September 29, 2025
Joe Lauria
I want to talk to you about The F Word, the C Word and the N word.
They are all nouns. The F word can also be used as an adjective. They are all used as invectives.
Today all these words are being overused. And misused.
Contrary what you may have heard from George Carlin you can say them on TV. The F word is being said a lot about Donald Trump. Both as an adjective and a noun. He is even called the N-word sometimes, though I think this word better applies to people in Ukraine and Israel.
As F and N are closely related let’s talk about them together. And then I’ll deal with the C word.
The F-word I’m talking about is Fascism, a 20th Century phenomenon seen principally in Italy, Spain, Germany and then in South America. Does Fascism really describe what we are seeing in the 21st Century?
It has become too easy to call your opponents fascists just because you disagree with them. You really have to qualify it. The essence of fascism can exist in any age though we may need a new term for it since may not look exactly as it did in the last century.
There are exceptions: Ukrainian Neo-Nazis not only take on the paraphernalia of 20th Century fascism, but its violent behavior against an ethnic group. The current Israeli regime’s genocide is a page out of the fascist playbook. Israel’s systematic destruction of the Palestinian people is reminiscent of the N word – Nazis.
But are politicians like Donald Trump, Jair Bolsonaro or Narendra Modi really fascists?
When we hear fascism we think of a police state, wars of conquest, goose-stepping and genocide. In the Anatomy of Fascism, historian Robert Paxton says:
“Fascism can be defined as a form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation, or victimhood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy, and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion.”
There’s a lot there and I’ll break that down in how it relations to Trump. But first, it’s important to point out that Paxton differentiates between authoritarianism and fascism, saying that under authoritarianism people are forced into giving up their democratic rights. However, under fascism most people voluntarily give them up. Authoritarian leaders repress and subdue the public. Fascist leaders want to excite them with spectacle to feverishly support the program.
Paxton warned:
“Fascist movements varied so conspicuously from one national setting to another, moreover, that some even doubt that the term fascism has any meaning other than as a smear word. The epithet has been so loosely used that practically everyone who either holds or shakes authority has been someone’s fascist.”
It is eery, however, when we compare the Trump phenomenon with Paxton’s definition: “obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation, or victimhood” … Trump has for more than 40 years been complaining about the hegemon being the victim – everybody is “eating America’s lunch.”
Besides this imaginary victimhood, working class Trump supporters have indeed been real victims of bipartisan neoliberal economics. The Democrats have turned their backs on them, even rhetorically – publicly calling them “deplorables” – while Trump conned them into thinking he is their champion.
Fascism has “compensatory cults of unity, energy, and purity,” Paxton says. MAGA can plausibly be described as a cult of unity, and while the anti-immigrant drive does not quite reach Hitler’s mania for racial purity, it is disturbing nonetheless, especially when we see ICE acting as a proto-SS.
Paxton says fascism is “a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites…” There’s no doubt many traditional elites, who opposed first-term Trump, have made their peace with him, as long as their interests are served.
The final step in Paxton’s definition is that this mass movement “abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion.”
Certainly a mythical American “rebirth” is at the heart of Trump’s movement but is it using redemptive violence to internally cleanse and externally expand the nation? There are signs of it.
But I don’t think we are quite there yet, yet it is worrying enough. It is important to point out that authoritarian and even fascistic elements have long been part of America. Paxton names the KKK as a fascist group. This is a nation built on the genocide of internal ethnic cleansing of Native Americans and the enslavement of Africans, as well as waves of violence to expand into a world empire.
I would tend to say we are still living in an authoritarian phase under Trump, and not yet fascism, though it seems we may be headed that way. There is still a very sizable opposition to Trump so that most of the population have not voluntarily given up democratic freedoms to follow the leader. [Israel, where 90 percent of the population is behind the genocide more closely approximate’s Paxton’s definition.]
I think a new term to rationally describe what Trump is doing may be needed. But because he is so irrational, rational analysis of Trump at times seems impossible.
Finally, the C word. Everyone is screaming about censorship. Unfortunately censorship is not new in America. As many as 26 people were prosecuted under the Sedition Act of 1798, mostly editors of opposition newspapers critical of President John Adams. That was only six years after the First Amendment was ratified. The Sedition Act was allowed to expire in 1801 under the Jefferson administration.
Woodrow Wilson came within one vote in the US Senate of including official censorship in the 1917 Espionage Act. So he followed it up with the Sedition Act of 1918, which made it a federal offense to use “disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language” about the U.S. government, the Constitution, the American uniform, or the flag.” 2,000 people were prosecuted and 1,000 convicted before the act was repealed in 1920.
So the U.S. has known government censorship. It was revived in a serious way under Joe Biden. The Twitter files showed the FBI and other government agencies were directly involved in having people’s posts removed. That’s government censorship. And there was Biden’s hare-brained scheme for the DHS to run a Disinformation Governance Board.
On inauguration day, Trump issued an executive order barring federal employees from using private proxies to abridge free speech. Elon Musk said he’d restore free speech to Twitter.
But we see that they were only against conservative voices being silenced. Now Trump is silencing liberal and leftist voices. Look at how his people have reacted to critics of Charlie Kirk. Trump wants RICO charges brought against Code Pink for a verbal protest in his presence.
They chanted: “Trump is the Hitler of our time!” Evidently he really doesn’t like being called a fascist. (We should recall that divorce papers against him alleged that he kept a book of Hitler’s speeches on his night stand.)
These are out an out examples of government censorship, either direct or indirect.
But just like the overuse and misuse of “fascism” and “Nazi” “censorship is overused and misused.
When it comes to newspapers I have some direct experience of what it is and what it is not. I was hired and nearly took the job as editor of a privately-owned English language newspaper in Doha, Qatar.
I was told that there was a fire once in a tennis stadium. The whole city knew about it and the newspaper prepared a story with pictures. But the Ministry of Information intervened and the story was pulled. Why? Because at the time Qatar was bidding for the World Cup. A fire in a sports facility may have raised questions.
I was told someone from the ministry showed up every day at the newspaper with a grease pencil to read every galley and strike out anything objectionable to the government.
That’s censorship.
I’ll tell you what is not censorship. And lot’s of people disagree with me on this.
One of the age-old duties of the editor of a publication is to determine what is worthy of being published and what is not.
Every writer has had his work rejected by an editor. The pro shops it elsewhere and then moves on to the next story. He doesn’t take it out personally on the editor.
If an editor is not suppressing a factually true story to protect someone’s interests – his own or someone else’s – that’s not censorship. It’s editorial judgement.
And because you might be a crappy writer or your article is rejected because it lacks supporting evidence does not mean you are being censored even if there has been this recent surge in direct or indirect censorship by the U.S. government under both parties.
Crying censorship might make you feel important, but it doesn’t make it censorship.
So when it comes to the F and the N words there is uncertainty about what to call the Trump regime. One thing is for certain though, whatever you call these times of genocide and government censorship: We are living in an F and an N.
A fucking nightmare.
Thank you very much.
Joe Lauria
They are all nouns. The F word
can also be used as an adjective. They are all used as invectives. Today all
these words are being overused. And misused.
Despite the fact that there are
women and children here today; that we are in broad daylight and that half the
town of Kingston can probably hear me, there’s something I need to discuss with
you today.
I want to talk to you about The F Word, the C Word and the N word.
They are all nouns. The F word can also be used as an adjective. They are all used as invectives.
Today all these words are being overused. And misused.
Contrary what you may have heard from George Carlin you can say them on TV. The F word is being said a lot about Donald Trump. Both as an adjective and a noun. He is even called the N-word sometimes, though I think this word better applies to people in Ukraine and Israel.
As F and N are closely related let’s talk about them together. And then I’ll deal with the C word.
The F-word I’m talking about is Fascism, a 20th Century phenomenon seen principally in Italy, Spain, Germany and then in South America. Does Fascism really describe what we are seeing in the 21st Century?
It has become too easy to call your opponents fascists just because you disagree with them. You really have to qualify it. The essence of fascism can exist in any age though we may need a new term for it since may not look exactly as it did in the last century.
There are exceptions: Ukrainian Neo-Nazis not only take on the paraphernalia of 20th Century fascism, but its violent behavior against an ethnic group. The current Israeli regime’s genocide is a page out of the fascist playbook. Israel’s systematic destruction of the Palestinian people is reminiscent of the N word – Nazis.
But are politicians like Donald Trump, Jair Bolsonaro or Narendra Modi really fascists?
When we hear fascism we think of a police state, wars of conquest, goose-stepping and genocide. In the Anatomy of Fascism, historian Robert Paxton says:
“Fascism can be defined as a form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation, or victimhood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy, and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion.”
There’s a lot there and I’ll break that down in how it relations to Trump. But first, it’s important to point out that Paxton differentiates between authoritarianism and fascism, saying that under authoritarianism people are forced into giving up their democratic rights. However, under fascism most people voluntarily give them up. Authoritarian leaders repress and subdue the public. Fascist leaders want to excite them with spectacle to feverishly support the program.
Paxton warned:
“Fascist movements varied so conspicuously from one national setting to another, moreover, that some even doubt that the term fascism has any meaning other than as a smear word. The epithet has been so loosely used that practically everyone who either holds or shakes authority has been someone’s fascist.”
It is eery, however, when we compare the Trump phenomenon with Paxton’s definition: “obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation, or victimhood” … Trump has for more than 40 years been complaining about the hegemon being the victim – everybody is “eating America’s lunch.”
Besides this imaginary victimhood, working class Trump supporters have indeed been real victims of bipartisan neoliberal economics. The Democrats have turned their backs on them, even rhetorically – publicly calling them “deplorables” – while Trump conned them into thinking he is their champion.
Fascism has “compensatory cults of unity, energy, and purity,” Paxton says. MAGA can plausibly be described as a cult of unity, and while the anti-immigrant drive does not quite reach Hitler’s mania for racial purity, it is disturbing nonetheless, especially when we see ICE acting as a proto-SS.
Paxton says fascism is “a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites…” There’s no doubt many traditional elites, who opposed first-term Trump, have made their peace with him, as long as their interests are served.
The final step in Paxton’s definition is that this mass movement “abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion.”
Certainly a mythical American “rebirth” is at the heart of Trump’s movement but is it using redemptive violence to internally cleanse and externally expand the nation? There are signs of it.
But I don’t think we are quite there yet, yet it is worrying enough. It is important to point out that authoritarian and even fascistic elements have long been part of America. Paxton names the KKK as a fascist group. This is a nation built on the genocide of internal ethnic cleansing of Native Americans and the enslavement of Africans, as well as waves of violence to expand into a world empire.
I would tend to say we are still living in an authoritarian phase under Trump, and not yet fascism, though it seems we may be headed that way. There is still a very sizable opposition to Trump so that most of the population have not voluntarily given up democratic freedoms to follow the leader. [Israel, where 90 percent of the population is behind the genocide more closely approximate’s Paxton’s definition.]
I think a new term to rationally describe what Trump is doing may be needed. But because he is so irrational, rational analysis of Trump at times seems impossible.
Finally, the C word. Everyone is screaming about censorship. Unfortunately censorship is not new in America. As many as 26 people were prosecuted under the Sedition Act of 1798, mostly editors of opposition newspapers critical of President John Adams. That was only six years after the First Amendment was ratified. The Sedition Act was allowed to expire in 1801 under the Jefferson administration.
Woodrow Wilson came within one vote in the US Senate of including official censorship in the 1917 Espionage Act. So he followed it up with the Sedition Act of 1918, which made it a federal offense to use “disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language” about the U.S. government, the Constitution, the American uniform, or the flag.” 2,000 people were prosecuted and 1,000 convicted before the act was repealed in 1920.
So the U.S. has known government censorship. It was revived in a serious way under Joe Biden. The Twitter files showed the FBI and other government agencies were directly involved in having people’s posts removed. That’s government censorship. And there was Biden’s hare-brained scheme for the DHS to run a Disinformation Governance Board.
On inauguration day, Trump issued an executive order barring federal employees from using private proxies to abridge free speech. Elon Musk said he’d restore free speech to Twitter.
But we see that they were only against conservative voices being silenced. Now Trump is silencing liberal and leftist voices. Look at how his people have reacted to critics of Charlie Kirk. Trump wants RICO charges brought against Code Pink for a verbal protest in his presence.
They chanted: “Trump is the Hitler of our time!” Evidently he really doesn’t like being called a fascist. (We should recall that divorce papers against him alleged that he kept a book of Hitler’s speeches on his night stand.)
These are out an out examples of government censorship, either direct or indirect.
But just like the overuse and misuse of “fascism” and “Nazi” “censorship is overused and misused.
When it comes to newspapers I have some direct experience of what it is and what it is not. I was hired and nearly took the job as editor of a privately-owned English language newspaper in Doha, Qatar.
I was told that there was a fire once in a tennis stadium. The whole city knew about it and the newspaper prepared a story with pictures. But the Ministry of Information intervened and the story was pulled. Why? Because at the time Qatar was bidding for the World Cup. A fire in a sports facility may have raised questions.
I was told someone from the ministry showed up every day at the newspaper with a grease pencil to read every galley and strike out anything objectionable to the government.
That’s censorship.
I’ll tell you what is not censorship. And lot’s of people disagree with me on this.
One of the age-old duties of the editor of a publication is to determine what is worthy of being published and what is not.
Every writer has had his work rejected by an editor. The pro shops it elsewhere and then moves on to the next story. He doesn’t take it out personally on the editor.
If an editor is not suppressing a factually true story to protect someone’s interests – his own or someone else’s – that’s not censorship. It’s editorial judgement.
And because you might be a crappy writer or your article is rejected because it lacks supporting evidence does not mean you are being censored even if there has been this recent surge in direct or indirect censorship by the U.S. government under both parties.
Crying censorship might make you feel important, but it doesn’t make it censorship.
So when it comes to the F and the N words there is uncertainty about what to call the Trump regime. One thing is for certain though, whatever you call these times of genocide and government censorship: We are living in an F and an N.
A fucking nightmare.
Thank you very much.
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