Like Adolf Hitler, Donald Trump Drinks Beverages

Caroline Orr1 is an expert, a postdoctoral fellow at the not-at-all-authoritarian-sounding ARLIS, the Applied Research Laboratory for Intelligence and Security at the University of Maryland (which leads the way in COGSEC, or cognitive security, and let’s just go ahead and assume that Orwell would kick himself for not having thought of that term). ARLIS is “one of fourteen Department of Defense University-Affiliated Research Centers (UARCs) and the only UARC with a core mission to support the government's security and intelligence communities.”

Anyway, the researcher at the government-funded center that supports the intelligence community’s cognitive security efforts is here to warn us against authoritarianism. If you can’t laugh out loud at that sentence, we can’t drink together.

Orr warns — read her entire thread here — that Donald Trump is holding rallies, and that’s very dangerous. You know who else holds rallies? Yes, you guessed right.

Caroline Orr Bueno, Ph.D @RVAwonk

Re. Last night’s #TrumpRally: While often taking on the appearance of entertainment, rallies actually serve an incredibly important purpose in fascist movements, and we’d be wise not to write them off as a sideshow that can be ignored. 1/

Turning the most pedestrian realities into dark artifacts, Orr warns that Trump uses repetition at his rallies, sometimes even repeating lines from earlier speeches verbatim:

Caroline Orr Bueno, Ph.D @RVAwonk

The propaganda at last night’s #TrumpRally wasn’t new. We’ve heard it many times before — often, verbatim. Here’s just one example. The repetition is purposeful. Both for cognitive effects & cultural meaning — like the retelling of ancient myths about 5-headed monsters. 9/

So the political stump speech, then. To pretend that repetition at political rallies is unique and disquieting, you have to pretend that every other politician comes up with a whole new speech every time he or she speaks. Orr’s standard is that if a politician repeats things, “often, verbatim,” then you’re witnessing an unusual behavior that proves the presence of fascist cultural incantation.

Now, here are the fascism-defining things that Trump says at his fascist rallies:

Caroline Orr Bueno, Ph.D @RVAwonk

Last night’s rally ticked a lot of boxes on the fascism checklist: -Talk of an “invasion” of foreigners -Warning that “sicko leftists” are “indoctrinating” and “destroying our youth” -Fear-mongering about “skyrocketing” crime -Denying the legitimacy of political opponents 5/

Denying the legitimacy of political opponents? Oh no, fascism!

The Hill @thehill

Hillary Clinton: "Trump knows he's an illegitimate president."

Watching Orr’s sleight of hand is like watching Gob Bluth do magic: You can spot the trick. Like any fascist, Donald Trump FEAR-MONGERS about RISING CRIME!!!! Meanwhile:

A scholar stands in front of a burning building, warning that fascists are creating a narrative that says it’s on fire.

Now: You can contextualize this information. You can present counter-examples. You can argue for a more nuanced picture. But you can’t just pretend that Trump is inventing a false narrative, because he’s describing something that people see in their lives.

Trump also speaks, like a fascist, about an “invasion” of foreigners. Meanwhile:

And again, you can make arguments about this: contextualize, explain, contest the numbers if you can think you can. But Trump says large numbers of foreigners — people from foreign countries — are illegally entering the United States. They are. Describing this statement as presumptive evidence of fascism is self-refuting behavior.

But finally, and most remarkably, look at this truly brilliant claim:

Caroline Orr Bueno, Ph.D @RVAwonk

#TrumpRally fascism checklist, continued: -Attacking the FBI, the DOJ, the J6 Committee, and other institutions designed to hold power accountable. -Attacking our public education system -Claiming that Democrats “hate America” and want to “destroy it” 8/

Criticizing government — “Attacking the FBI, DOJ, J6 Committee, and other institutions designed to hold power accountable” — is authoritarian. It’s fascist. Only the maintenance of complete and unyielding support for the state security apparatus can prove your anti-fascist credentials, citizen! Don’t be authoritarian — stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the FBI. Government doesn’t have any power; it exists only to “hold power accountable.”