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Exactly bsky.app/profile/grud...

MAGA are the powerless victims, by their telling. Always.

Very good observation! So true.

crediting this tweet for activating the smol bean threads here on bluesky. not the same gist as what it has become, which is much better, but this, IMO, started the smol bean discourse. bsky.app/profile/cait...

It's amazing how upset they are that people are *checks notes* exercising their rights.

God damn. You've been smoking hot lately

This is just an extension of movement conservatisms enormous victim complex

They have to be the victim no matter how awful they are.

Scary, huh?😱

That's always been a trait of fascists. They're big strong manly men who can'tbe beat and could trounce anyone they choose, but also need to be able to justify their militarization via powerful outgroups and traitorous operators.

Please help a foreigner: What are „smol beans“?

Honestly what's there to talk about? A manufactured sense of victimhood is the keystone of fascism. If they weren't claiming the armed and armored agents of the federal government were victims of the civilians videoing them, their whole ideology would tumble in seconds flat.

Isn’t that funny?? “You’re under arrest for the violent use of a canine whistle!”

That's just standard fascism. Fascists believe that they are vastly superior to their weak, degenerate enemies. At the same time they're constantly threatened by these enemies and struggling against them.

The GOP isn’t feckless, it is aggressively cruel and racist. We want no part of their All White America with Stephen Miller as the standard bearer. History will not allow them to peel off the generational stink.

They really seem to think that they’re playing a videogame and the rest of us are NPCs that should just die already.

I just saw this waking up and for half a minute thought it was a NYT op-ed.

Thank you Adam

Nutless Nazis.

“They blew whistles at me and told me to go fuck myself. The nightmares never cease 😫😭”

Seconded... people who subscribe to this position (tyrannical oppression/imagined superiority) can't be reasoned with. That sucks, but it also means there's no reason to hold back or be polite. I've had success just calmly dismantling the word salad and laughing at their temper tantrums. 🤷‍♂️

It's crybullying in its purest form.

Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice? — Martin Luther King Jr. There aren’t enough white persons in our country who are willing to cherish democratic principles over privilege. — Martin Luther King Jr.

they've always been like this I think, it's part of the mindset, the same thinking that makes their enemies somehow simultaneously strong and weak, but inverted

As Luke O'Neill put it, shooting and crying. www.welcometohellworld.com/we-deserve-it/

We deserve itShooting and cryingwww.welcometohellworld.com

Honestly, it's all downstream from the "It's okay to talk about mental health/PTSD" stuff that became vogue in right wing circles via SOF operators and vetbro podcasters. The Hegseth confirmation hearings were another low point in it lol

I think that's just regular fascism, man. They always do that.

Yep, Micro Nazi Bovino wants you to think the seven guys beating down a protester and executing him are the "victims."

Abolish ICE. Abolish DHS. Arrest & prosecute Stephen Miller. www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWKS...

Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Minneapolis (Official Audio)YouTube video by Bruce Springsteenwww.youtube.com

Poor ICE snowflakes (the ugly ones)

It definitely has its roots in "you're violating my freedom of religion by forcing me to acknowledge your rights"

Seeing you use ‘smol’ on an otherwise extremely serious tweet is amazing

Part of me thinks it’s a new thing and part of me thinks it’s an extension of the classic fascist “our enemies are both super week/subhuman and the greatest threat to humanity ever”

You have the title now write the piece!

Won't somebody think of the fascist murderers?! 😭

That's just normal fascism. "The inferior and weak mud people are a threat to our very way of life... our very existence"

Talk about toxic masculinity. Do these smol bean fascists think that’s what women really want?? (Hint: we do not.)

Seriously!

DARVO on the frappe setting

People Need To Hear This. This Stuff Was Done By Both Parties Regarding Immigration & The Masses Did NOT Realize What Was Actually Happening. youtu.be/E-TlSiaQ2nw?...

The Violence Is the Point: ICE Was Built to KillYouTube video by Wajahat Aliyoutu.be

Adam. MAGA is just a Safe Space for bigots and bullies. This manifest destiny pacification of America cannot happen if people are gonna call people "fascist" (to their face no less), kick them outta public spaces & blow shrill whistles.

I take some small comfort that they will never attend a sporting event without being triggered. It is the very least in terms of accountability.

Read the linked article to identify ICE collaborators and start organizing a boycott. Encourage others to boycott ICE partners too. #BoycottICEPartners #BoycottICE #AbolishICE #ICE

“8. The enemy is both strong and weak. “By a continuous shifting of rhetorical focus, the enemies are at the same time too strong and too weak.”” www.openculture.com/2024/11/umbe...

Umberto Eco’s List of the 14 Common Features of FascismCreative Commons image by Rob Bogaerts, via the National Archives in Holland One of the key questions facing both journalists and loyal oppositions these days is how do we stay honest as euphemisms an...www.openculture.com

It's also the one where your culture is so fragile and weak that it can't handle pluralism and your people are so soft and scared that they need to be strapped to go grocery shopping.

Well put

Isn’t that just a core tenant of fascism. Enemies are simultaneously weak and strong at the same time

Yes. And I just got a MEGAPHONE with a siren.

Love you and your torty cat!

It seems the side willing to kill citizens are exploiting the fact that the opposition will always play by the rules because that is who they are. They are mostly right. Their flaw is that they are creating a society where no one is safe; including them.

He is far too gracious in his judgment of her, branding her an inept monster. She may be sidelined for now, yet the fundamental issues remain unaltered until the fanatical Stephen Miller is expunged as well. Has there been any substantial transformation in Minneapolis? I surmise not.

Tell them they'll be ok if they go back to only shooting up schools...

The thingy is for some in MAGA the people in ICE are gods! They are on camera killing an ICU nurse, an American citizen. A by all accounts helpful and kind citizen. Well ICE murdered him, Trump made up excuses disproven with video. So what do they? Ignore the video, because well Trump said so!

This is a pattern. Police are both heroes and in need of all the cheerleading we can give them. The President is a Big Strong Man who is trashed by people who don’t appreciate his gifts to the nation. The authority figure is both savior and child, in highly (read: abusive) dysfunctional systems.

bsky.app/profile/andy...

👏👏

They have this sick need to be the victims even while actively victimizing others.

How fitting that ICE turned out to be the real snowflakes.

a snowflake is surrounded by colorful snowflakes and the number 777 is on the bottomALT: a snowflake is surrounded by colorful snowflakes and the number 777 is on the bottommedia.tenor.com

They're cowards. We should call them cowards. Or worse.

The difference is that in Nazi Germany, ordinary people were shot in the streets at the discretion of the thugs working for the government of the day. Whereas in MAGA America ... oh ... wait... #AntiFascist #AusPol

They've always been ready to pivot to utter cowardice. Just listen to them talk about how glitter bombing them was aggravated assault, or insisting that a guy with a knife has a lethal threat range of 20 yards to justify lethal force.

I’m sure Obama will be recommending an Ezra Klein podcast to discuss this emerging phenomenon.

Your piece today was incredibly moving.

Sorry to be out of the loop, but I haven’t heard of “smol bean fascism”. Can someone explain? Where did that term come from? Thanks in advance.

Great title for an article.

i is smol bean, and i take umbrage w your choice of words… but agree w point you make.

Jamelle Bouie likes to talk about the Trump Regime as "cargo cult fascism": they go through the motions of brutal fascism, but only end up making Americans angry, instead of afraid.

The asymmetry is astounding

It looks like it starts from the top and is threaded through all of the hiring practices

Administration Social Media Posts Echo White Supremacist Messagingwww.nytimes.com

I mean that’s kinda just how fascism has always been, we just have different words for it now.

The entirety of modern American conservatism is built from this contradictory, bullshit material. “Smol bean fascism” is exactly right. It’s Schrödinger’s nation, in terms of strength & durability. It’s simultaneously always bigger & badder than ever, but also one drag story time away from collapse.

I'm so so tired of watching what amount to government produced snuff films everywhere. We can't allow ourselves to become numb to this depravity.

Yup, just trying to wrap that around my brain, it’s fuk up man

🤜🏾🤛🏼👏💪

Can’t remember who said it but it went something like “you’re not ready for twee fascism”

I think it’s more smol dick

Snowflakish even.

This has been a tenet of fascism since it appeared. The “Enemy” is always both strong and weak. Go read Arendt and Ecco. Or Snyder’s “On Fascism” (if you’re in a hurry).

Some heterodox youtube did a "here's the law" on the Peretti killing focusing on the reasonable fear standard, and the comments all blasted him for ignoring the broader context that "minneapolis is a hell hole where they are terrorized every day!!!" as that was enough to justify the murder

Some guy called me a cripple and hoped I would be killed by ICE.

Never seen a bunch of bigger whiners, cowards, and scared-shitless assholes than this group of supposed alpha leaders. Just like their dear pancaked leader.

Oh they have a reason! They are destroying us ON PURPOSE WITH THE OLIGARCHS HELPING THEM

Establishing your enemy as both weak, degenerate, and unworthy, but also terrifying and powerful is kinda their thing

@hcrichardson.bsky.social @joycewhitevance.bsky.social

Snowflakes are made of ICE.

The cowards couldn't even handle a single dildo www.closertotheedge.net/p/the-dildo-...

THE DILDO DISTRIBUTION DELEGATIONThe revolution did not arrive with speeches, pamphlets, or a carefully moderated Zoom call about optics.www.closertotheedge.net

Crybullying is another thing ICE learned from training with the IDF

I honestly don't think there is a "rise" in this. You can see it pretty clearly demonstrated going back decades in different forms.

And they're making it hard to eat in restaurants...poor little dickless wonders.

Beans out here catching strays when all we want to be is healthy protein and fiber.

Hmmm idk what to say

Umberto Eco discussed this - for fascists, the enemy must be simultaneously too weak and too strong.

A friend visited the controversial Yasukuni Shrine when in Japan. He said the revisionism was worse than he expected: as it might have it, Imperial Japan engaged in self defense all the way into the middle of China.

I don't mind when they act like smol beans because it makes them easier to identify, and easier to scare back into their holes. Make Fascists Afraid Again

Powerfully stated. Thank you

Just wait til someone Stands Their Ground on one of these guys

“The bullying, the tears, the lies and contradictions. Claiming everyone (who counts) is on their side, and anyone who isn’t is part of a conspiracy. Above all, a sense of entitlement to something they aren’t owed.”

Brett Kavanaugh And The GOP’s Politics Of Abuse - Rantt MediaAs the Republican Party stands by alleged abusers, their policies inflict a form of abuse on vulnerable Americans.rantt.com

Your auditory startle reflex is getting triggered by the mean people with the whistles and it's really making your life so hard!

So many voices in society (especially in media) swallowed the proposition that Republicans have no agency. They are nothing but software designed by God to produce ordained outcomes based on how their opposition chooses to behave. It's not surprising that they ended up believing it.

I guess us normal Americans just don’t appreciate how traumatic it is to brutalize and murder people for a job. After all, they are ‘just following orders’. Why are people so upset?

Crybullying in its most absurd form

A couple years ago, I learned about the term DARVO and, boy, is every fucking thing on the planet DARVO.

This completely sums it up.

I feel like this is just classic fascism tbh “Our enemies are simultaneously weak, cowardly degenerates and terrifying, planet-swallowing monsters”

Used to call that Alpha Victim Syndrome

This is the 8th common feature of fascism according to Umberto Eco. "The enemy is both strong and weak." “By a continuous shifting of rhetorical focus, the enemies are at the same time too strong and too weak.”

soy fascism is so lame man

The Trump administration and MAGA are basically job programs for rapists, violent racists, creeps, and losers. We just need to openly acknowledge this and not back down.

I remember Hunter S. Thompson called the Raygun government, "Low rent fascists"

Filming abuses are what fascists fear most.

I get what you're saying for it is indeed especially notable with these weirdos, but on some level I think this is actually just fascism. Fascists love narratives of victimhood, which are critical to their narratives of national decline.

The absurdity

Moms and seniors are the worst of them all, it's like when a bunch of kindergarten kids run off the highschool gang. Just too embarassing for words.

The 'real' fascists are the soccer dads who cussed us out along the way. 🥺

*kitten fighting back tears meme* "u wil not repwace us!"

The truly courageous are the ones facing ICE and the CBP, while the ones with the guns and masks are afraid of being photographed. So, who are the real "snowflakes" here?

Fascism has always, to an extent, been about self-pitying and grievance politics. Hell, *the* classic fascist book, Mein Kampf, is literally just Hitler complaining about how unfair things were for him, and why it was everyone else's fault that his life sucked.

ICE does not have immunity when committing crimes. The problem are the officials who take no action to hold them to account--even when they continue to lie to us about how "no one is above the law."

I know it's become a trope in some circles because of what is the focus of most of the book, but Schulman's "Conflict is not Abuse" is about some of this.

Vance giving speeches with all the language of Tumblr and the content of Stormfront

Explain smol bean fascism" to a Brit? ....Maybe the #operationinflation is the most punk thing that ever happened on the united States since the real mohicans? Punk as in, The Sex Pistols.

a man wearing a tank top with a skull on it is sitting in a chairALT: a man wearing a tank top with a skull on it is sitting in a chairmedia.tenor.com

I love you America, we are winning the war, this battle is our will against their want to be in charge of us, that's not going to happen. Keep coming out on the streets, we win this with SHOWING UP, with our hands in the air, demanding our freedom as Americans. NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW!

It's to try and appeal to wildly uninformed Republican voters who want to believe the protesters are lawless thugs harassing nice cops.

Sure, let's talk. Let's talk about brutality and force, about the small application of both literally ends entire family trees, or how this reporting can't be an isolated incident & that this is only the ones they let loose. What's it actually mean to be a majority in minority power under tyranny?

Generational trauma Perfect 😂

I can't wait for the rightwing movie "They Tried to Silence Us," about ICE agents bravely facing off against the sonic cannons of immigrant criminals & Antifa terrorists.

It’s Israel coded fascism. Cry bully and victim blame

As a life long photojournalist- my camera a look ways upset ppl more than if I was carrying an Assault Weapon.

The narrative highlights how the abuse of power is not only physically harmful but also creates profound, lasting psychological damage on victims and witnesses, often recorded and distributed online. This type of rhetoric often appears in "tradwife" or other

The admin is very responsive to hard power. Frighteningly so. NO walkbacks in Greenland until Europe sent troops. even for sympathizers of realpolitik abroad, it is starkly concerning that the first walk back of ICE policy comes on the heels of NRA (though thx for finally speaking out!) opposition.

I've become a fan of the term "crybullies"

I've seen so many "guys ICE agents are so stressed and scared 😥" posts and it makes me want to run into traffic. They have guns! They get to kill us! They joke about it, I've read the "7 shots 5 holes" texts!

*murders innocent American citizens in the streets* "Hey, c'mon, I'm just a little guy. And I wear glasses. And it's my birthday. uWu 👉 👈"

bsky.app/profile/joel...

"Commando Harriett"

Kinda think this is regular fascism. Nazi Germany had a lot of this going on too as the regime tried to justify insane crackdowns.

👏👏👏

If this wasn't so deadass I'd laugh out loud in this book shop... but I'm kinda scared.

bravo, well played sir

I think that's just fascism. It justifies itself through a narrative of grievance and fear, and it famously constructs enemies who are simultaneously impossibly powerful, and pathetically weak.

Well ICE & Snowflakes are related....

You are on fire. 🔥

"smol bean"? What's wrong with "smol dick"?

Hear hear

Yes. That’s exactly it. The “smol” part is a costume. The power is real, the harm is real, and the innocence is performative.

Fascists are always like that, casting their enemies as both strong and weak at the same time.

"Why was Alex Pretti even protesting? He shouldn't have been there 👉👈"

I have often thought about you & the phrase/title "The Cruelty is the Point". Did you ever in your wildest dreams expect all we have witnessed in recent months?

The mere _existence_ of the Other is a perceived threat to their existence, allowing for any and all use of lies and force. bsky.app/profile/edga...

Particularly comic form of what Paxton describes in anatomy of fascism, worldview where your culture/race/nation is under constant threat from enemies of all kinds so every thing the fascist does, no matter how violent is always always always in self-defense & they're always still the victim

😂

Only acceptable use of “smol bean”.

They should be traumatised. Because as soon as Trump is gone they are all going to prison

"Are you scared of a fucking whistle dawg?"

I've noticed a trend among these types. They often will act real tough, but the moment they are under any threat of consequences for their actions, they default to "I'm just a little guy, it's my birthday!!!" type behavior.

“Making me look bad!”

One day they'll realize everyone is not "only think about yourself" like they think. Hyper-individualism is damaging. If history has shown one thing, the individual is an immutable thing. Being obsessed with it to the extent of thinking community doesn't matter will inevitably lead to tragedy.

this is a corollary of regular fascism, where the enemy is simultaneously laughably weak and terrifyingly strong,

verry smol beans

a person is holding a small white kitten with a pink pawALT: a person is holding a small white kitten with a pink pawmedia.tenor.com

icelist.is

It feels connected to the observation post WW2 that all the former nazis wanted to talk about was how *hard* it had all been on them. How they *suffered* making those *difficult* choices during the Holocaust. Basically, they want that same pity, but while carrying out the goddamn atrocities.

They thought they were beating someone's head with a gas canister in a safe space.

Stop trying to make "smol bean" happen, Gretchen.

So, by a continuous shifting of rhetorical focus, the enemies are at the same time too strong and too weak?

Like the police officer who killed Daniel Shaver in 2016 and got a medical retirement for his supposed PTSD.

Great conversation with Greg Sargent today on the ethno-nationalist schism in the regime. @gregsargent.bsky.social

This is a perfect corollary to "The worst thing in the world to experience is to be accused of racism"

Tell me more about the liberal wine moms who are outsmarting the multi-billion dollar militarized agency using a free app that the SECDEF couldn’t figure out. 🍷

I connect this directly to the "trauma" of ppl who have to tell their children what a trans person is, or who have to read pronouns in an e-mail sig. I wasn't there then, but I'm sure whites were complaining about the "trauma" of desegregated bathrooms 60 years ago. It's not new, really.

Fascism always requires double-think. 1984 nailed that. They simultaneously believe that gay people are weaker than real tough straight men, but also gay people are an all-powerful cabal that controls hollywood and the government and all aspects of life. Its because they're bullies.

How many more? youtu.be/_hpd3CPNPOY?...

American Martyrs by Flaming JusticeYouTube video by The Flameyoutu.be

America You need to look at the fact that trump is saying Americans can't have guns He has made new police the orange mask thugs he is buying armor/armed vehicles from Canada I'm telling you we have a problem Do something before it's too late He is sinister we are in trouble

You're just describing the conservative ethos. Permanent victimhood despite having all the money, power, and media

"power bottom fascism" "brat fascism"

I am a big bean

They really do embody the stereotype of late 2010s liberals that they created for themselves

That’s always been a fascist trope: the enemy is decadent and pathetically weak, deserving to be crushed, but (to explain the failure to accomplish anything) at the same time unbeatable because they’re so dang crafty.