I don't want to wade back into the fascism debate again, but I think there several features of Trump's politics and presidency that have totalitarian resonance. I don't think he has accomplished a totalitarian government, that's obviously just not true, but

here's what I think is worrying: 1) the attempted denial of obvious facts and manipulation of statistics and figures about deaths, 2) the birth of these logically watertight conspiracy theories about his leadership, 3) the combination of gullibility and cynicism around him,

ie. believing his lies one moment and when they are revealed to be lies or the tack is dropped reveling in his superior tactical cleverness, 4) attacks on citizenship, both rhetorical and legal, 5) minimization by fellow travelers of the seriousness or literalness of aims stated

I think its important to understand totalitarian tendencies as not being an absolute, just as governments and forms of politics can have democratic, republican, monarchical features they can have totalitarian features

I think the introduction of totalitarian political features is worth being concerned about, especially considering we are likely to be dealing with major crises with poverty and refugees in the future, which there will be the strong temptation to resolve with totalitarian means

I understand the left-wing skepticism about the category "totalitarianism" as some relic of the cold war being used to attack the left, some of the arguments are persuasive, ultimately I think it is a misguided attitude

The category, as developed by its better theorists, allows us to interpret phenomena that might appear to be normal features of mass democratic politics or even standard tyrannical moves as being something far more virulent and worth attention