Relevant here as well
Putin, Netanyahu and Trump: A Lying, Dangerous Trio
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-02-22/ty-article/.premium/putin-netanyahu-and-trump-a-lying-dangerous-trio/0000018d-d0f4-d06c-abbd-d8f4021b0000?v=1708718298185<s=1708718352598<s=1708718362273
What do the Russian invasion of Ukraine and death of Alexei Navalny; January 6, 2021, and 91 criminal indictments; and a constitutional coup attempt in Israel and war in Gaza all have in common?
They all involve three protagonists whose modi operandi bear an uncanny resemblance. Three people involved in a triangular bromance, gaslighting entire countries: Russian President Vladimir Putin, past and possibly future U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
All three use blustering, nationalistic slogans and platitudes to portray strength. All three promote legal amendments to fortify their power. Diligently try to abolish or severely impair checks and balances, and weaken the judiciary. All three, in different forms, intimidate political rivals with vitriol, implicit and explicit threats. All three also created a worshipping cult around them and surrounded themselves with incoherent sycophants in their respective parliaments, who avidly help spread the poison.
But their most important and frequently used tactic is attrition. To tire and depress the public into submission and resignation. Through an endless campaign of lies, conspiracy theories, false information and alternative interpretations of reality, they rely on the majority of the public to get confused, disbelieve everything, doubt all the facts.
Some of this is a matter of character. A lot of it is a tool set to increase and perpetuate power. And then there's a deeper ideological dimension. Umberto Eco's famous 1995 essay "Ur-Fascism" lists 14 features or tenets of fascism. Nine of them wholly apply to the "three amigos":
- Cult of tradition: This is strongest with Putin's czarist nostalgia and Mother Russia references, but is also at the heart of Trump's "Make America Great Again" branding and Netanyahu's messianic vision of Israel.
- Rejection of modernism: All three see liberty, reason, science and the concept of doubt/questioning as dangers.
- Disagreement is treason: Naturally. Their ideology is: I am the embodiment of patriotism, only I define what patriotism is. Those who disagree don't understand the dangers and are ingrates who fail to see my historical grandeur.
- Appeal to social frustration: Immigrants, intellectuals and dissenters from the outside, and Mexicans, Ukrainians and Arabs from the inside, are taking over our country, polluting our culture and changing our beloved country.
- Obsession with a plot: Conspiracy theories and plots are everywhere. Everyone is out to get them, there are vile external forces at work, the deep state is conniving against them.
- The enemy is both strong and weak: Ukraine is a threat, Iran is a threat, China is a threat. All three are existential threats, but we can deal with them because they are weak.
- Machismo and weaponry: Goes without saying.
- Selective populism: They each purport to represent the voice of the real people against treacherous elites.
- Newspeak: Black is white, day is night, truth is false, lies are an alternative truth, there are facts and alternative facts.
Trump was always fawning over Putin, and meant it. Just recently, he encouraged him to attack European countries in NATO who the multi-times bankrupted GOP presidential front-runner calculated don't pay enough for their defense. For Trump, Putin is a model dictator-strongman. The thing is, while Putin truly is a dictator-strongman in the worst Russian autocratic tradition, Trump is neither – even though he pledges to become one. He is just a wannabe diet-dictator.
Netanyahu was always fawning over Trump. He didn't really mean it, because Netanyahu is a well-read and experienced politician while Trump is an idiotic, incurious and incoherent bully. But Netanyahu found solace in dealing with someone who doesn't challenge him or call his bluff the way then-President Barack Obama did. Someone who is supported by evangelical Christians, not bleeding-heart U.S. Jews. Someone determined to cancel the Iran nuclear deal simply because it wasn't his. Someone who made a major, invaluable contribution to Netanyahu's political lexicon: deep state; fake news; mainstream media cabal; "there's a conspiracy against me." Netanyahu loves and adopted this mendacious newspeak.
Putin never fawned over either of his two soulmates, only over the idea of how useful the two were to his idea of instilling chaos and discord between the United States and Europe. Most importantly, all three tend to vigorously fawn over themselves, thinking they are historical figures that contemporaries don't appreciate nearly enough. This is why any form of opposition is unpatriotic, supported by a cabal of foreign interests, and constitutes treason.
Three politicians: one in power running a deadly kleptocracy in Moscow; one barely in power running an incompetent kakistocracy in Jerusalem; and one who wants to return to power to install an improved "moronocracy" in Washington. They may be different – but where it matters, they are very much the same.
Biden sucks, but Trump will only make things MUCH worse.
