#nazis with cats

[froggyreich]

Nazis with cats day 1: Josef Mengele with a kitty in Buenos Aires.

[fazbear-ent-official]

Does Phone Guy call you every day saying "What can I say when the truth comes out of my very own mouth? I've been working on a unified theory - if I make it through tonight, everybody's gotta hear me out!"?

ngl i don't listen to half of his messages, he really needs to start a podcast instead of saturating people's voice-mail

[dom-guilfoyle]

It's always a bad idea to look at twitter, but it's especially bad rn. Here, look at a cat instead. Isn't he cute?

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Spencer Sunshine at The New Republic:

Presidents don’t just wield power directly; they set the mood for the country. It’s not uncommon for their grassroots base to flourish under their administration, as the far right did during Donald Trump’s first term in office. It is less common, however, for that base to remain strong after defeat. But, defying the odds, the MAGA movement continued to flourish under Joe Biden. Now, with Trump returning to the White House, the far right grassroots is barreling into 2025 with plenty of momentum, while their leader both helps set their agenda while sustaining it by crowd-sourcing their conspiracies and lies for his own use.

Issues and Themes

The far right is currently animated by several themes, many of them interrelated. For several years, demonizing “DEI” (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) frameworks—which focus on identities, racial and otherwise—was an obsession. But the far right has gradually replaced DEI with “woke,” a vaguer and broader idea which can refer to the vast majority of left-leaning positions and be applied to any number of hot button, culture war topics.

The backlash over gender, sexuality, and reproductive rights continues, with trans issues front-and-center. After Roe v Wade was struck down in 2022, attacks on abortion rights increased. And when Trump was reelected, the slogan “Your Body, My Choice” spread like wildfire after being embraced by far right leaders like Nick Fuentes. Anti-immigrant rhetoric has also increased, particularly as Trump has promised to deport tens of millions. His racist vilification of immigrants was epitomized by his embrace of unfounded rumors that Haitians in Springfield, Ohio—who were, for what it’s worth, legal residents—were stealing and eating pets. Finally, completely discredited “race science” theories have returned, often focusing on bogus IQ studies. Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, has promoted them on his social media platform X, as has Trump, who has blamed violence by immigrants on “bad genes.”

Donald Trump

Donald Trump has different faces: the tax-cutting businessman, the international negotiator—and the authoritarian strongman. Sometimes he embraces different approaches at different times; mostly, though, he is everything at once: A demagogue and a xenophobe who is committing to cutting taxes for corporations and the wealthy and who pitches himself as the only man who can keep the country—and the world—safe. Campaign promises have included setting up deportation camps for undocumented immigrants—in what he said would be a “bloody story”—and arresting critics and opponents including Kamala Harris, Mark Zuckerberg, and members of the January 6 House committee. Trump also said he’d consider banning vaccines and claims to have the power to halt congressional budget allocations.

His appointments have also been gifts to his far right base. The start of Trump’s first term was largely characterized by a raft of relatively moderate, establishment favorite picks, like Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, and chief of staff Reince Priebus. Now, the situation is quite different. Stalwart MAGA congressman Matt Gaetz was initially tapped to be attorney general until accusations of sex with underage girls quickly sunk him. Tulsi Gabbard, a sympathizer to dictatorships in Syria and Russia, was picked as his Director of National Intelligence. Arguably the most infamous selection was the appointment of Musk to a proposed advisory commission, DOGE (a reference to a dated internet meme, it stands for the “Department of Government Efficiency”). Musk himself has repeatedly tweeted support for anti-immigrant conspiracy theories and most recently for the Alternative for Germany (AfD), a far right party many consider crypto-Nazis.

The far right has two wings. One is openly white supremacist, and is vocally opposed to groups like people of color, Jews, Muslims, and LGBTQ+ people. The other is more moderate in its beliefs; people of color—themselves an increasing part of Trump’s base—are welcome, as are Jews. Both wings overlap in their hatred of “communism” (also a catch-all term for anything to the left of them), embrace of conspiracy theories, contempt for democracy, and desire for traditional social hierarchies.

The white supremacists and their moderate cousins often see-saw in popularity, one rising as the other falls. In recent years, the moderates have swung high. Moms for Liberty, which has focused on banning school library books—especially those with LGBTQ+ content but also ones with pro-diversity or antiracist messages—started 2024 with almost 300 chapters. But their influence has waned as the year went on. The notoriously violent Proud Boys, who played an important role in storming the Capitol four years ago, have faced even tougher times. With their leader Enrique Tarrio serving a twenty-two year sentence for his role in the assault on the Capitol, their scattered chapters now lack cohesion and focus.

One exception is the armed militia movement, which is having a mild revival. Hurt by a massive Facebook deplatforming in 2020, Tess Owen recently observed these groups “have been quietly reorganizing, ramping up recruitment and rhetoric” in recent months. Some groups hope to help Trump’s deportation scheme. Conversely, open white supremacists are doing quite well. Active Clubs—white supremacist MMA training gyms—are in full flourish, and have even expanded overseas. While they’ve had limited public activism, observers worry they could soon transform into a fully-fledged fighting force.

A new wave of swastika-waving neo-Nazis has emerged, too. The media-friendly Blood Tribe, who use striking aesthetics and a confrontational approach, were early promoters of the pet-eating rumor. A Columbus, Ohio march by their splinter group Hate Club 1488 grabbed so much attention that even President Biden denounced it. Blood Tribe was only one of three groups that descended on Nashville this year for public events. They were joined by the antisemitic Goyim Defense League, who spent two weeks harassing local residents, as well as Patriot Front, one of the largest U.S. fascist groups. All three groups represent a new, flourishing neo-Nazi movement—one that will likely continue to grow during Trump’s second term.

The New Republic reports on how Donald Trump is building an army of foot soldiers for his far-right agenda.

[blueflame]

Mercia core

This is what happens when the queer warrior cats kid grows up into an queer angry warrior cats adult

[cranberrybogmummy]

HAppy Caturday from Lyudmila!

[luke-and-leia-the-cats-not-jedi]

[nullkunst]

eat the rich, punch Nazis, yeah 👍

[sophiaslittleblog]

Challa is confused by the word “inauguration” but he says he will love you no matter what happens in the next 4 years.

[faggylittleleatherboy]

Being haunted by jegulus and moonwater 😔😔

[valiantvillain]

I feel like we as a society need to bring back children's books with cute fuzzy animals murdering and maiming each other.

[froggyreich]

Nazis with cats day 15: two Heer Unteroffizier and a Feldwebel cuddle with kittens at a table while an Oberfeldwebel looks on.

[roguegreaser]

Hey wow A dollar just appeared in my hand and it’s a real one too How Convenient and awesome

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Christopher Mathias at HuffPost:

Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign rhetoric echoes the racist screeds written by white supremacist mass shooters; the chants of the tiki torch-wielding neo-Nazis who marched in Charlottesville, Virginia; and the disgusting, profoundly false theses penned by eugenicists and so-called race scientists.

Although he launched his successful 2016 bid for the White House by labeling Mexican immigrants “rapists” and calling for a ban on Muslims entering the U.S., the severity of the GOP presidential nominee’s rhetoric this election season marks an escalation — one that has seen some political observers, once hesitant to call Trump a “fascist,” suddenly more at ease with the label. “People were very careful early on not to compare him to Hitler, and to not use the term ‘fascist,’ because people thought it was an exaggeration,” Ernesto Castañeda, a professor at American University who directs The Immigration Lab and the Center for Latin American and Latino Studies, told HuffPost. “When he was in power, it was not a fascist regime, but his campaign rhetoric right now — the rally [that] took place in Aurora, Colorado, I listened to the whole thing, and it could have been a Nazi speech from a reel in English. The people shouting, the people saying hateful things and the crowd going crazy. He had clips of incidents with immigrants committing crimes, running one after the other, from different media sources, credible and otherwise. It was really, really emotional. Really, really trying to move somebody that wasn’t informed.”

[...] Such rhetoric has become boilerplate in Trump speeches, interviews and social media posts. In recent months the former president has called for immigrants in the U.S. to undergo “remigration,” a well-known euphemism for mass deportations with links to European fascist movements. His use of the term corresponds with his campaign promise to expel millions of immigrants from the country once in office. Trump, with support from his next-gen authoritarian running mate, Sen. JD Vance, has also pushed the lie that Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, are eating their neighbors’ pets — a baseless, thoroughly debunked accusation, previously promoted in the state by a neo-Nazi group, that recalls historical fascist narratives depicting marginalized groups as savages. (Such anti-Haitian racism was especially pronounced among American white supremacists in the 1990s, with former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke insisting Haitians should not be allowed in the country because they were not of “European descent.”)

Trump has also said that many immigrants — a group largely composed of Black and brown people — are “murderers,” claiming that they are immutably, biologically criminal. “Many of them murdered far more than one person, and they’re now happily living in the United States,” he said during an appearance on “The Hugh Hewitt Show” earlier this month. “You know, now a murderer, I believe this, it’s in their genes. And we got a lot of bad genes in our country right now. They left, they had 425,000 people come into our country that shouldn’t be here, that are criminals.” Aside from the statistics Trump was misleadingly citing to criticize Democrat Joe Biden’s presidency, his argument that these immigrants have “bad genes” echoes some of the most vile eugenics and race science pushed throughout American history to give systemic racism an academic sheen — and to justify horrifying policies like mass sterilization.

[...] Part of what makes Trump so dangerous, Benesch said, is the sprawling right-wing media ecosystem that works overtime to fine-tune his fascist talking points — and to spread them far and wide. She often points to how during the tribunal after the Rwandan genocide, two prominent radio executives and a newspaper editor were taken to court for their responsibility in fomenting the mass killing.

Anti-immigrant rhetoric has long been a staple of Donald Trump, but this year, such messaging has taken on a darker and more sinister turn.

[coldflasher]

People were mad bc Karolsen was broken up to put Kara with a white slave owner.

yeah actually now you mention it... he did own slaves. that is very much a thing that he did. was own slaves. not gonna lie i totally forgot about that part

[colorsinautumn]

this is SO deranged please be satire