Will Bunch: Why we can't allow Trump to ban that other f-word

[Nevilledog]

https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/trump-order-ban-fascism-nazi-20251005.html

No paywall link
https://archive.li/RqThU

The Donald Trump regime hasn’t banned me from writing this column — at least I don’t believe so — but top government officials have made it clear, from the president on down, that in their eyes what I’m about to say is dangerous and un-American.

In a series of speeches, tweets, and decrees from the Oval Office, the regime insists that the existential threat to our national way of life isn’t from troops in the streets of American cities toting assault rifles and tear-gassing peaceful citizens, but from protesters or writers like me calling that behavior out for what it really is.

Fascism.

The president, Vice President JD Vance, and their minions have seized on the actions of a few young, lone-wolf assassins to issue blanket condemnations seeking to vilify and, in essence, ban free speech that accurately describes America’s downward spiral into autocracy.

“This violence is the result of the Radical Left Democrats constantly demonizing Law Enforcement, calling for ICE” — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement — “to be demolished, and comparing ICE Officers to ‘Nazis,’” Trump wrote on Truth Social after a deadly sniper attack against a Dallas ICE facility. “I AM CALLING ON ALL DEMOCRATS TO STOP THIS RHETORIC AGAINST ICE AND AMERICA’S LAW ENFORCEMENT, RIGHT NOW!"

Trump tied that threat to a September executive order in which the president declared antifa — which is an ideology, not an organized group — as a terrorist organization, a pretext for going after real left-wing groups and people who fund them. “Antifa” is short for “anti-fascism” and a belief that urgent, even radical, means are necessary to keep this brand of dictatorship from taking root. Trump, in his memo, attempts to rebrand anti-fascism, writing that “these movements portray foundational American principles (e.g., support for law enforcement and border control) as ‘fascist’ to justify and encourage acts of violent revolution.”

*snip*