People are still arguing over whether the United States has become fascist. We could have death camps, and people would still be invoking Godwin’s Law.

I had a professor who defined fascism as “an all-encompassing conspiracy between an authoritarian government and business”. I got it, but at the time, it seemed oversimplified. Watching the first month of Trump's second presidency, that is the perfect definition.

We are seeing fascism. The wealthiest men in the world have swallowed their differences to back a corrupt, inept authoritarian for some combination of personal gain and fear of backlash. Oligarchs are going mask-off not just with boundless greed, but cruelty and needless harm. Prominent white nationalists are making Roman salutes on camera without concern or consequence.

Filtered through complicit corporate media, these actions are justified and cheered - from sending immigrants to Gitmo to taking away people’s healthcare, from mass deportation to mass firings, and everywhere, a dismantling of services that keep people safe, healthy, and alive.

It is the breadth and depth of complicity and cowardice that seals us into fascism. Whole departments of government hand over the keys to a bunch of script kiddies with no constitutional authority - who now hold the country hostage in many ways. Democrats keep “reaching across the aisle” to fascists. Businesses bend to the whims of the newly minted dictator, or worse, they eagerly take his lead to return to racism and homophobia. Media companies refuse to allow journalists to publish facts, and disallow them criticizing the administration. The public sits dumbfounded and soaking in their own self-imposed powerlessness. Court orders are ignored. Trump literally declares himself king with no pushback from the “anti-tyranny” crowd.

Remember that centrist liberals helped get us here, not just by failing to stand up for the working class against the rich, but with their own shitty, road-to-fascism policies. Every tough-on-crime Democrat who sold fear to support militarized police and mass incarceration, every “progressive” leader violating people’s first amendment rights in the name of “public safety”, every “liberal” college criminalizing protesting genocide, every fucking Democrat sitting on their ass about immigrant rights except for when a Republican is in office, and most importantly, every do-nothing politician who has not stood against the decades-long slow theft of democracy, they all provided the tools that got us here.

We haven’t had our Reichstag fire yet, but if we do tomorrow, the New York Times and Washington Post will tell us that Trump needs emergency powers. Democrats will be talking about how to hand over power effortlessly so that Trump will work with them later - you know, due to his infamous loyalty and gratitude. The billionaires not onboard with Reichskanzler Trump will all be too cowardly to speak out or resist. Journalists who make the apt nazi comparison will be fired and blacklisted. Leaders that could have - should have - provided resistance will have already allowed themselves to be removed from power.

With Trump’s rule by decree through executive orders ignoring the Constitution, law, contracts, labor agreements, and court rulings - along with Musk governing without authority and violating or hobbling entire departments of government - they have, in a sense, jumped over the Reichstag fire and jumped directly to the Enabling Law that gave Hitler the power to issue laws directly without the legislature.

The echoes of 1930s fascism are staggering, and growing by the day: from transgender erasure to attacks on immigrants (literally using nazi “poisoning our blood” language) to breaking international agreements to replacing proficient leaders with loyalists to claiming “white people are the real victims” to book bans and destroying public data to threatening to annex other countries,

Trump and Musk could do almost anything and the people, systems, and institutions that are supposed to hold them in check will do little to nothing. Meanwhile, a wealth of corporate might will be spent supporting and justifying their actions.

Fascism is grift and corruption hidden beneath a gauze of hatred and nationalism, and they will indulge whatever hate suits their whims and keeps people distracted. The hatred, the othering, the lies about minority groups, and the resulting violence, will all increase.

Yes, there are legal rulings that are resisting the administration, but largely they are being ignored, and ultimately, they will get to the supreme court - the supreme court that made this all possible with their “president above the law” ruling. Will they find an ethical bone between them to stand against fascism? No. They won’t.

The constitutional crisis is coming - either when the administration has its showdown with whatever forces demand they follow the law and abide by court orders, or when the supreme court makes Trump our Fuhrer. I would like to hope that some part of the government will stand up and defend the constitution, but it seems unlikely. After years of manipulation by right-wing propaganda, most of the government doesn’t know if it represents the people, the constitution, the rich, Trump, or the Republican party.

So, our hope for resistance is likely to be a large-scale popular uprising; intervention by the military, intelligence or security forces; or an actual insurrection. After so many years of the US foisting dictatorships upon so many countries, the US itself will need a popular rebellion. Which will only happen if people have the will and wherewithal to stand up.

Our best hope is to shut the country down with strikes, protests, and uprisings immediately when the final power grab happens. When the constitution is discarded finally or the supreme court anoints Trump supreme leader will be the last chance to circumvent a dictatorship. After that, as in every previous fascist take over, security forces will coalesce around preventing organizing and Dissent.