[Schmerika]

Just to be clear: Are you twisting the fact that America hits every metric for fascism into saying it must therefore be a healthy vibrant democracy full of free speech - because someone pointed that out? In a flagged story, that isn't anywhere near mainstream news?

... You know we have people getting thrown in camps and deported for saying maybe genocide is bad, right? And like, students and faculty in Ivy league schools getting beaten and/or fired for saying maybe we shouldn't be complicit in the mass murder of children?

Apologies if I've misread your remarks - deep and biting sarcasm doesn't always play well in text.

[drdrek]

No, I'm actually saying that while the US is getting worse, it is in fact not fascist. You obviously disagree, and the fact that you do proves the point that it can get a lot worse.

Did you know Germany has really fascist laws on regarding displaying Nazi symbols even more than the US? You can get deported for it!

In China you can disappear talking about Taiwan, In the UAE you can by saying something anti Islam. There is a long way to go until you reach real bad places...

You obviously do not like the USA, but just because you do not like it does not mean its fascist... its just clearly not perfect and free enough for you to be able to point it out.

[Schmerika]

> You obviously disagree, and the fact that you do proves the point that it can get a lot worse.

Are people being thrown in camps for what they say? Are they being gunned down in broad daylight in the street for peaceful protest? ... If so, maybe my disagreement is backed up by facts. And maybe "it can get worse" isn't pulling much weight here.

Right now we have a ~100% pro genocide party, and a roughly 90% pro genocide party. That's... not a good sign bro.

> Did you know Germany has really fascist laws on regarding displaying Nazi symbols even more than the US? You can get deported for it!

Did you know every day there's a new video of German police brutalizing peaceful protesters? Or that they're a major arms supplier to Israel; second only to the US?

> In China you can disappear talking about Taiwan

Citation needed. Let's compare people disappearing per capita too. Let's talk about the Epstein files, lots of people disappearing there.

> In the UAE you can by saying something anti Islam.

If your argument is that we're not the UAE, then buddy... What?

> There is a long way to go until you reach real bad places...

Oh America can fall very far from where it is, for sure. That's not what we're talking about though.

> You obviously do not like the USA

It's not about me, or my likes (freedom, truth, liberty, equality - the things the US says it's all about) and dislikes (genocide, forever wars, deportations, coups, extortion, blackmail, people getting shot in the back in the street - the things the US is actually doing).

This conversation is about fascism, and how the US is ticking every single box for it. You are claiming the US isn't fascist, as if that were just my opinion; but you're not engaging with any of the actual facts in the article, or any particular points about fascism, just claiming that people are free to critisize therefore we can't possiblybe fascist. Which is manifestly untrue from any number of angles.

If you like, we can also discuss how this community, the tech bros and venture capitalists, the DOGE cheerleaders and the Thielites, are deeply complicit in that fascism, and profiting from it.

> its just clearly not perfect and free enough for you to be able to point it out.

"Sure, we arm and enable genocide, but you're free to point that out as long as you don't mind the possibility of being thrown in a camp, shot, treated as a terrorist, deported, etc - because we're not the UAE"... I'm not sure those arguments are as strong as you seem to think they are.