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Posted by mickle00 1/25/2026

Yes, It's Fascism(www.theatlantic.com)
680 points | 401 commentspage 3
shalmanese 1/26/2026|
“For another, the term has been overused to the point of meaninglessness, especially by left-leaning types who call you a fascist if you oppose abortion or affirmative action.”

The left was right too early. Whereas I, the enlightened centrist was right and just the right time.

RealityVoid 1/25/2026||
I actually think that there is an amalgam of ideologies here (I know, so very fascist of them). Trump is more of a monarchist. A lot of the people supporting him are outright fascists. Some are plain idiots.

Them winning absolute control over the country would be a disaster for their movement though. They'd turn to internal fighting, the entropy of victory and all that. And they don't seem terribly competent with governance, it would probably turn off a lot of smart people, so the country would lose a lot of its capabilities.

EDIT: Also, there are funny things going on with the political submissions. I think there is active interference going on, they get flagged almost immediately. This got flagged and unflagged in the space of a couple minutes, so thanks to the mod team they are letting it up, I think there is important conversation to be had here.

blibble 1/25/2026||
> Them winning absolute control over the country would be a disaster for their movement though. They'd turn to internal fighting, the entropy of victory and all that.

that would be after they've finished executing the undesirables?

I am quite amazed that the 2nd amendment people seem to be the ones that are cheering on the federal gestapo

wrs 1/25/2026|||
Yes, this is literally the scenario every 2nd amendment fanatic justifies themselves with. But we already knew that made no sense; it doesn't change anything to have the hypocrisy demonstrated.
RealityVoid 1/25/2026||||
Not surprised at all, we're dealing with post-truth people here, policy is driven by feeling and perception, not coherency and reality.
mickle00 1/25/2026|||
>I am quite amazed that the 2nd amendment people seem to be the ones that are cheering on the federal gestapo

"Rights for me, not for thee"

tstrimple 1/25/2026|||
The flagging system has been systematically gamed for restricting content for years now. I don't think the mods deserve any praise for occasionally doing something about it. They are ultimately complicit in the state of things being hidden on this site. It's "working as expected".
Tostino 1/25/2026|||
And Germany would have been a much larger country economically if Hitler was executed after his first coup attempt. The Weimar government didn't choose that path though, and went for civility.

The brain drain was massive, both before the war, and even more so after. That didn't stop the peasant minded from supporting the Nazi regime though. They got to punish the people who they were told made them poor.

I live in FL, so I get to interact daily with people who are cheering for this crackdown, and have said the equivalent of "those rioters (protestors) should be put down in the street". I don't have much hope for where our country is headed.

The flags on any type of post like this are absolutely ridiculous. Glad the mods are at least for now letting this one stand.

mickle00 1/25/2026|||
It's sad that these posts are now seemingly disappearing from /active in addition to the home page

They are very relevant to the current state of affairs in America, with respect to tech, immigration, startups, and the hacker ethos

njhnjhnjhnjh 1/25/2026||
[flagged]
beardyw 1/25/2026|||
> Trump is more of a monarchist

Monarchs are in place without democratic support, so they have little incentive to be popular (though not unpopular either). Not being involved in politics often results in them having a distant concern for their subjects. They rarely instigate policy making. Doesn't sound like Trump.

fugalfervor 1/25/2026||
Stephen Miller is a fascist, no doubt about it. Even if Trump is not a fascist, per se, he's following the advice of -- and delegating authority to -- the fascists that surround him.
stellalo 1/26/2026||
This should not be flagged.

Flagging this: that’s fascism.

Schmerika 1/26/2026||
HN has always had topics that aren't permitted to be discussed; no matter how relevant or how popular, or how polite the discussions are.

However, this past year has been extreme. Seeing how everything related to Musk and DOGE was removed, for example, was extraordinary.

Anyone who thinks this forum lives up to its rhetoric is simply flat wrong. This place is now a testament to the effectiveness of clever censorship.

tim333 1/26/2026||
It's more tech not politics.
Schmerika 1/26/2026||
Politics is not and was never barred from HN, if that was your point. And, rising fascism would/does directly and massively affect every tech worker in the US.

But we're talking about HN censoring topics, in general - not just politics. I'll give you an example with a tech story I commented on just 3 hours ago [0].

Sourced from the BBC, with a correct headline, not a dupe, generating discussion, upvoted, relevant, important, and in every possible way squarely within HN's remit: But it mentioned Musk in a bad light.

Not only was it flagged, but it was some new kind of uber-flagged. It no longer shows up in new. It doesn't show up in the OP's submissions list. It doesn't show up in my favorites list. You can't comment on it. The link and even the title were completely removed.

That's sheer insanity. Absolutely extraordinary and wholly, completely unjustifiable.

And if you or I were to make a post about this wild level of censorship of a legitimate and important tech story, it would be rapidly removed also. Most likely, you'd be banned if you kept trying (for something completely different, no doubt).

So can we please not pretend that stories about Musk and fascism are being removed for being 'political'. The YC people have picked their dog in this fight, and are very much trying to tip the scales in their favour by censoring the users of this platform.

0 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46764789

disgruntledphd2 1/26/2026|||
This is automated, if the story gets enough flags (the [dead] part, that is). It sucks, but this is apparently what (some) of the community want.
Schmerika 1/26/2026||
Since when can you not comment on flagged stories though? Or see them in your own favorites??

Like, I can still comment on other flagged stories even now, but on that one I couldn't. It's since been unflagged, so I guess I can't prove it, but I've never seen this site act like that... Real memory hole stuff.

tim333 1/26/2026||
I was able to comment on that story which is unflagged. Maybe a tech glitch?
Schmerika 1/26/2026||
It was since unflagged, and people can comment on it again, but look at the stamps. There's a good two hours there after the first few comments where no one could say anything.

And during that time it was removed from the submitter's page, the new page, and my favorites (it's back now).

Would have to have been a pretty weird and consistent glitch for a site that hasn't changed much in like 20 years.

Half tempted to email HN and ask what was going on there, only I wouldn't expect honesty.

tim333 1/26/2026|||
The guidelines have on-topic stuff that gratifies one's intellectual anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity

>Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, or celebrities, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon.

In the last 24 hours there have been three Musk stories and seven Trump.

I can see both sides but Americans in particular tend to turn any forum for statups and intellectual curiosity into Trump Musk Trump Musk Dems Repubs Trump etc. There are other forums where you can of course do that.

Ikatza 1/27/2026||
> This should not be flagged. > > Flagging this: that’s fascism.

Telling people what should or shouldn't be done: that's fascism.

testing22321 1/25/2026||
The parallels it dark times in history are too strong to ignore.

The only question now is will the people be able to stop the takeover before it’s too late.

jay_kyburz 1/25/2026||
After reading this piece I was wondering if there were any examples of a fascist state that were deposed by peace, or whether armed conflict is now inevitable.
freitasm 1/25/2026|||
There are few, Spain's King Juan Carlos I being crowned king after Francisco Franco's death, and Chile's Pinochet leaving power after the 1988 referendum for example.
ks2048 1/25/2026||
If 15 years of dictatorship is one of the few positive examples, that is not a good sign.
card_zero 1/25/2026||
Well how many examples have there been anyway? Maybe six, under a range of definitions? Besides, historicism (inevitabilism) is wrong.
jay_kyburz 1/25/2026||
I agree, and I wish I was able to delete the post. I thought afterwards the question itself is a little poor taste.
kh_hk 1/25/2026||||
Portugal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnation_Revolution
karmakurtisaani 1/25/2026|||
I think Spain transitioned from fascist dictatorship to democracy relatively peacefully.
quercus 1/25/2026|||
“weak men create hard times” never fails
gizmov21 1/25/2026|||
Who are the “weak men” in your interpretation of today’s scenario? I have my own ideas but I wonder about others.
littlexsparkee 1/26/2026|||
the cynical people that thought they could lives as islands outside of politics and did not care to engage with anything outside of their interests. this should acknowledge the people that constructed this environment by undermining education, pushing falsehoods, corporatists blocking real change, etc. i suppose you could consider lack of any issue unifying the nation as before with WWII, the Cold War - if it's the end of history and peace/globalization is assured then you can tune out. i.e. it's about the dull invisible work of maintaining standards that keep the system from collapsing and a shared narrative, one people don't feel like exists with all the corruption, nepotism, transgresses from people in power and lack of action on global issues.
Jensson 1/27/2026||||
The presidential candidates the democrats presented. Trump didn't win this election, democrats lost it by not offering a candidate people wanted to vote for.
quercus 1/25/2026|||
[flagged]
seec 1/26/2026|||
Yeah, I don't understand how people can be so surprised by all of it. If it wasn't Trump and it wasn't happening in this manner, something like that was bound to happen at some point.

I think it's actually going to be even more violent in Europe once the fake money becomes harder to make and many find out they are not holding any valuable card.

At some point, real work has to be done, and if you keep bringing on more people to devalue this work and even make them pay for the people brought over, they are going to wise up and get mad.

gizmov21 1/25/2026|||
Agreed there. I would call Trump et all pathetic pieces of shit, and Democrats (Biden and Obama admins) weak ones for not doing something while they had the chance.
WickyNilliams 1/25/2026||||
I hate this quote with such a passion. It's treated as some enduring wisdom passed down through generations. When it's from a 2016 book you have probably never heard of.
deeg 1/26/2026|||
And there is no weaker, frailer man than trump.
Hikikomori 1/26/2026||
Stephen Miller.
tartoran 1/25/2026||
It seems like it's already too late, I see Americans who I thought were down to earth unbothered by ICE killings, blaming victims and calling criticism as TDS aka Trump Derangement Syndrome. I was totally shocked the other day when this came from an open minded and seemingly 'cool' guy at work.
learingsci 1/25/2026||
Trump needs we better critics. Heck, we all need better Trump critics. This unfortunately is more of the same; doing more harm than good.
RealityVoid 1/25/2026||
I think your point is true, better critique helps dismantling post-truth populism. I also think the article is correct in its assessment and is a good critique for a certain segment of the population. It might be true that it won't persuade any trumpers though. Not sure you can persuade them with articles.
learingsci 1/26/2026||
The author wrote a book about how America needs to reembrace Christianity. A review of that book said it was unclear who the book was for, given that the author is a homosexual atheist Jew. I would say that applies to this article too. As you note, it won’t convince Trump voters of anything. Its only utility is for those who already think Trump is a fascist, a term that the author himself says is basically meaningless. It merely makes those who agree with its conclusion feel good and click links. Signal detection theory tells us more noise makes signals harder to detect. So the article is counterproductive. Ok, meets the authors definition of fascist; so what?
twistah 1/25/2026||
[dead]
csense 1/25/2026||
Everyone's paying a lot of attention to how bad Trump is, or the midterms. My question is, what happens in 2028? How much of current policy is something the majority of Republican voters (let alone the American people) or the political class actually want and would do without Trump to lead them? How much is only being implemented due to Trump's choices, political style and cult of personality? (Assuming Constitutional safeguards remain strong enough that Trump can't find a way to remain in power past his current term; if Trump is still President in 2029, the system's seriously broken down and all bets are off.)

Will the US say "Wait a minute, things went too far, now that he's gone we need more checks and balances before another President tries to repeat what just happened" like when they added term limits to the Constitution after FDR, or some of the post-Watergate limits imposed on the Presidency?

Or will Trump's redefinition of government power become normalized, like the redefinition of government power that happened with the Patriot Act, TSA security theater, NSA spying on US citizens, etc. after 9/11 that was justified as anti-terrorism? Those policies were never unwound even though the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are over, Osama bin Laden is dead, and there have been no more attacks on that scale.

doom2 1/26/2026||
> now that he's gone we need more checks and balances

I'm sure if a Democrat is elected in 2028, all of a sudden a lot of people are going to remember that they don't want a unitary executive. A lot of people who are currently cheering on the administration.

tartoran 1/25/2026|||
I don't think things are going back to how they were before Trump and will only continue in the same direction unless midterm elections don't get canceled/abused, and in that case Trump would get impeached. But that doesn't mean too much. There are fundamental problems that Democrats were unwilling to tackle and are likely to do nothing about.
cogman10 1/25/2026||
I'm, frankly, terrified for 2 reasons.

First up, I don't think the republican party moderates in 2029. The Trump mentality is the new normal and I believe republicans are just going to keep trying to be as fascist as possible as long as possible. We've learned that there are basically no limits on a corrupt presidency and I really fear what that will mean for any future republican president.

But secondly, I'm afraid that Democrats aren't rising to the occasion. They aren't putting forward meaningful reforms or changes to address the fascism. In terms of ICE, a lot of them are trying to put forward meaningless reforms like "let's give them more training" or "let's put their names in a QR code". The entire agency needs nuremberg style trials at this point and some Dems want to give them a weekend meeting with HR.

These two facts scare the shit out of me. Because, my fear is we will see a repeat of 2024 in 2032. Assuming we have free and fair elections, I can see a Democrat becoming president in 2028, doing nothing to address the systemic problems exposed by trump, and ultimately a new republican will be voted in in 2032 because people are sick of nothing getting better under democrats. And that 2032 republican president will ultimately know they can do everything Trump did and they'll be cheered on by the base.

Democrats need to be messaging about real positive changes they'll make.

EchoReflection 1/26/2026||
The loose application of "fascism" to disliked ideas reflects a culture of perpetual outrage and victimhood, diluting the term's historical weight.
EchoReflection 1/26/2026|
https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/the-atlantic/ The Atlantic – Bias and Credibility

LEFT-CENTER BIAS These media sources have a slight to moderate liberal bias. They often publish factual information that utilizes loaded words (wording that attempts to influence an audience by appeals to emotion or stereotypes) to favor liberal causes. These sources are generally trustworthy for information but may require further investigation

https://profrjstarr.com/the-psychology-of-us/the-need-to-be-...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outrage_porn

https://www.npr.org/2019/10/09/768489375/how-outrage-is-hija...

https://theconversation.com/outrage-culture-is-a-big-toxic-p...

mistermaster1 1/27/2026||
[dead]
113 1/25/2026|
[flagged]
njhnjhnjhnjh 1/25/2026|
[flagged]
array_key_first 1/25/2026|||
Everything even vaguely critical of trump is immediately flagged, tech or not. Christ, we've seen outright propaganda generated by this administration using AI, which is obviously something hackers care about, be flagged relentlessly.

It's very obvious this administration and it's supporters are trying to control the narrative of their crimes against the American people. It's evident with their doctoring of evidence, their outright deceit, and the suspicious censorship we see across the entire web. Including HN.

fugalfervor 1/25/2026||||
Is it against the rules to call fascism fascism? That's pretty disturbing.
njhnjhnjhnjh 1/25/2026||
Why is the post flagged? Obviously it's against the rules.

edit:

I challenge you to post a comment labelling the United States government "fascists" in this front-page thread about ICE: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46756117

It won't stay up for long.

fugalfervor 1/25/2026|||
Why is a brand new account (yours) rushing to flagged threads with the party line? It looks like you registered just to post in this thread.
RealityVoid 1/25/2026||
I _think_ it's satire?
fugalfervor 1/25/2026||
What makes you think that? They have posted multiple times in this thread with basically the same post.
RealityVoid 1/25/2026||
I think his edit? I read the edit as him pointing out that political posts get flagged on the front page. But it's obviously not flagged because of the rules, it's flagged because _someone_ is flagging this stuff. I say this because the first minutes of the post existence, it oscillated between flagged and un-flagged. Surely, we also triggered the comment activity trigger that auto-flags the post, some anti-flamewar measure.

Also, this phrase from him:

> This is an inconvenient perspective that some of the more well-funded and well-connected Hacker News readers would prefer to ignore.

Schmerika 1/26/2026|||
> it's obviously not flagged because of the rules, it's flagged because _someone_ is flagging this stuff

Dang was commenting in this thread 8 hours ago - and the post is still flagged.

There's simply no good excuse for that to be the case. And this is far from the first time. Conclusions must be drawn.

fugalfervor 1/25/2026|||
It's kind of subtle, but I think you're right.
messe 1/25/2026|||
> It is against the rules to call anything fascism

If that's true then this site and pg can go ahead and fuck themselves with a rusty knife.

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