18d

Yeah, I don't think any of us interacts with many legitimately persuadable people anymore on social media. At its best, a meme-centered discourse like this is probably nothing more than a big, binary, WOOT!/BOO! machine--or, at its worst, a MURDER!/WORSHIP! machine.

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Craig Franson @craigfranson.bsky.social · 18d

Please feel free to join the discussion. I'm just trying to think aloud as I process the moment. (My departure points have been Laclau & Mouffe, Stuart Hall, Fredric Jameson, & the larger critical theory & new left traditions).

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Craig Franson @craigfranson.bsky.social · 18d

Possible symbolic resources for that struggle might come from visionary romanticism, Yiddish fabulism, modernist absurdism, decolonial magic realism, & utopian speculative fiction & fantasy. Comedians, of course, have an enormous role to play, which is why they are being targeted right now.

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Craig Franson @craigfranson.bsky.social · 18d

The opponents of that pluralistic vision of liberal democracy have to appear small & mean & beatable for mass political mobilization to work. A truly anti-fascist political discourse would need to adapt its persuasive tactics to that end--not minimizing, but tactically belittling its opponent.

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Craig Franson @craigfranson.bsky.social · 18d

YES

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Craig Franson @craigfranson.bsky.social · 18d

We're laughing, but he's winning, bc it's not the judicial verdicts but the threats & the image of strength that are the point.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 19d

TRUMP: That's why I sued the New York Times two days ago for a lot of money

KARL: A judge just threw that out

TRUMP: I'm winning. I'm winning the cases.

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Craig Franson @craigfranson.bsky.social · 18d

The figure of fascism can serve as a foil in that project, perhaps, but it can't center a liberatory political movement. That centerpiece has to be (I think) a compelling vision of liberation that motivates people to mobilize on behalf of a genuinely pluralistic, liberal-democracy of the future.

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Craig Franson @craigfranson.bsky.social · 18d

But more important, to me, would be increasing the pool of committed leftists in the US by making leftism a more alluring identity. The Democratic party needs to become genuinely populist & do some frankly Utopian world-building (along with promoting real working-class policies).

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Craig Franson @craigfranson.bsky.social · 18d

It's possible that the word "fascist" has some motivating use for that alienated core of committed leftists (& the Democratic party has no hope of ever regaining power without that activist base).

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Craig Franson @craigfranson.bsky.social · 18d

In that case, taking a strong, uncompromising stand against an anti-democratic, authoritarian, adversary might be the only tactic that could persuade millions of alienated leftists to identify provisionally with the Democratic party again.

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Craig Franson @craigfranson.bsky.social · 18d

To presume that there is a moderate, pursuadable "middle" anymore might be to ignore the gaping breach that constitutes the discursive reality of our historical moment. That the Democratic establishment can't stop appealing to this fantasy audience may be what's driving millions away from the party.

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Craig Franson @craigfranson.bsky.social · 18d

Discussion: In a national symbolic crisis, as party identities fragment & consolidate into new, ad hoc forms, persuasion is certainly happening, but the gaping authoritarian/non-authoritarian fault-line would have to displace it to different populations who emerge as the "persuadables."

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Craig Franson @craigfranson.bsky.social · 18d

Again, as a person who uses the term "fascist" semi-regularly, I'm genuinely trying to think through my own use of the term, here--& I'm not totally convinced that I'm right to make this argument. It could well be that the "normal" rules of persuasion go out the window in a genuine symbolic crisis.

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Craig Franson @craigfranson.bsky.social · 18d

In a hot political struggle with a rightward-accelerating, openly authoritarian, populist movement operating with the institutional backing of the state, the financial sector, corporate media, social media, & more than a third of the population, the term "fascist" might harm more than it helps.

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Craig Franson @craigfranson.bsky.social · 18d

Thinking aloud (having taught rhetoric for 25 years) I'd say that cross-party persuasion takes tactical compromise, shared values, symbolic identification, emotional cathexis, a context of relatively symmetrical real-world stakes, & (most importantly) a long, long time.

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Craig Franson @craigfranson.bsky.social · 18d

I'm posting this note, in part, as a qualifier to my own intermittent use of the term. My (very few) "followers" are mostly academics & content producers in the niche discourses of fascism studies, cultural politics, & Tolkien studies. Our internal disputes are hardly useful as populist rhetoric.

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Craig Franson @craigfranson.bsky.social · 18d

Most people don't know what fascism is, & millions are drawn to its mobilizing passions. Sadly, that makes the term a poor tool of persuasion. Study it, learn how to fight it, but don't expect shouting "fascist" to do more than alienate radical moderates & drive conservatives further right.

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Craig Franson @craigfranson.bsky.social · 19d

Screenshot from Andor, showing Syril staring into the camera in horror in the midst of the Ghorman massacre. Text reads: "Bob Iger finally watches Andor."

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Craig Franson @craigfranson.bsky.social · 19d

Not that I expect an actual moment of recognition to come from any of the oligarchs who helped lead us to this crisis.
#Andor #Resistance #NoKings

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Craig Franson @craigfranson.bsky.social · 19d

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