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Yes the MAGA Movement is Fascism: How Fascism Works #psychology #politics #lucasbean #trump — Transcript

by Lucas Bean · 3,239 words · 510 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00I've been wondering for years why the
0:01majority of experts keep calling the
0:03Trump regime fascist. So, I decided to
0:06do some research on fascism to
0:07understand what's actually going on
0:09here. Trump called the press the enemy
0:11of the people. He's told his supporters
0:13that immigrants are poisoning the blood
0:14of our country. He's called political
0:16opponents vermin and said they should be
0:18rooted out. Those are not conservative
0:20talking points. Those are direct quotes
0:23from the fascist playbook, word for
0:24word. In 2018, a Yale philosophy
0:27professor named Jason Stanley published
0:29a book called How Fascism Works. Stanley
0:31is the child of refugees who escaped
0:33Europe before World War II. He spent his
0:35career studying how fascist movements
0:37take power. In his book, he identified
0:3910 tactics that every fascist movement
0:41in history has used. But first, let's
0:44define fascism. Fascism is a system
0:46where one man has total power over
0:49everything. The government, the
0:51military, the courts, the economy, and
0:54all of its laws are enforced by
0:56violence. You submit to their orders and
0:58their rules, or they will hurt you,
1:00imprison you, or kill you.
1:03Fascism has no policies. It has no
1:05economic plan, no vision for how society
1:08should be. It's purely a mechanism for
1:10one man to seize absolute power and
1:13never give it up. Everything else is
1:15just a tool to get that leader absolute
1:17power. Fascism was invented by Benito
1:20Mussolini in Milan in 1919. World War I
1:23had just ended. Italy won, but got
1:25almost nothing from the peace deal. The
1:28economy was destroyed. People had no
1:30jobs. The country felt humiliated and
1:33desperate. Mussolini told the Italian
1:35people three things. Your country used
1:38to be great. Someone took that greatness
1:40from you. And democracy is too weak to
1:42get it back. His solution was simple.
1:45Give all the power to one leader, him.
1:48The leader will punish your enemies. The
1:50leader will make the nation strong
1:51again. But it requires a trade. You give
1:54up your freedom. You give up your right
1:56to question anything. You give up your
1:58right to disagree or they will hurt you.
2:01Violence is the one core tool fascism
2:04uses. Speak out and they will hurt you,
2:06no matter how small of an infraction. In
2:08exchange the leader gives you someone to
2:10blame. That's fascism. You hand
2:12[clears throat] over your rights in the
2:14leader hands you an enemy. Fascism
2:16always requires someone to hate. Without
2:18an enemy fascism falls apart because
2:21rage is the only thing holding it
2:22together and it leads with violence.
2:25Mussolini organized street gangs called
2:27blackshirts. They beat up socialists.
2:30They beat up union organizers. They
2:32threw political opponents out of local
2:34government by force. The violence was
2:36not a side effect. The violence was the
2:39strategy. In 1922 Mussolini marched
2:42those blackshirts on Rome and demanded
2:44power. To avoid a civil war the king
2:46handed him power. Hitler studied
2:49Mussolini's fascism, but he built his
2:51fascism on an industrial scale. He used
2:54democracy to destroy democracy. The
2:56Nazis ran in regular elections. Hitler
2:59used free speech, free assembly, and
3:01every right a free country gives its
3:03citizens to get inside the system. And
3:05once he was inside he took every one of
3:07those rights away so no one could use
3:10them to fight back. Fascism uses your
3:12own freedoms to get inside then it locks
3:15the door behind it. Here are the 10 core
3:17tactics of fascism being used on
3:18American citizens right now. One, the
3:22mythic past. Every fascist movement
3:24starts with a lie about history. The
3:26leader tells the people their country
3:27used to be great, that there was a
3:29golden age when the right people were in
3:31charge and the wrong people knew their
3:33place. According to Mussolini that
3:35golden age never needed to really exist.
3:37It doesn't need to. It just needs to
3:40feel like it's true. That feeling of
3:42being true was enough. Stanley found
3:45that fascist leaders used this mythic
3:47past to make people feel robbed. Once
3:49people feel robbed they will accept
3:51extreme action to get it back. Mussolini
3:54promised to restore the glory of the
3:55Roman Empire. Hitler promised to restore
3:58a racially pure Germany. Trump's entire
4:00political identity is built on four
4:02words, make America great again. The
4:05slogan never points to a specific time.
4:07It doesn't need to. It points to a
4:09feeling. The feeling that the country
4:11belonged to a certain kind of person and
4:13someone took it from them. MAGA likes to
4:16feel things. They don't care if it's
4:18true.
4:19Based on this tactic, has Trump met the
4:21burden of fascism? Yes.
4:24Two,
4:25propaganda. Fascist propaganda doesn't
4:27just lie. It rewrites reality so people
4:30can no longer agree with basic facts.
4:32Stanley found that fascist propaganda
4:34names friends and enemies. A political
4:37opponent is not someone with a different
4:38opinion. That political opponent is a
4:40threat to the survival of the nation who
4:43must be dealt with. This is the
4:44difference between politics and fascism.
4:47In politics, you disagree with your
4:49opponent. In fascism, your opponent is
4:51an enemy who must be destroyed. Hitler
4:53called the press Lügenpresse, the lying
4:56press. He used that name to discredit
4:58any outlet that challenged him. Then he
5:01built his own propaganda machine to
5:02replace it. State-controlled media that
5:04told people what to think, who to hate,
5:07and who to fear. Sounds like Fox News to
5:09me. Trump has called Democrats the enemy
5:11from within. He called them vermin. He
5:14said Democrats are more dangerous than
5:16Russia or China. Fox News and Newsmax
5:18repeated every single night. They label
5:21the left as domestic terrorists. They
5:23label protesters as thugs. They label
5:25anyone who disagrees with the leader as
5:27a traitor. Social media amplifies this
5:30message until millions of people believe
5:32that their neighbors, their co-workers,
5:34their own family members are the enemy.
5:36That's not just news. That's a
5:39propaganda machine and it's running 24
5:41hours a day. When you call your
5:43political opponent vermin and say they
5:45need to be rooted out, you're using the
5:47exact language fascist leaders have used
5:49right before they started killing
5:51people. Based on this tactic, has Trump
5:53met the burden of fascism? Yes.
5:56Three,
5:57anti-intellectualism.
5:59In a fascist system, the leader decides
6:01what's true. Not scientists, not
6:03experts, not universities, not the data.
6:07The leader does. Stanley found that
6:09fascist movements attack education
6:12because educated people have the tools
6:13to challenge fascist ideas.
6:15If people can think critically, they can
6:17see through the lies. So, the fascist
6:19leader makes experts the enemy. Trump
6:22froze $2.2 billion in federal research
6:24funding to Harvard and demanded a $1
6:27billion settlement when they refused to
6:29comply with his political demands. He
6:31cut 400 million from Columbia. He fired
6:33the head of the Bureau of Labor
6:35Statistics because he didn't like the
6:37jobs report and replaced him with a
6:39loyalist. His allies have pushed book
6:41bans across the country, pulling titles
6:44from school libraries that deal with
6:45race, gender, and the history they don't
6:48want their children to read. In a
6:49fascist system, you don't just control
6:51what adults are allowed to say. You
6:53control what children are allowed to
6:54learn. Based on this tactic, has Trump
6:57met the burden of fascism? Yes.
7:00Four, unreality. This is the most
7:02dangerous tactic on the list. Stanley
7:04found that a democracy requires a shared
7:06sense of truth. If people can't agree on
7:09what is real, they can't hold leaders
7:10accountable. Fascist regimes destroyed
7:13that shared truth on purpose. They flood
7:15the public with conspiracy theories,
7:17contradictions, and lies until people
7:20stop trying to figure out what is real
7:21and just pick a side. Trump told
7:23Americans the 2020 election was stolen.
7:26Every court has rejected that claim and
7:27it's been proven false. His own attorney
7:30general said there was no evidence of
7:31that and it wasn't true. His own
7:33director of cybersecurity called it the
7:35most secure election in American
7:36history. He said it anyway. He said it
7:39thousands of times. He knew he was
7:41lying. Millions of people now believe
7:43something that never happened, and it
7:45hasn't stopped. When the LA wildfires
7:48broke out, Trump blamed Democrats and
7:50DEI before any investigation was
7:52completed, before the fires were even
7:54out. It didn't matter what caused the
7:56fires. It mattered who he can blame. The
7:59explanation came before the facts.
8:01That's how unreality works. The leader
8:03decides what happened, and then reality
8:06gets rearranged to match what happened.
8:08Once people stop caring about what's
8:10true and start caring about who is
8:12saying it, the leader can say anything
8:14and it becomes reality. Based on this
8:16tactic, has Trump met the burden of
8:18fascism? Yes. Five, hierarchy. Fascist
8:22movements create a ranking of human
8:24worth. They divide people by race,
8:26religion, gender, and national origin.
8:29Then they harden those divisions into a
8:31social order. Stanley found that once
8:33that people ranking starts, people are
8:36controlled by one thing, fear of losing
8:38their place in the ranking. You don't
8:40need to put people in chains if you can
8:42convince them they are above someone
8:44else. They will police the hierarchy for
8:46you. They will fight to protect that
8:48hierarchy that they feel like they're on
8:50top of because the entire sense of
8:52identity depends on someone being
8:53beneath them. This is why fascist
8:56movements are obsessed with who belongs
8:58and who doesn't belong. Who's a real
9:00citizen? Who's a real American? Who
9:02deserves rights and who doesn't deserve
9:04rights? The hierarchy has to be clear
9:07and it has to be enforced or the whole
9:09system falls apart. Trump launched his
9:11political career with a birther
9:13conspiracy. He told white Americans that
9:15a black president was not a legitimate
9:17American. That wasn't just some side
9:19comment for a joke. That was the
9:21foundation of his hierarchy. It told a
9:23specific audience exactly where they sit
9:25in the hierarchy and exactly who is
9:27threatening their position. He later
9:29told a crowd that immigrants are
9:30poisoning the blood of our country. That
9:32phrase appears in Mein Kampf. In January
9:352025, on his first day in office, Trump
9:38signed an executive order eliminating
9:40all diversity, equity, and inclusion
9:42programs across the entire federal
9:45government. Every agency, every
9:47department, every contractor. The
9:49message was clear. Any program designed
9:52to move toward equality is a threat to
9:54the hierarchy, and the hierarchy must be
9:56protected. Based on this tactic, has
9:58Trump met the burden of fascism? Yes.
10:01Six, victimhood. Once people believe
10:04they sit above another group, any
10:06movement towards equality feels like an
10:07attack. Stanley found that in a fascist
10:10system, the dominant group is always the
10:11biggest victim. This works three ways.
10:14First, the leader frames a national
10:16decline. The country has been stolen.
10:19The culture has been ruined. Someone did
10:21this to you. Second, the leader inverts
10:23aggression. Every crackdown, every
10:26deportation, every act of state violence
10:28is reframed as self-defense. The
10:30dominant group is not attacking anyone.
10:33They're protecting themselves from an
10:34enemy that left them no other choice.
10:36Third, the enemy has to be two things at
10:39the same time. Weak enough to be mocked
10:41and made fun of, but powerful enough to
10:43be an existential threat to the entire
10:45nation. Trump told his supporters that
10:47the 2020 election was stolen from them
10:49personally. He framed a peaceful
10:51transfer of power as an attack on his
10:53base and used that grievance to justify
10:56January 6th. He called undocumented
10:58immigrants an invading army deliberately
11:00set to replace native-born Americans. He
11:03labels the free press, the judiciary,
11:06and the entire civil service as a deep
11:08state whose only purpose is to persecute
11:10conservatives. And when he calls for the
11:12military to handle the enemy from
11:14within, he frames it not as state
11:16violence, but as a necessary national
11:19self-defense. The victims are always his
11:21people. The aggressors are always
11:23everyone else. Based on this tactic, has
11:26Trump met the burden of fascism? Yes.
11:29Seven, law and order. Fascist movements
11:32use law and order to mean one thing,
11:34crackdown on anyone who is not us.
11:37Stanley found that in a fascist system,
11:39the law is a weapon. It protects the
11:41leader and punishes his enemies, but the
11:43leader himself doesn't have to follow
11:45the law. Trump ran on law and order
11:47while facing 91 felony charges. He
11:50pardoned every single January 6th
11:51defendant on his first day back in
11:53office and called them patriots. Federal
11:55agents shot and killed Renee Good and
11:57Alex Pretty in Minneapolis during
11:59immigration operations in January 2026.
12:02Pretty was a VA nurse. He was filming
12:05agents with his phone when they pepper
12:06sprayed him, wrestled him to the ground,
12:08and shot him. No federal agent has been
12:11criminally charged even though the
12:13American people watched him get executed
12:15from 22 different angles on video. We
12:17saw it with our own eyes. The law is for
12:20everyone else, never for them. Based on
12:23this tactic, has Trump met the burden of
12:24fascism? Yes.
12:27Eight, sexual anxiety. Fascist systems
12:30are rigidly patriarchal. Men are always
12:32on top. Women are to be controlled.
12:35Anyone who doesn't fit traditional
12:37gender roles is treated as a threat to
12:39the entire social order. Stanley found
12:41that gender equality is not just opposed
12:43in fascist movements, it's treated as a
12:46civilization-ending emergency. Because
12:48the hierarchy depends on strict
12:50categories. If those categories blur,
12:52the entire pyramid collapses. This is
12:55why every fascist movement in history
12:57has been obsessed with controlling
12:59women's bodies and punishing anyone who
13:01doesn't fit traditional definitions of
13:03masculinity and femininity. The
13:05hierarchy requires men to dominate and
13:07women to submit. Anyone who challenges
13:09that order challenges the entire system.
13:12On January 27th, 2025, Trump signed an
13:15executive order banning transgender
13:17people from military service. These are
13:19people who were already serving, people
13:21willing to die for their country, kicked
13:24out because of who they are. He bragged
13:26about overturning Roe vs.
13:28and called it one of his greatest
13:29accomplishments. In the states that
13:31banned abortion after his Supreme Court
13:33appointees made it possible, maternal
13:36mortality rates have spiked. Women in
13:38the states with abortion bans are now
13:40twice as likely to die during pregnancy
13:42as women in states where abortion is
13:44legal. At least 59 women have died from
13:46being denied or delayed emergency
13:48abortion care. Some states have
13:50disbanded their maternal mortality
13:52committees, so no one finds out how many
13:55women are actually dying. His movement
13:57targets drag shows, trans kids,
13:59reproductive freedom. That intensity has
14:01nothing to do with policy. It's all
14:04about control. Women are dying in the
14:06system that is killing them calls itself
14:08pro-life. Based on this tactic, has
14:10Trump met the burden of fascism? Yes.
14:14Nine, Sodom and Gomorrah.
14:16Fascist movements divide the country in
14:18half.
14:19The virtuous heartland versus the
14:20corrupt cities. Stanley found that
14:23fascist leaders cast cities as criminal
14:25wastelands full of elites, immigrants,
14:28and moral decay. The countryside is
14:30painted as the real nation where real
14:32people live. The purpose of this split
14:34is not geography. It's to turn half the
14:36country into enemy territory. It tells
14:39the base that people in the cities are
14:41not fellow citizens. They are the other.
14:43They are the problem. And whatever's
14:45done to them is justified. Trump has
14:48called American cities war zones. He
14:50said they are infested. He's described
14:52them as being run by radical left
14:54lunatics. In 2025, he deployed 4,000
14:58National Guard troops and 700 Marines
15:00into Los Angeles over the objection of
15:03the governor of California. A federal
15:05judge ruled the deployment was illegal.
15:07Over 5,000 troops occupied the city for
15:09months. In the first 40 days of that
15:12military operation, those troops made
15:14exactly one temporary detention. It cost
15:17taxpayers $120 million.
15:19This wasn't about safety. It was about
15:21sending a message. That message was that
15:24the leader has the power to send the
15:26military into any American city that
15:28doesn't fall in line. Based on this
15:30tactic, has Trump met the burden of
15:32fascism? Yes. 10. Dismantling labor and
15:36public welfare. Stanley titled this
15:38chapter after the phrases written on the
15:40gates of the concentration camps,
15:42"Arbeit macht frei." Work shall make you
15:44free. In a fascist system, the minority
15:46group and the political left are framed
15:49as lazy and parasitic. They take. They
15:52drain. They don't contribute. Labor
15:54unions are branded as the enemies of the
15:56state and crushed. Public services are
15:58gutted. The only virtue is hard work by
16:01the underclasses, which only benefits
16:03the people at the top. Trump has
16:05attacked unions. He passed a tax cut
16:08that overwhelmingly benefited the
16:09wealthiest Americans. He used DoS to
16:12fire over 6,000 veterans from federal
16:14services across all agencies. He gutted
16:16VA staffing so badly that 1.2 million
16:19veteran patients lost their doctors. The
16:21man who wraps himself in a flag for
16:23photo shoots, cut services to the people
16:26who fought for that flag. And here's the
16:28oldest trick in fascism. You convince
16:30the working class that the threat is
16:31below them. You teach them to punch
16:34down. Immigrants, minorities, people on
16:37welfare. You point the people downwards
16:39so they never look up to the people that
16:41are actually hurting them. That's Trump.
16:43Because if they ever looked up, they
16:45would see who is actually taking
16:46everything from them. And the whole
16:48system would collapse overnight. Based
16:50on this tactic, has Trump met the burden
16:52of fascism? Yes. That's 10 for 10. But
16:56some people are still not convinced.
16:58Some experts say it's not fascism until
17:00democracy is completely dead. Until
17:02every institution is destroyed. Until
17:05the courts are gone. Until elections no
17:08longer exist. Until the last door is
17:10shut. Those experts are useless. That
17:13opinion is useless. If the only time an
17:16expert will call it fascism is after
17:18there's nothing left to save, then
17:20what's the point of that expert? They
17:22have no skin in the game. They aren't
17:24warning anyone. They are writing a
17:26eulogy. You don't need every box checked
17:28to see what's happening. You don't need
17:30to wait until the house is fully
17:31engulfed in flames before you call the
17:33fire department. The entire point of
17:35identifying fascism is to stop it while
17:37stopping it is possible. Fascism is a
17:39process, not a finish line. And the
17:42people who wait for absolute certainty
17:44before acting are the ones who lose
17:46everything. The consensus is in.
17:49The experts who wait to call it fascism
17:51until it's too late. So let's get back
17:53to the original question. Is the Trump
17:55movement fascism or are people being
17:57hysterical? Jason Stanley spent his
18:00career studying how fascist movements
18:01take power. He published his book in
18:032018. That was before January 6th,
18:07before the pardons, before Trump used
18:09the word vermin, before he said
18:10immigrants are poisoning the blood of
18:12our nation, before troops were deployed
18:14into American cities, before inspectors
18:17general were fired for disloyalty,
18:19before the press was called the enemy of
18:20the people. He described exactly how
18:23fascism works and then he watched it
18:25happening. The experts who study fascism
18:27for a living are not being hysterical.
18:30Some of them have already left the
18:31country. They're not leaving because
18:33they're dramatic. They're leaving
18:34because they recognize what they are
18:36looking at. They've seen this before and
18:38they know how it ends. We need to vote
18:40like our life depends on it because
18:42right now it does.

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