This diary is in response to a trending diary of a similar title. I have purposely copied the title (except for the word DON’T) to highlight my disagreement with the recommendations given in video upon which the diary is based. Let me first state that I watched the entire video, read the entire diary and most of the comments, made a few comments of my own, and then felt compelled to write this diary to flesh out those comments. I have also seen at least one other video from this Youtuber, Beau of the Fifth Column, that I thought was well done and made good points. BUT... I truly believe that Beau missed that mark with this one, and that the video "Let's talk about Trump's accomplishments..." may do more harm than good.
Before continuing, I highly recommend that you watch Beau’s 7 minute video to the very end. But, in case you don’t have time, I’ll tell you what he says in a nutshell. He basically asks the audience to have their Trump supporting friends listen to his video in which he lists 12 of Trump’s accomplishments, as his supporters see them, and two of his “bad things.” Then, at the very end he tells the viewer that the 12 good and 2 bad things he listed are the 14 characteristics of fascism, and that this is why the left is so opposed to Trump. He ends the video there without further exposition.
Here is why I believe this video does more harm than good.
Trump did not effectively accomplish the fascistic goals he and his supporters share, and to imply that he did only increases his supporters’ admiration for him. For example, Trump “call[ing] a bad guy a bad guy” and “letting us know who our enemies were” was actually an EPIC fail. Telling us that caravans of Mexican rapists were the “bad guy” and Putin and other strong men were the good guys did not make us safer. It did the opposite. The harm here is that at a time when Trump’s supporters are seeing glaring examples of his failure and a few are even losing heart, we have a seemingly liberal person laying out a record of his “accomplishments” in a way that admittedly allows them to let their guard down and listen, but that then presents an erroneous assessment of Trump’s success. In the comments to the first diary, it was pointed out that Trump supporters already believe Trump was successful at promoting the fascist values they share but that’s not fully accurate. While his supporters are overwhelming loyal to his person, in polling they haven’t always agreed that he was wildly successful in executing his fascist agenda. They simply gave him lots of participation points for trying. Beau does qualify his recounting of Trump’s record by saying these 12 “good things” are what his supporters believe he accomplished but it is not really clear that he doesn’t necessarily agree with them.
2. Beau spends a whole lot of time talking about Trumps “12 good and 2 bad things” and then a short amount of time at the very end of the video saying “to the Trump supporters” that these are the 14 characteristics of fascism and that this is why there was so much opposition from liberals. He seems to imply that this should be a real eye opener for the Trump supporters and immediately ends the video as if that should do the trick. If the purpose of the video is to inform Trump supporters of why liberals call them fascists, I think they kind of already knew that answer. Does “they hate us for our beliefs” ring a bell? On the other hand if the purpose is for the Trump supporter to have an epiphany and realize his or her belief system has much in common with fascism, then ok. But then what? They decide to give up those beliefs because they think it’s really really important not to be a fascist? Because not being a fascist is more important than their deeply held beliefs? I know plenty of people who couldn’t tell a fascist from a hole in a wall and wouldn’t get that it was super bad to be a fascist. This is why when Beau talks about Trump promoting “traditional family values,” given that these people have already embraced fascist policies and hitched their wagons to a fascist leader, this video could inspire thoughts of “yeah I already knew liberals were opposed to all my beliefs. Thank for the confirmation.”
Rather than imply that the 12 “good things” Trump did, such as embracing traditional family values are all fascist in and of itself, it might be more productive to be more clear about these points of contention (i.e. Liberals aren’t saying you can’t organize your family in a traditional way, rather we object to others trying to forcefully impose those values on everybody else). Liberals don’t hate the colors red, white and blue, the American flag or the American Eagle, rather we are more focused on the democratic values those symbols represent.”
You get the picture.
