Federico Finchelstein
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finchelsteinf.bsky.social
Federico Finchelstein
@finchelsteinf.bsky.social

Federico Finchelstein. Historian & Immigrant. 8 books on fascists & populists. Words
@clarincom @washingtonpost @folha @Domanigiornale
@Latinoamerica21

Federico Finchelstein is an Argentine historian and chair of the history department at the New School for Social Research and is director of the Janey Program in Latin American Studies. .. more

Political science 44%
Sociology 31%
Photo by Pierre Lavie. Yes this is me. And I threw my Leica. It landed on the bass plate with hardly a scratch. Another Photographer grabbed it along with my phone and I was able to track him later. I was held face down tear gas deployed right in front of me and pepper sprayed directly into the eye.

Without the midterms elections the United States would effectively become a dictatorship of the fascist kind

Yes. But this release would strip these paramilitary units of their "official status." There is a difference between the state terrorism we are living now and rogue neo-fascists that would be faced by the law (if there is political and judicial will to do so)
this troubles me; you release unemployed PhDs into the wild, the damage is mostly to them, but if you release thugs into the wild, the results are much worse.
It’s worth considering that an overnight dismantling of ICE in 2029 would release into the wild a whole herd of specialists in violence with scant other marketable skills.

As historian of fascism, I have to say that the last crossing into dictatorship would be not having the midterms.
Arnoldo Bazan, a 16-year-old U.S. citizen, was put in a chokehold by ICE agents.

Agents took his phone, which he tracked to a used electronics vending machine near an ICE detention center.

Yes: ICE is stealing and selling people’s things after brutalizing them. There are no words.
We Found More Than 40 Cases of Immigration Agents Using Banned Chokeholds and Other Moves That Can Cut Off Breathing
Civilians have had apparent seizures. One had his eyes roll back. Another had ribs broken. “I felt like I was going to p
www.propublica.org
this troubles me; you release unemployed PhDs into the wild, the damage is mostly to them, but if you release thugs into the wild, the results are much worse.
It’s worth considering that an overnight dismantling of ICE in 2029 would release into the wild a whole herd of specialists in violence with scant other marketable skills.
ICE's killing and brutality is breaking through big time with disengaged voters. Joe Rogan just harshly criticized ICE as "Gestapo." And new data I've obtained finds very high percentages of young and working class have seen video of Minneapolis shooting.

New piece:
newrepublic.com/article/2052...
Joe Rogan’s Harsh New Takedown of Trump ICE Raids Hands Dems a Weapon
When a Trump supporter refers to ICE as the “Gestapo,” a door has definitely opened. Will Democrats charge through it?
newrepublic.com

A legal order based on legitimacy of leader alone is the ideological and practical opposite of rule of law. When this happens dictatorship is around the corner.
telling the secret police they have immunity to harm & kill citizens really lays bare the hollowness of decades of right-wing GOP screeching about encroaching Big Government - it was never a problem they had with government per se, just that it wasn't being used to harm the people they wanted to

By the way, I have studied fascism for decades, and so did scholars like @ruthbenghiat.bsky.social , J. Stanley, @timothysnyder.bsky.social @andreamammone.bsky.social mone.bsky.social . Trump normalizers are NOt experts on fascism.

I actually value this text by @michellegoldberg.bsky.social. We need to keep the focus on Trumpism's fascist leanings and ignore the arguments of Trump normalizers.

Res. Lib is a derogative term used (on the left) to displace the conversation from fascist leaning authoritarians & populists like Trump to social democrats & liberals but also conservatives who refused to shift the conversation from Trump to "continuity." www.nytimes.com/2026/01/12/o...
www.nytimes.com

As far as academy is concerned. Most scholars of fascism( @ruthbenghiat.bsky.social, Stanley & myself &others) warned about fascist dangers of Trumpism for years. Nornalizers who rejected fascism as concept were NOT experts on fascism & their target was liberalism.
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/12/o...
Opinion | The Resistance Libs Were Right
www.nytimes.com
I cannot emphasize how much “be the news” is the opposite of what I was taught about how to be a good journalist and strikes me as an excellent way to churn out elite solipsism that has nothing to do with the public interest and everything to do with self promotion www.nytimes.com/2026/01/13/b...
‘We Need to Be the News’: Inside Bari Weiss’s Bumpy Revamp at CBS
www.nytimes.com
Excellent essay . Also : Why we study comparative politics
If there's one empirical insight I'd want everyone to understand about American politics, it's this:

America's problems are solved problems. Just not here.

What would change if the US simply matched the average of 31 peer democracies? Not Denmark or Norway. Just the middle of the pack. 🧵
👇From "It Can't Happen Here" to "It IS happening here"

In his book "The Wannabe Fascists", historian @finchelsteinf.bsky.social addresses "the 'four pillars of #fascism' — #xenophobia, #propaganda, #politicalviolence, and ultimately #dictatorship."
Where are we now?
newrepublic.com/article/1600...

Trumpism is always going back to fascism: both consciously and unconsciously. It reformulates and it reengages with fascist propaganda, slogans and practices. The current paramilitarization of its actions is part of its dictatorial project.
Frey: "You cannot drag pregnant women through the snow. You're not allowed to take teenagers out of their car and detain them when they are in fact American citizens. That is against the law in every state. That is against our US Constitution."

There is a limit to Trump's vocation for dictatorship. And it is to say no to the leader 's antidemocratic desires. this is an example how it needs to be done !
Let us all stand with Chairman Powell.
Let us all stand with Chairman Powell.

muchas gracias!

Concuerdo! y recomiendo tambien la lectura de este excelente texto!
Excelente análisis de la “guerra contra drogas” en México en la Reforma por mi amigo @ppiccato.bsky.social .
Gracias, Elliott
Excelente análisis de la “guerra contra drogas” en México en la Reforma por mi amigo @ppiccato.bsky.social .
Excelente análisis de la “guerra contra drogas” en México en la Reforma por mi amigo @ppiccato.bsky.social .

in other words, this is supposed to mean "understanding" the perpetators and their instigators.

Fascist conceived the leader as a warrior who would lead people into holy contests against internal & external enemies.They proposed brute force to oppose those who were perceived to be against the fascist trinity of people, nation & leader. My book, Fascism to Populism, p. 17
"The notion that Donald Trump claims this is somehow making the country safer is absurd. It’s making the country more dangerous… The domestic terrorists are ICE!"
In my world, there's a certain reluctance to being merely, or in a knee-jerk way, a resist lib. That's understandable, even commendable. On the other hand, let's be clear: It's a hell of lot better, morally and intellectually and politically, to be a resist lib than a Vichy conservative.