Why did this thread get locked, BVs? BO?-→

>>3531732

"History Thread #1.2: De Tocqueville and The Storm

We often see comments about how Trump supporters “need to open a history book”, or words to that effect. But I am baffled as to exactly what facts of history anti-Trump people think vindicate them. The “historical understanding” they possess would seem to consist of something like “omg nazis are so bad and Trump is a nazi”. It's not that hard, starting from that assumption, to make various more or less specious and superficial comparisons that demonstrate the putative similarities between fascism and MAGA. But that is the full extent of the history lesson that anti-Trumpism is capable of offering, it would appear. And that is very little indeed.

The fact is, the general mainstream perception of the world, politics, and society reflects an almost pristine ignorance of history, and of the historical spectrum of thought about politics, society, etc. It is as if western civilization started in the 1960s, and everything before that was a vague preamble. This loss of perspective is tragic, and it makes us blind. If previous generations could survey today's world, far from being likely to chide Trump supporters for anything, they would be absolutely appalled and horrified at the transformations in values that have occurred in society, and the alarming developments in politics that have eroded civic traditions and detached political power both from its local basis in national politics, and from its national moorings on the geopolitical stage– all under the aegis of liberalism in its old age.

I would like to discuss the events of today from the perspective of various thinkers and historians, and various historical periods. In this thread, I will start with Alexis de Tocqueville.

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