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#Strongman
5 posts5 participants1 post today
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…#Trump risks abandoning leadership of a liberal democratic order that spreads American values & global prosperity, siding instead w/ #autocratic #strongman govts.
#EdMartin advocated greater #US - #Russia cooperation before Trump’s 1st meeting as pres w/ #Putin, in Germany in July 2017, saying on #RT that he expected Trump to come away w/ “some affinity w/Putin.” He struck the same note just after the #Ukraine invasion, as the US imposed sanctions on Putin personally.
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"Another disaster that could have been avoided if even one person had the courage to speak.
This is the reality of strongman politics. There is no actual strength, no insight, no courage, no clarity—just power defended by people who’ve convinced themselves that being loyal means staying mute.
It always looks ridiculous in hindsight."
- @Daojoan
westenberg. · Why Hitler Slept Through D-DayOn the morning of June 6th, 1944, Hitler was sound asleep.
The Allies were landing. Tens of thousands of soldiers were pouring onto the beaches. The tide was turning, the war accelerating toward its violent, inevitable end. And the man leading the Reich was in bed, untouched.
His generals knew
New 5 rep max at 450 lbs / 204.5 kgs. Even at 43 y/o I still got it and I'm still not done!
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Fraenkel offered a simple, yet powerful, picture of how the #constitutional & #legal foundations of the Weimar Republic eroded, & were replaced by #strongman-style rule in which the commands of the #Nazi Party & its leader became paramount. His perspective was not grounded in abstract political theory; it grew instead from his experience as a Jewish lawyer in Nazi Berlin representing #dissidents & other disfavored clients.
Hmmmm... Why am I having #DejaVu?
From 2022: "Vladimir #Putin has mentioned 'gender freedoms' more than once to justify #Russia’s war against #Ukraine and simultaneously crack down on its own citizens.
"Most directly, he alleged that Russian citizens who seek '#GenderFreedoms' (alongside foie gras and oysters) are part of the anti-Russian 'fifth column.'
"Gender and sexuality freedoms — or rights, as they are more typically called — are about #BodilyAutonomy, #diversity and #inclusivity. #Feminist and #LGBTQ+ activists assert that every human being deserves respect, recognition and equal rights regardless of their gender or sexuality.
"What’s the connection between Putin’s animosity toward Ukraine and toward #gender and #sexuality rights in Russia and around the world?
Gender and Putin’s regime
"Putin’s regime has increasingly relied on very conventional gender and sexual norms.
"When he first ascended to the presidency, image-makers used Putin’s #KGB background and penchant for physical fitness to frame him as a #macho #strongman who could reverse Russia’s waning power and 'remasculinize' the country after a decade of supposed geopolitical flaccidity in the wake of the #Soviet collapse.
"In other words, an inflexible and clearly #patriarchal notion of masculinity has been central to the Putin regime’s legitimacy.
"Russia’s foreign policy has relied on rigid gender norms as well. When Ukraine underwent its first pro-democracy revolution in 2004, Russian media questioned its leaders’ masculinity.
"Putin likewise used homophobic terms to dismiss #Georgia’s #RoseRevolution in 2003, responding to a reporter’s question by saying: 'A rose revolution — next they’ll come up with a light blue one.' In Russian, 'light blue' or goluboi is slang for “gay male.”
Gender and appealing to constituencies
"Putin has often been represented as the unquestioned leader of the pack ruling Russia — a masculinity-driven image.
"However, even as the leader of a personalist #dictatorship — a regime in which there are few institutional limits on the leader’s power — Putin must balance competing interests among significant elites and maintain at least the appearance of public support in order to be considered a legitimate ruler.
"Until 2020, Putin was using gendered language in his speeches to signal his alignment with a variety of elites and public constituencies that supported him. He was sending mixed signals to both relatively progressive Russians who value women’s roles in the workplace and to #conservatives wishing for a return to '#TraditionalFamilyValues,' in order to keep everyone in his camp.
"But after July 2021, when he published an essay contending Ukrainians and Russians are a single people, Putin no longer shied away from making sexist and LGBTQ+-phobic comments in prominent settings.
"At an October 2021 meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club — a Moscow-based think tank and discussion forum that Putin is closely associated with — he said teaching children about #GenderFluidity was 'truly monstrous' and 'verging on a crime against humanity.'"
Read more:
https://theconversation.com/vladimir-putin-the-czar-of-macho-politics-is-threatened-by-gender-and-sexuality-rights-180473
#USPol #TrumpIsPutinsPuppet #GBLTQRights #HumanRights #WomensRights #ToxicMasculinity #GenderFascists
@colin It doesn't help that people often turn to a #StrongMan when times get tough. That has happened many times in human history.
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Best case scenario, the #118thCongress will be an ineffective shit show, with #Republican infighting and repeated votes over the speaker and similar nonsense. But, even if they don't get their act together to methodically push austerity and weaken our social safety net and other key functions of government, they can wreck an awful lot through inaction, by not passing budgets etc, creating all kinds of new suffering and sending the country into a tailspin.
Whatever they do, they'll diminish the #legislature in a way that lays the groundwork for an #Authoritarian #Strongman to step in and "save the day."