General Discussion

Martin Eden

(14,968 posts)

20. Tea Party was astroturf

Sat Oct 4, 2025, 06:45 PM

Oct 4

Powers That Be started it, fostering a "populist" movement feeding off racism and other grievances.

Roots of rightwing extremism are deep. In tje last 100 years the wealthy have wanted to destroy FDR's New Deal and LBJ's Great Society. John Birch Society and Barry Goldwater's extremism had their day, but anti-immigrant fervor goes back centuries and along with racism against blacks. The false morailty of "conservative" Christianity is a big hook tying much of that together.

But behind it all is the age-old insatiable greed for wealth and power, hiring unscrupulous operatives to manipulate useful idiots and ignorant masses into forfeiting what little they have.

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brakester

39 replies

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BINGO [View all] pbmus Oct 4 OP

Impressively clear explanation Raven123 Oct 4 #1

Hear, hear peppertree Oct 4 #34

Perfectly stated malaise Oct 4 #2

Wow. A couple questions: Who is this? How do I get a transcript? Thank you. Hekate Oct 4 #3

Kicked and recommended Uncle Joe Oct 4 #4

For those not looking at xitter... 2naSalit Oct 4 #5

It is an incredibly clear and concise explanation of what fascism is. Biophilic Oct 4 #7

I don't recall... 2naSalit Oct 4 #23

Sorry. I see that word thrown around a lot. Biophilic Oct 4 #26

Wow, that was excellent. Yeah, who is this guy? Biophilic Oct 4 #6

Bright and clear take BaronChocula Oct 4 #8

Here is the tiktok account the video came from. Wiz Imp Oct 4 #9

A video pinned at the top of that tiktok account Wiz Imp Oct 4 #10

Ty 4 sharing this questionseverything Oct 4 #11

WOW!!! brakester Oct 6 #39

Fascism starts as a protest movement? Martin Eden Oct 4 #12

one could argue it started with the tea party protests proud patriot Oct 4 #14

Tea Party was astroturf Martin Eden Oct 4 #20

hofstader's classic "paranoid style in american politics" rampartd Oct 4 #29

Wow!! Another fascinating and lively discussion in DU! brakester Oct 6 #37

Bookmarking thanks proud patriot Oct 4 #13

Great explanation. Thanks for posting. Timeflyer Oct 4 #15

That seems 10,000X too academic to actually inform anybody who needs to understand this. Bluetus Oct 4 #16

Thank you. LittleGirl Oct 4 #19

Dead on... dwayneb Oct 4 #30

Yes, but this is about the playbook Bluetus Oct 4 #35

Thank you, bluetus! brakester Oct 6 #38

Maybe it's just me dweller Oct 4 #17

It's to avoid the TikTok filter JoseBalow Oct 4 #18

Seriously ? dweller Oct 4 #21

Possibly JoseBalow Oct 4 #22

And there is the bugabear dweller Oct 4 #25

Yessir pbmus Oct 4 #27

Thank You!!!! cjon Oct 4 #24

Ah well. Not going to xhitter, nor joining google play. niyad Oct 4 #28

When you start using "conservative" to describe the radical right, valleyrogue Oct 4 #31

Everybody has one pbmus Oct 4 #33

This definitely needs to be simplified Racygrandma Oct 4 #32

A very powerful and insightful discussion. I think the Lincoln Project guys, former conservatives, are early in... NNadir Oct 5 #36