Post AnA74VOfwqkoKewkVM by TFFPrisoner@mastodon.social
(DIR) More posts by TFFPrisoner@mastodon.social
(DIR) Post #AnA74SPz1X195qXFcu by TFFPrisoner@mastodon.social
2024-10-12T20:08:31Z
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Some thoughts on fascism...What is fascist? It's a term that's thrown around a lot, especially these days. Someone who hasn't heard it before would probably see it described as a political ideology. In my opinion, however, it's less of an ideology and more of a mode of behaviour.
(DIR) Post #AnA74TbibNzymX28Ya by TFFPrisoner@mastodon.social
2024-10-12T20:09:05Z
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For various reasons, I was always the outcast at school. The boy who likes butterflies and books instead of brawling and bravado. This made me an easy target for bullying, as I was seen as effeminate and weak. (Although I'm not a part of the LGBTQ community, this is why I try to be an ally.)
(DIR) Post #AnA74UuXkseQpCqgXQ by TFFPrisoner@mastodon.social
2024-10-12T20:09:26Z
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So, bullying has been present in much of my life. But with the change from fourth to fifth grade, things took on a much worse dimension. Now, I was surrounded by people who already knew I was a bit odd, and who had seemingly conspired to humiliate me as much as possible. They derived pleasure from seeing me in distress.
(DIR) Post #AnA74VOfwqkoKewkVM by TFFPrisoner@mastodon.social
2024-10-12T20:09:42Z
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Most of the abuse was verbal and psychological instead of physical. In a way, that makes it worse because you can show a teacher bruises but you can't show mental scars. Needless to say, the teachers were completely helpless and just let it happen for the most part - or even occasionally punished *me*. That obviously didn't improve my state one bit.
(DIR) Post #AnA74VwhuJya2CrvY8 by TFFPrisoner@mastodon.social
2024-10-12T20:11:15Z
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And I also became aware of what was fueling these attempts to destroy me. These kids knew history that we hadn't been taught yet. When a girl struggled with reading the abbreviation "KZ", one of the guys shouted "Konzentrationslager" as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. They would talk about "Adolf" this, "Adolf" that. I didn't know much but I knew Hitler was evil, and when I asked why they kept talking about him, they'd say stuff like "that's the name of my uncle's friend".
(DIR) Post #AnA74WefGt8cEXR248 by TFFPrisoner@mastodon.social
2024-10-12T20:13:15Z
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They showed up at my home, singing derogatory songs in front of our windows and harassing my family. Basically, I couldn't even get free of their influence even when I was not at school.They also did mock Hitler salutes more than once in the breaks, something I didn't understand at the time.
(DIR) Post #AnA74X8RUAxPitMoTo by TFFPrisoner@mastodon.social
2024-10-12T20:13:45Z
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I don't think they fully understood the Nazis and they found it funny more than anything. But that's the banality of evil - we see this thing with internet trolls who eventually turn into actual fascists. If I had stayed in that school, I likely wouldn't be alive today and then it wouldn't have mattered that they were not fully serious about being Nazis.
(DIR) Post #AnA74XtEgCO641GBPs by TFFPrisoner@mastodon.social
2024-10-12T20:14:01Z
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So when I was told I had to change schools, it was a relief and a blessing but also complicated because I now had to commute to school every day instead of staying in the same town, and it also took some getting used to being in a class that didn't have a significant amount of wannabe fascists. Obviously I was scarred from the experience.
(DIR) Post #AnA74XzcITUYNoFHMW by TFFPrisoner@mastodon.social
2024-10-12T20:14:24Z
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I tend to say that this is what made me an antifascist. But of course I couldn't really put it into words back then. I'm not sure I really put that together until 2016. All of a sudden, you have these two people running for US president, and one of them just behaving like the classmates who tried to destroy me. That's when I became interested in US politics and realized that *fascism is bullying*.
(DIR) Post #AnA74Yidb5VKdRJEXI by TFFPrisoner@mastodon.social
2024-10-12T20:16:11Z
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You can break it down like that. It's finding the weak link of the chain and then relentlessly picking at it. It's bullying and it's sadism.At this time, I already designed this little icon for possible use as my Twitter avatar. But part of me was still holding out / hoping for the best, so I actually didn't use it until four years later. In retrospect, I should've used it in 2016 already because in my gut, I knew it was fitting. I guess I didn't want to appear "unreasonable"...
(DIR) Post #AnA74ZC3ph2Y6h4jOi by HarryNuggets@poa.st
2024-10-19T11:02:03.939550Z
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@TFFPrisoner Kys faggot
(DIR) Post #AnA74ZQEyyNmofi3V2 by TFFPrisoner@mastodon.social
2024-10-12T20:16:34Z
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Knowing that my bullies were using fascist methods and seeing Trump acting like them, it was not hard to see that Trumpism is fascism. I don't think I knew at the time that DT had Hitler speeches by his bed, or that he's had a long history of bigotry. I just instinctively knew he was sick and dangerous. If you've been through that kind of abuse, you recognise the patterns.
(DIR) Post #AnA74a5iUlYktJ7B9E by TFFPrisoner@mastodon.social
2024-10-12T20:16:57Z
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This is also why the paradox of tolerance and the Nazi bar parable make sense to me. It's the point where the teachers should've stepped in and protected me from the abuse. If someone does Nazi things, they have to experience consequences for that; otherwise they will destroy society from within. Growing up in Germany, I've learned a lot about how that can happen.
(DIR) Post #AnA74amxty9d3RLiYi by TFFPrisoner@mastodon.social
2024-10-12T20:17:36Z
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To put it differently: Being gay, being disabled or being of a different skin colour than the majority aren't things that hurt anybody and they're not something you can do something about. But aligning yourself with an ideology that attacks people for those things is fundamentally anti-human and you cannot claim protection for that "political persuasion" because it's just toxic and intends to infringe upon others' rights.
(DIR) Post #AnA74bgcZ2fpq3OAJE by TFFPrisoner@mastodon.social
2024-10-12T20:17:51Z
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The responsibility to guard against fascism, perhaps paradoxically, also requires us to not use the word willy-nilly. It needs to be reserved for truly fascist behaviour. If you go and claim that everyone except you and your little clique is fascist, you're watering down the word and robbing it of its power, not to mention turning it ad absurdum.
(DIR) Post #AnA74cqwEAWLSLDv1s by TFFPrisoner@mastodon.social
2024-10-12T20:18:37Z
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The German communist party actually *dissuaded* people from joining the protests against the AfD far-right nuts and why? Because those protests were being endorsed by "the establishment" and because "capitalism is fascist anyway". I hope I don't have to spell out how bone-headed that is. You'd want to stem the tide as long as the fascists are NOT in power yet.
(DIR) Post #AnA74e3NlO4LBE3N44 by TFFPrisoner@mastodon.social
2024-10-12T20:21:35Z
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Full disclosure: This thread was triggered by a previous, somewhat unpleasant interaction:https://mastodon.social/@TFFPrisoner/113276411186796914Poking around the other poster's profile after writing a number of replies earlier made these thoughts galvanize in my head.