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Comment by darkwraithcov | Hacker News Reader

He just did autocrats a huge solid.

Less of a solid than he was already doing by turning it into a haven for extremist right-wingers.

As it was a haven for extremist left-wingers, perhaps now it's balanced out.

As an “extremist left winger” I can tell you that this is false. We got banned all the time for talking trash to nazis and proud boys (many of whom are now in prison for trying to overthrow the country).

I keep hearing people say this, but I'm just not seeing it. Who are these extremist right-wingers that are now on Twitter? I don't know of anyone to the right of Tucker Carlson, and he's a bog standard center-right civic nationalist.

As far as I can tell the actual extremist right-wingers are on Gab rather than Twitter.

Perhaps you don't see the extreme right on Twitter because you think Tucker Carlson is center-right. He is about as right-wing you can get without actively doing the Hitler salute. The fact that he has a slight populist, anti-corporate bent doesn't affect that significantly.

And I'm speaking from a US politics perspective, where Hillary Clinton is considered center-left. If we were to take a more international view, then Joe Biden is somewhere on the center-right, and Trump and Tucker are so far on the right that you can barely see the spaces between them and the nazis. For context, far-right Marine Le Pen of France is to the left of Tucker on most issues, except that she's a bit more openly racist.

As unpleasant as these right-wing figures are, do you really think that any of them are truly genocidal or likely to engage in military conquest? (and therefore genuinely worthy of comparison with the Nazis)

At first the NASDAP tried segregation, then deportation, then imprisonment, and then finally extermination of the Jews and Roma. This is how fascists operate. It’s a slow burn, a slow boiling of the frog so it does not leap from the pot and protest it’s ultimate fate.

The Nazis weren't genocidal until well after they held absolute power. I suspect the same will be true of a lot of these ultra-right-wing figures if they ever get into power. To be clear, I'm talking more of the Richard Spencers of the world, not so much the Tucker Carlsons. But I'm sure Tucker would very much rather see an actual nazi in power than a Bernie Sanders.

Regarding their views of minorities, muslims, women and jews, well, let's say they arw frightingly close. For now, they also seem to be rather non-interventionlist, so now outright conquest. But then, people forget that the first country the Nazis conquered was Germany.

Not saying all right winger are Nazis, but the "jews will not replace us" crowd definitely is. And the rest is at least authoritarian bordering facist. Same goes for some European parties: the AfD in Germamy, whateber LePen calls her outfit now in France, the current government party in Italy, the current politics of Nethanyahu (arguably not a Nazinof course, but a straight up authoritarian with religious tendencies and disdain for democratic seperation of powers), Hungary, the FPÖ in Austria... The list way too long.

That’s exactly what people said about Vladimir Putin 15-20 years ago. “Sure, he has an unpleasant authoritarian stripe, but surely he wouldn’t actually engage in military conquest and genocide.” And here we are.

Don’t underestimate the nationalist bloodlust.

>As unpleasant as these right-wing figures are, do you really think that any of them are truly genocidal or likely to engage in military conquest? (and therefore genuinely worthy of comparison with the Nazis)

Haven't some of them been clamouring for an attack on Mexico recently?

Anyway, there are worse figures than Tucker Carlson on Twitter. Some are outright nazis. Others can name them if they wish, but I won't amplify them here.

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