When liberal capitalist societies fail, nations turn to glory, nobility and war to legitimate the system

By Dilip -
How conservatism turns to fascism
In the 1980s, Trump was already famous as a billionaire who articulated the philosophy of look out for your own profit and don’t care how much you hurt anyone else in the process. However, no one would imagine he would eventually become president. Long before he entered politics, Trump called anyone who challenged him a loser. With that vocabulary, he perpetuated the idea that victims are weak and lazy and don’t have the stuff to prevail. They deserve their fate and must submit to the triumphant. As a landlord, Trump brutally intimidated his tenants - cutting heat and hot water, refusing to maintain and repair his buildings, which sometimes became rat infested - in the hope of driving them out of rent-controlled apartments that he planned to convert into condominiums.
Trump’s presidency has been treated as a fluke, but it actually represents a very old ideology of capitalism. When Trump became president, the media and liberals became nostalgic for Reagan, saying that Reagan would never do what Trump was doing. In reality, Trump was Reagan’s heir. Reagan appointed Alan Greenspan as Chairman of the Federal Reserve. Greenspan’s five terms as Chairman included two reappointments by Bill Clinton, which suggests his paradigm was accepted by some Democrats.... read more:
https://www.alternet.org/2019/10/how-conservatism-turns-to-fascism-when-liberal-capitalist-societies-fail-nations-turn-to-glory-nobility-and-war-to-legitimate-the-system/

 see also
Trump to Johnson, nationalists are on the rise, backed by billionaire oligarchs
The Economist Behind the One Percent’s Stealth Takeover of America. By Lynn Parramore
The death of neoliberalism and the crisis in western politics by Martin Jacques
George Monbiot: Ayn Rand - A Manifesto for psychopaths..
George Monbiot - Neoliberalism – the ideology ...
George Monbiot - Brexiters will grind our ...
George Monbiot - Growth: the destructive god ...
Books reviewed: Twenty-first century capitalism
Sven Beckert - Slavery and Capitalism

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