Yeah, Y'all—This is Fascism: The Paxton Mixtape, Pt. I

We knew it would be bad, but holy shit.

With the collapse of the American project, it's been hard to focus on film history. So in this two-part series, we're switching things up. Using the five-stage framework that scholar Robert Paxton lays out in his Anatomy of Fascism, we try to make sense of how a slack-jawed game show host groped his way to autocracy. Part One covers fascism's first three stages, from the creation of a fascist movement through its seizure of power. The next episode will look at the fourth and fifth stages—where we're at and where we might be going if we don't get our shit together.

Appearances from Indiana Jones, Green Day, and a clown car of assholes.